The River Piddle or Trent or North River is a small rural

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

river which rises in the

Dorset Downs The Dorset Downs are an area of chalk downland in the centre of the county Dorset in south west England. The downs are the most western part of a larger chalk formation which also includes (from west to east) Cranborne Chase, Salisbury Plain, Ham ...

and flows into

Poole Harbour Poole Harbour is a large natural harbour in Dorset, southern England, with the town of Poole on its shores. The harbour is a drowned valley (ria) formed at the end of the last ice age and is the estuary of several rivers, the largest being th ...

near Wareham.

Etymology

The river's name has Germanic origins and has had various spellings over the years. In AD 966 it was called the 'Pidelen', and on the church tower at

Piddletrenthide Piddletrenthide () is a village and civil parish in the English county of Dorset. It is sited by the small River Piddle in a valley on the dip slope of the Dorset Downs, north of Dorchester. In the 2011 census the parish—which includes the ...

—the first village to which it gives its name—it is spelled 'Pydel'. Several villages which the river passes through are named after it: as well as Piddletrenthide there are

Piddlehinton Piddlehinton is a village and civil parish in west Dorset, England, situated in the Piddle valley north of Dorchester. In the 2011 census the parish had a population of 403. Piddlehinton formerly constituted a liberty containing only the paris ...

Puddletown Puddletown is a village and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is situated by the River Piddle, from which it derives its name, about northeast of the county town Dorchester. Its earlier name Piddletown fell out of favour, probably because o ...

Tolpuddle Tolpuddle () is a village in Dorset, England, on the River Piddle from which it takes its name, east of Dorchester, the county town, and west of Poole. The estimated population in 2013 was 420. The village was home to the Tolpuddle Martyrs, ...

Affpuddle Affpuddle is a small village in the Purbeck district of Dorset in South West England, east of Dorchester. The local travel links are from the village to Moreton railway station and to Bournemouth International Airport. Part of the village ...

Briantspuddle Briantspuddle is a small village in the Piddle Valley in Dorset, England, near the villages of Affpuddle and Tolpuddle and about 8 miles (13 km) east of the county town of Dorchester. It forms part of the civil parish of Affpuddle and Tur ...

and Turnerspuddle. Local legend tells that the

Victorians In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian ...

changed the spelling to 'Puddle', due to 'piddle' being a slang term for 'urine' (although Puddletown was still called Piddletown into the 1950s), but see for instance the John Speed map of the county from 1610 which has the name 'Puddletown'.

Course and characteristics

In its upper reaches, the Piddle is a

chalk stream Chalk streams are rivers that rise from springs in landscapes with chalk bedrock. Since chalk is permeable, water percolates easily through the ground to the water table and chalk streams therefore receive little surface runoff. As a result, th ...

flowing south through a steep valley cut into the dip slope of the

downland Downland, chalkland, chalk downs or just downs are areas of open chalk hills, such as the North Downs. This term is used to describe the characteristic landscape in southern England where chalk is exposed at the surface. The name "downs" is deriv ...

,https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/294053/Frome_and_Piddle_Catchment_Flood_Management_Plan.pdf which is dominated by an agricultural landscape of

calcareous grassland Calcareous grassland (or alkaline grassland) is an ecosystem associated with thin basic soil, such as that on chalk and limestone downland. Plants on calcareous grassland are typically short and hardy, and include grasses and herbs such as clover. ...

pasture and arable fields. It rises above the church in Alton Pancras, which was originally named Awultune, a

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

name meaning the village at the source of a river. At Puddletown, south of the source, the chalk dips below clay and alluvial sand and gravel geology with a flatter landscape of

water-meadow A water-meadow (also water meadow or watermeadow) is an area of grassland subject to controlled irrigation to increase agricultural productivity. Water-meadows were mainly used in Europe from the 16th to the early 20th centuries. Working water-m ...

s. Here, the Piddle turns to follow an east-south-easterly direction to Wareham, where it enters

via Wareham Channel. This section of the river runs more or less parallel with its bigger neighbour, the River Frome, together forming a broad, open valley divided by a low ridge of

heathland A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler ...

Cultural references

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Word ...

was born and raised in a cottage at

Higher Bockhampton Stinsford is a village and civil parish in southwest Dorset, England, about east of Dorchester. The parish includes the settlements of Higher and Lower Bockhampton. The name Stinsford may derive from , Old English for a limited area of pasture. ...

on the ridge between the Piddle and Frome valleys, and the landscape and villages of the valley were inspiration for many of the places in his stories, including

Athelhampton House Athelhampton (also known as Admiston or Adminston) is a settlement and civil parish in Dorset, England, situated approximately east of Dorchester. It consists of a manor house and a former Church of England parish church. Dorset County Council' ...

(''Athelhall'') and Puddletown (''Weatherbury''). The Piddle Valley was the subject of

Ogden Nash Frederic Ogden Nash (August 19, 1902 – May 19, 1971) was an American poet well known for his light verse, of which he wrote over 500 pieces. With his unconventional rhyming schemes, he was declared by ''The New York Times'' the country's best ...

's poem ''Paradise For Sale'', published in the New Yorker in 1959.

Notes

Piddle 1Piddle {{England-river-stub

Etymology

Course and characteristics

Cultural references

See also

Notes