Tolpuddle
Encyclopedia
Tolpuddle is a small village in the southern English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 county of Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...

, situated in the Piddle valley
River Piddle
The River Piddle or Trent or North River is a small rural Dorset river which rises next to Alton Pancras church and flows south and then south-easterly more or less parallel with its bigger neighbour, the River Frome, to Wareham, where they both enter Poole Harbour via...

, eight miles east of Dorchester and 12 miles west of Poole
Poole
Poole is a large coastal town and seaport in the county of Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester, and Bournemouth adjoins Poole to the east. The Borough of Poole was made a unitary authority in 1997, gaining administrative independence from Dorset County Council...

. The village has a population
Population
A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...

 of 331 (2001
United Kingdom Census 2001
A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194....

).

In 1999 the A35
A35 road
The A35 is a trunk road in southern England, running from Honiton in Devon, that then passes through Dorset and terminates in Southampton, Hampshire...

 trunk road
Trunk road
A trunk road, trunk highway, or strategic road is a major road—usually connecting two or more cities, ports, airports, and other things.—which is the recommended route for long-distance and freight traffic...

, which cuts through south Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...

, was moved to bypass the village. The effect of the bypass was dramatic and is still being felt in 2011, with regard to the release of land for building purposes in the village alongside the old A35.
The road from Puddletown has been passed to district council ownership. The quality of new developments is not the concern of an information page, except to remark that the village has fairly chronic foul water drainage problems, with the water authority spending a substantial sum on a new pumping system to the nearest main foul drain at Affpuddle.Many houses are still using septic tanks and are happy with that arrangement. A vain attempt was made by the water authority to persuade them to join the foul main, but the cost put many householders off.

Many of the new houses been bought by second home owners from London and other cities, but the
population figures have increased considerably since 2000.

The crash barriers of the old A35 are still in place, in some of the gardens below the road, (many cars used to end up in the gardens in the days of the hectic main road).
11 years after the village has been "relieved", they are still there, and owners are still fearful, although the road is now down classified.

Although the village has a historical reputation for the working man, no attempt whatsoever was made to provide cost price housing, or housing for otherwise excluded minorities, or local people. The price of the properties excluded such people by a multiple factor of 10.

It has, in places, been attractively infilled, at the level of the road, and up against the pavement.

It has useful street lighting.

The village is famous as the home of the Tolpuddle Martyrs
Tolpuddle Martyrs
The Tolpuddle Martyrs were a group of 19th century Dorset agricultural labourers who were arrested for and convicted of swearing a secret oath as members of the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers. The rules of the society show it was clearly structured as a friendly society and operated as...

 who were sentenced to transported
Penal transportation
Transportation or penal transportation is the deporting of convicted criminals to a penal colony. Examples include transportation by France to Devil's Island and by the UK to its colonies in the Americas, from the 1610s through the American Revolution in the 1770s, and then to Australia between...

 to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 after they formed a trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

 in 1833. A row of cottages, housing agricultural workers and a museum, and a row of seated statues commemorate the martyrs. The annual Tolpuddle Martyrs festival
Tolpuddle Martyrs festival
The Tolpuddle Martyrs' Festival is an annual festival held in Dorset, England, which celebrates the memory of the Tolpuddle Martyrs. The event is a celebration of trade unionism and labour politics organised by the Dorset Committee of the National Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers now...

is held in the village in the third weekend of July.

The village museum is visited by thousands of Unionists and historians, every year, many of whom are making a pilgrimage to the village. They are welcomed at the Martyrs' pub, and at the cottages' museum.

It has a Manor house with a disused mill pond and a church adjacent. The Mill House is now occupied as a private residence. These may be seen from the small bridge below the Martyrs'Tree.

A larger manor house of fine proportions is to be found at Southover 500m further down the Mill
pond road, known as Southover house, and belongs to a local land owner.

The River Piddle is well stocked with Trout in this vicinity, since it is a chalk stream, very well suited for the purpose.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK