Memorials of Old Dorset

by Unknown

PIDDLETOWN AND ATHELHAMPTON

By Miss Wood Homer

HE parish of Piddletown, or Puddletown, is said by Hutchins to take its name from the river Piddle, which flows to the north of the village, though it is supposed to have been formerly called Pydeletown after the Pydele family, at one time owners of much property in the neighbourhood.

It was once a large parish, and the capital of the hundred; but it now numbers only about nine hundred inhabitants, having fallen from fourteen hundred during the last forty years. About the year 1860 the village contained as many as twenty boot-makers, twelve blacksmiths, twenty carpenters and wheelwrights, five pairs of sawyers, two coopers, and some cabinet-makers. Gloves and gaiters were tanned and made there, as were many of the articles in common use. Beer was brewed in the public-houses; and there were three malt-houses, about one of which we read in Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd. Naturally, these trades employed much labour, and a great decrease in the population resulted when they were given up, after the introduction of the railway at Dorchester, about the year 1848. Two business fairs were formerly held in the village—one on Easter Tuesday, the other on October 29th—when cattle, materials, hats, etc., were sold. The October fair still exists, but it has dwindled to a small pleasure fair only, though pigs were sold as late as 1896.

Piddletown possesses a very fine church, dedicated to St. Mary. It is a large and ancient building, consisting of a nave and a north aisle of the same length, covered with leaden roofs, and a small south aisle, called the Athelhampton aisle, the burial-place of the Martyns of Athelhampton. This aisle is under the control of the vestry of Athelhampton Church. The chancel has a tiled roof; it was built in 1576. The embattled tower contains six bells.

The chief features of this church are the monuments in the south aisle, with some very fine brasses; the Norman font (some authorities on fonts consider it to be of Saxon work); and the beautiful roof of carved chestnut wood. This latter has been many times supported and restored, and it will, indeed, be a loss to the antiquary when it is found impossible any longer to keep it in repair.

The monuments are all much defaced. One of them, of the fifteenth century, consists of a knight and lady in alabaster on an altar-tomb, probably Sir Richard Martyn and Joan his wife; this has traces of much gilding and painting, but no inscription. To the west of this there is the figure of a knight, probably placed there about 1400. West of this again, an unknown “crusader” and lady lie on the floor under an altar-tomb, with a canopy upon four pillars, which was erected to the memory of Nicholas Martyn; under the canopy there is a fine brass, representing Nicholas Martyn, his wife, three sons, and seven daughters, dated 1595, and bearing an inscription. There is also a smaller brass, on which is a monkey holding a mirror—the Martyn crest—while above the whole are three sculptured martins or monkeys. To the north of the aisle there is a figure of a knight in alabaster, his feet resting on a chained monkey, the whole supported on an altar-tomb of Purbeck marble. On the west wall there is a large tablet to the memory of the Brunes, who owned Athelhampton in the seventeenth century.

Piddletown Church.

On the east of the aisle there is a brass to the memory of Christopher Martyn, with the following inscription:—

Here lyethe the body of Xpofer Martyn Esquyer

Sone and heyre unto Syr Willym Martyn knyght

Pray for there Soules with harty desyre

That they bothe may be sure of Eternall lyght

Callyng to Remembraunce that every wyght

Most nedys dye, & therefor lett us pray

As other for us may do Another day.

Qui quidem Xpoferus obiit XXII^o die mens’ M’cii an^o D’ni

millmo quingentesimo vicesimo quarto.

Above this there is the kneeling figure of a man in armour, and a partial representation of the Trinity. The figure is holding a scroll, on which the following inscription is much abbreviated: “Averte faciem tuam a peccatis meis et omnes iniquitates meas dele”; while before and behind the effigies are the Martyn arms. And on the floor of the church, north of the pulpit, there is a brass to the memory of Roger Cheverell.

A short staircase of thirteen steps opens out of the south aisle; this formerly led to a rood loft.

A musicians’ gallery of the seventeenth century runs across the west of the church, and there are porches on the north and south. The south door has a ring attached to the outside, which is popularly supposed to have been a sanctuary ring, though probably this tradition has no foundation.

It is an interesting fact that the church clock, which was in the tower till about 1865, was made by a village blacksmith, Lawrence Boyce by name, about 1710. This clock had a three-cornered wooden face on the north side of the tower, stone weights and one (hour) hand. It struck the hours and quarters and chimed at 8, 12, and 4, except on Sundays, when the chimes were silenced, so that they might not disturb the worshippers. A clock made by the same man, for Bere Regis Church, is now in the Dorchester Museum; but, unfortunately, the Piddletown clock was not preserved, though it was in good going order when it was removed to make room for the present one.

In 1820, and probably for long before, it was the custom of the members of the choir to write their own music; some was actually composed by them, while some was borrowed from other villages, although the rivalry which often existed between village choirs not infrequently prevented the exchange of tunes. In two vellum-covered volumes, the property of Mr. W. Gover, of Piddletown, dated 1823, the music and words of the Psalms are most beautifully written. The books were given by a certain Mrs. Price to the choir. The larger book belonged to J. Holland, a clarionet player; the smaller to W. Besant. In the latter may be found music headed, “John Besant’s Magnificat,” which was probably composed by one of his ancestors. At this time the choir consisted of two clarionets, two bass viols, a flute, and a bassoon; while before this a “serpent” was used, and the music is written apparently for all these instruments. The violin was prohibited by most clergymen as being “Devil’s music,” on account of its being played in public-houses and for dancing. The instruments were given up about 1845 on the introduction of a barrel-organ. At this time the village also possessed a band, which had been in existence for nearly two hundred years, and of which the inhabitants were justly proud.

