PLACE NAMES
Briantspuddle is recorded in the Domesday Book, although it appears simply as Pidele and takes its name from the River Piddle.
This is one of the many English place names coined by the Saxons who brought the language to our islands which we know as Old English and is aptly named as the ancestor of our modern tongue.
The river name has changed little since the original pidele described ‘the marsh or fenland’.
Perhaps we should see this as the river which drained this wetland, especially considering the modern use of a very similar word.
The addition to the river name is first seen in 1465 as Brianis Pedille and reminds us the lord of the manor in the 14th century was named Brian.
By Anthony Poulton-Smith
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