Affpuddle

Affpuddle is a small village and civil parish in the Purbeck district of Dorset in South West England, 9 mi east of Dorchester. The local travel links are 3 mi from the village to Moreton railway station and 20 mi to Bournemouth International Airport. Part of the village street is the B3390, which divides the village into two. The parish has a population of 402 according to the 2001 Census, whilst the linear village itself has a winter time population of about 36, which increases to as many as 70 on high days and holidays.

The village is in the Piddle valley, just north of the Purbeck conifer plantations and heathland, in a valley beside the villages of Tolpuddle and Puddletown. The village is linear and made of brick, stone and thatched cottages and has a 13th-century church dedicated to St Laurence.

History
The village was established during or before the Saxon era, and was mentioned in the Domesday Book as Affapidela, having a manor house belonging to the Abbot of Cerne. After the Dissolution the village became an estate of the Lawrence family, an ancestor of whom married the heiress of a branch of the Washington family, from another branch of which descended George Washington. The Washington arms was quartered by the Lawrences and thus appears on the north wall of the chancel in the village church on a Lawrence monument. The church of St Laurence is noted for its elaborate pews, dated 1545 or 1547, and the finely carved pulpit, undated but in a very similar style. The church dates from the 13th century but was enlarged by an aisle and a tower in the 15th century. Other features of interest are the Norman font and south doorway.

The village later belonged to the Framptons of Moreton, noted for their involvement with the Tolpuddle Martyrs. John Lock who gave key evidence against them also lived in the village.