Piddletown is perhaps better known as the “Weatherbury” of Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd. On the south-west of the church is the gargoyle (the head of some beast, with the legs of a child projecting from its mouth), which destroyed Sergeant Troy’s work at Fanny’s grave. The old malthouse mentioned in the same book stood in what are now the gardens of Ilsington House, while Bathsheba’s house stood on the site of Ilsington Lodge, although it is sketched from the house at Waterson. The latter is a fine old building about two miles from Piddletown, and was the residence of the Martyns before they went to Athelhampton, and remained their property for long after. It was much damaged by fire in 1863, but was carefully restored by the owner, Lord Ilchester, to whose family it still belongs. It is interesting to note that a certain Mr. Bainger, who lived at Ilsington Lodge, was the moving spirit in causing the lowering of Yellowham Hill, between Piddletown and Dorchester, about 1830.

The Vicarage possesses a very fine staircase and an oak-beamed study, while an old farmhouse, now used as a cottage, in “Style Lane,” formerly contained a fine carved mantelpiece. In the churchyard is the headstone of Peter Standley, King of the Gipsies, with the following inscription:—

In memory of Peter Standley, who died 23rd November, 1802, aged 70 years.

Farewell my dear & faithful wife

My sons & daughters too

Tho’ never in this mortal life

Again you must me view

Close in our Saviour’s footsteps tread

Of Love divine possessed

And when you’re numbered with the dead

Your souls will be at rest.

He is said to have died of smallpox in Style Lane, and to have been buried by night. Gipsies still visit the grave.

The old coaching road from London to Dorchester runs to the west of the village, and “Judge’s Bridge,” near Ilsington Lodge, is said to have taken its name from being the meeting-place of the judge and the “javelin men” on the occasion of the Dorchester Assizes.

The Court Leet House, wherein was transacted all the local business, and which was also used as a school, formerly stood in the “Square”; the stocks, the old village pound, and pump were near. The house now occupied by Mr. W. Gover was the residence of the Boswells, who owned land in the parish, and introduced the system of irrigating the meadows.

Athelhampton Hall is a fine old building east of Piddletown. There is a tradition that it took its name from some of the Saxon Kings, and was originally called Athelhamstan; but Hutchins thinks it more probable that it derived its name from Æthelhelm, one of the Saxon Earls in Dorset, who was killed in an engagement with the Danes A.D. 837.

The first owners of Athelhampton of whom there is any record were the de Loundres and Pideles. From them it came by marriage to the Martyns, who held it till 1595. At the death of Nicholas Martyn it was divided between his four daughters, who married respectively Henry Brune, Henry Tichborne, Thomas White, and Anthony Floyer. Gradually the shares of the Whites and Tichbornes came into the hands of the Brunes, and were sold by them in 1665 to Sir Robert Long. It then came by marriage to the Hon. William Wellesley Pole (afterwards Earl of Mornington), whose son sold it in 1848 to Mr. George James Wood, from whom it came to his nephew, Mr. G. Wood Homer. It is now the property of Mr. A. C. de Lafontaine, who purchased it in 1890. The Floyer share of the house remained in their possession till an exchange was effected by Mr. Wood, when the whole came into his hands.

The house itself consists of two sides of a quadrangle facing south and west, and was in a very bad state when bought by Mr. Wood, having, it is said, been used as a farmhouse, and the fine old oak-roofed stone-floored hall as a cattle-shed. Mr. Wood entirely renovated the oak roof, taking great trouble to preserve the original style. He re-floored the large drawing-room, and made various other extensive repairs. He removed the gatehouse, which darkened the house, and partly re-erected it in the form of a summer-house. This has, however, been again removed by the present owner, who has made many alterations. The house is built of Ham Hill stone. The east wing is said to be the oldest part of the present building, and was probably erected by Sir William Martyn, who died in 1503; while the north wing is thought to have been built by Nicholas Martyn later in the sixteenth century.

Athelhampton Hall.

A small chapel stood on the lawn when Mr. Wood bought the property, but as this and Burlestone Church were both out of repair, he pulled them down and built the present church, to a great extent at his own cost. The chancel of old Burlestone Church is still standing in its overgrown churchyard, the tombs having all fallen into decay. No churchyard belonged to the Athelhampton Chapel, Piddletown having always been the burying-place of the owners.

In a field about a quarter of a mile from Athelhampton, on the land of Mr. G. Wood Homer, are the grass-grown mounds—the remains of the hamlet of Bardolfeston, the seat of Drogo de Bardolf, from whom it came hereditarily to the Martyns. It consisted of a manor, hamlet, and church; the latter stood at a little distance from the cottages and manor on what is now known as Church Knap or Knoll. The field in which the hamlet stood is now known as “Dunditch,” and there is a local couplet which runs:

Dunditch was a thriving town
When London was a vuzzy down.

It is probable that Bardolfeston extended irregularly to Piddletown, as it is known that cottages and a mill existed between the two, and Bardolfeston was part of the Piddle Hundred, being sometimes called Piddle Bardolf.