Step back in time with our ‘Then and Now’ feature, where vintage postcards from the Barry Cuff Collection meet modern-day reality. Explore the past and present on the same page, and see the evolution of familiar local places. ‘Now’ images by Courtenay Hitchcock
Piddletrentide takes the first part of its name from the River Piddle and the remainder from its value in 1086, when it was assessed for the Domesday Book at 30 hides. The village’s Victorian school has gates that are 500 years old and come from Lady Margaret Beaufort’s tomb in Westminster Abbey!
In his Shell Guide to Dorset, Michael Pitt-Rivers explains the Piddle/Puddle issue: ‘All Dorset Piddles and Puddles are named after the river Piddle – Pidele in Doomsday Book.
‘Victorian refinement preferred Puddle and for a long time there was a muddle as to whether each village was called Piddle or Puddle. Parish Meetings drew up letters of protest to the County Council, the Member of Parliament and the Postmaster General. Now they seem to have settled for the names which appear on the map: Piddletrenthide, Piddlehinton, Puddletown, Tolpuddle, Affpuddle, Bryantspuddle and Turners Puddle. It remains to be said that the Piddle is never a puddle but a bright chalk stream.’
