Piddletrenthide

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Piddletrenthide is a village in west Dorset, England, situated in the Piddle valley on the dip slope of the Dorset Downs, eight miles north of Dorchester. The village has a population of 691 (2001). Many people consider the place name to be inherently funny, and it has become something of a running joke in parts of the British media (for example: TV Times 25 April-1 May 1970, a lengthy correspondence in The Times in 1974, The Times again, 27 March 1999, The Sunday Times, 22 December 2002 and 25 September 2005, and The Guardian, 8 May 2004).

Over the west door of the church-tower is the Latin inscription

"Est pydeltrenth villa in dorsedie comitatu Nascitur in illa quam rexit Vicariatu 1487"

This is an early use of Arabic numerals in England. It is remarkable that Arabic numerals were used in such a remote village when the use of Roman numerals continued for another century elsewhere in England.

Piddletrenthide gets its extraordinary name from the fact that

(a) it is on the River Piddle, and
(b) it was assessed for thirty hides in the Domesday Book.

Piddletrenthide is a very long village and divided into three tithings. The church and manor house is the upper tithing, another group of cottages form the middle, and the third, White Lackington.

Piddletrenthide has one of the finest village churches in Dorset with a splendid 15th century tower and gruesome gargoyles. The south doorway and piers of the chancel arch are Norman.

The now deceased BBC Radio broadcaster Ralph Wightman came from here and was noted in his radio broadcasts for his fine Dorset Accent.

James Cornaby, a popular gay rights activist who sprang to fame after his highly successful yet controversial career as a male-homosexual gigolo currently resides in the North-End of Piddletrenthide.

Piddletrenthide was also featured as the hometown of Jem Kellaway, one the main protagonists in Tracy Chevalier's 18th-century-set novel Burning Bright.

There is a spring which feeds into the River Piddle at the particularly picturesque spot of Mourning Well, reached by a footpath from the Poachers Inn at the Alton Pancras end of the village.

grid reference ST703003