Description
Tolpuddle, a parish, with a village and two hamlets, in Dorsetshire, 3 1/2 miles N of Moreton station on the L. & S.W.R., and 7 ENE of Dorchester. It has a post office under Dorchester; money order office, Puddletown; telegraph office, Affpuddle. Acreage, 2053; population, 288. The living is, a vicarage in the diocese of Salisbury; net value, £210 with residence. Patron, Christchurch, Oxford. The chancel of the church was rebuilt in 1840, and the whole building has since been restored. There is a small Wesleyan chapel.
Parish Church
The church of St. John the Evangelist is a building of flint and stone, in the Early English and Perpendicular styles, and consists of large chancel, nave, north aisle, north transept, south porch and an embattled western tower, containing 4 bells: all the windows in the chancel are stained: a stained glass window in the north transept was erected in 1894 to the memory of Canon George Lloyd Nash M.A. 41 years vicar of this parish. There is also a memorial oak chair presented by the parishioners. The silver communion plate bears the date 1577: the church was restored in 1855, and affords 240 sittings.
The register dates from the year 1718.
Villages, Hamlets, &c.
Park, a hamlet in Tolpuddle parish, Dorsetshire, 7 1/2 miles ENE of Dorchester.
