Turner's Puddle (Holy Trinity)

Holy Trinity, Turner's Puddle (Now redundant)

Turner's Puddle is a very small settlement, often called Toner's Puddle (Piddle) in old books. Arthur Mee explains why: " it is the place of Henry Toner, knight of the shire and doughty warrior for our first King Edward." The church of the Holy Trinity can be found close to the River Piddle, and is built of both flint and limestone rubble. Much of the building dates from c. 1500 but it was restored in the eighteenth century. The top of the tower was rebuilt after a storm in 1758. The church is best approached on foot, horse or bicycle from the hamlet of Throop, crossing a series of fords or footbridges. Unfortunately, the church is now redundant.

Sources

• Hutchins, J., The history and antiquities of the County of Dorset, 3rd ed., edited by W. Shipp and J.W. Hodson, Westminster: J.B. Nichols, 1861-1873, Vol. 1, 1861, p. 212.
• Mee, A., Dorset: Thomas Hardy's country. The King's England. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1939, p. 268.
• Newman, J. and Pevsner, N., Dorset. The buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972, p. 430.
• Raven, J.J., The church bells of Dorset. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club, Vol. 24, 1903, pp. 103-148.
• Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), An inventory of historical monuments in the County of Dorset, Vol. 2, South East Dorset. London: HMSO, 1970, pt. 2, p. 298.
• Walters, H.B., Dorset church bells. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, Vol. 60, 1938, pp. 97-120.

Bells

There are two bells - at least there were when Canon Raven made his survey. Raven (1903, p. 137) gives the following details:

Two Bells. Tenor - Diam., 16in; height, 18in.

1. * GABRIEL ANGELUS * MICHAEL * MARIA
2. Churchwardens : Barnabbas : Joyner.
   Clemant : Tosiear cast me in 1691.

The treble is by Thomas Hey and dates from the mid-fourteenth century - his other surviving bells are at Wraxall, Stock Gaylard, West Chinnock (Somerset) and Coombe Keynes (now in the Dorset County Museum). H.B. Walters (1938) notes that Hey used "a very pretty cross in a quatrefoil, of Early English type", and that the bell at Wraxall is inscribed "Thomas Hey makede".

Founders mark on treble bell (from Raven, 1903, p. 137).

The tenor is by Clement Tosier of the Salisbury foundry (1691) (Walters, 1938, p.109).

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Maintained by Michael Day, Last updated: 3 October 2000.