Littlebredy

File:Bridehead House from the Littlebredy road - geograph.org.uk - 415796.jpg

Bridehead House

Littlebredy (also written Little Bredy, pronounced Template:IPAc-en<ref name=life>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>) is a small village and civil parish in the English county of Dorset, situated approximately Template:Convert west of the county town Dorchester. It is sited at the head of the valley of the small River Bride, surrounded by wooded chalk hills of the Dorset Downs. The parish contains the Valley of Stones National Nature Reserve and is in an area rich with evidence of early human occupation. In the 2011 census it had a population of 121.

History

The area around Littlebredy is rich with evidence of early human occupation, including stone circles, strip lynchets, tumuli (long and round barrows) and a probable hill fort.<ref name=Gant>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=opc>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=OS>Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Pathfinder Series of Great Britain, Sheet SY 49/59 Bridport, published 1977</ref> North and east of the village the density of barrows is as great as the area around Stonehenge.<ref name=Bailey>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> One mile north of the village and just outside the parish is a group of 44 Bronze Age round barrows of various sizes, known as Winterbourne Poor Lot Barrows or just Poor Lot.<ref name=Gant/><ref name=OS/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On a hill immediately south of the village are the earthworks of Old Warren (or Danes' Camp), which most likely was a univallate (single rampart) Iron Age hill fort.<ref name=pastscape>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Old Warren may later have been used as a burh in the time of Alfred the Great, though it may have been not completed, or abandoned in favour of a site at what is now Bridport.<ref name=Bailey/><ref name=pastscape/><ref name=inventory>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Records from the 10th century refer to the area as 'Bridian' or 'Brydian'<ref name=Bailey/><ref name=inventory/> and in 1086 Littlebredy specifically was recorded in the Domesday Book as 'Litelbride'.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The words 'Bride' and 'Bredy' derive from the Celtic for a torrential, gushing stream; the addition of 'Little' distinguishes the parish from the larger neighbouring parish of Long Bredy.<ref name=Gant/><ref name=opc/>

Littlebredy was owned by Cerne Abbey until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century, when the Abbey sold its land to Philip Vanwilder. The estate subsequently passed to the Freke family of Iwerne Courtney and then Sir Robert Meller (or Mellor)<ref name=life/> of Winterborne Came,<ref name=opc/> who built Bridehead House in the early 17th century.<ref name=life/><ref name=opc/> In 1730 the estate was bought by the Meech family who in 1797 sold it to wealthy banker Robert Williams from Hertfordshire.<ref name=opc/>

During the 19th century the Williams family—headed by four successive Roberts who all became members of parliament<ref name=ancestors>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>—made substantial changes to the estate. The architects Peter Frederick Robinson and then Benjamin Ferrey were employed. Bridehead House was extended and altered by Robinson in 1830–33, then extended further by Ferrey a few years later. The River Bride was dammed near its source to create a lake as part of landscaping around the house.<ref name=Gant/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Ferrey also designed new cottages to form an estate village and provided plans for restoring the parish church, including adding a spire to its 14th-century tower.<ref name=life/><ref name=opc/><ref name=ancestors/> Some Jacobean buildings in the village were also changed around this time, being reworked into a Gothic farmyard or stable block.<ref name=Gant/><ref name=opc/> Ferrey's plan for the church—which involved virtually rebuilding it—was implemented in 1847 under the supervision of the third Robert Williams' brother-in-law, Arthur Acland, who also had an architectural input.<ref name=opc/><ref name=ancestors/> There was public access to the lake and waterfall on Bridehead Estate until it was sold in 2025.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In the churchyard is a memorial to Frederic Wallis, Bishop of Wellington, New Zealand, who married into the Williams family. It is made from the wood of a tree sent specially from New Zealand.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

File:Wallis memorial, Little Bredy.JPG

Frederic Wallis memorial in the churchyard of St Michael and All Angels Church(base not shown)

Government

For elections to the British House of Commons, Littlebredy is in the West Dorset parliamentary constituency.

At the upper tier of local government, Littlebredy is the Dorset unitary authority area. For elections to Dorset Council, it is in the Chesil Bank electoral ward.

At the lower tier, Littlebredy is a civil parish. It does not have a parish council, but it does have parish meetings.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Geography

Littlebredy village is sited between 85 and 110 metres above sea-level<ref name=OS/> at the head of the small River Bride, surrounded by wooded chalk hills of the Dorset Downs. It is Template:Convert west of the county town Dorchester, Template:Convert east of Bridport, Template:Convert northwest of Weymouth and Template:Convert north of the English Channel. The nearest railway stations are Maiden Newton, Dorchester West, Dorchester South, Upwey and Weymouth, which are all within a direct radius of Template:Convert. The nearest main road is the A35 trunk road approximately Template:Convert to the north.<ref>John Bartholomew & Son Ltd 1:100,000 National Map Series, Sheet 4 Dorset, published 1980</ref> All of Littlebredy parish lies within the Dorset National Landscape area.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

File:The Valley of Stones - geograph.org.uk - 558942.jpg

The Valley of Stones

Valley of Stones

In the south of the parish is the Valley of Stones, which in 1906 was described by Sir Frederick Treves as "a mysterious glen among the downs, on whose grassy slopes many huge stones are scattered."<ref name=Gant/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In prehistoric times it was used as a source of building material for nearby constructions such as tombs and stone circles, and within 4 miles are two-thirds of all such structures in the county.<ref name=ancestors/><ref name=natural>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Folklore attributes the origin of the stones to have been two giants playing stone-throwing games,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> but they are the result of conditions at the end of the last ice age, when freezing and thawing caused sandstone on surrounding hilltops to break up and slump downhill. They form one of the best British examples of a sarsen stone boulder train. The stones and the surrounding dry chalk valley provide habitats for a variety of flora and fauna—including clustered bellflower, autumn gentian, lichens, bryophytes and the adonis blue butterfly—and the area is designated a National Nature Reserve.<ref name=natural/>

Demography

In the 2011 census Littlebredy civil parish had 53 dwellings,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 45 households and a population of 121.<ref name=ons/>

The population of the parish in the censuses between 1921 and 2001 is shown in the table below:

Census Population of Littlebredy Parish 1921–2001 (except 1941)
Census	1921	1931	1951	1961	1971	1981	1991	2001
Population	136	158	132	101	80	80	100	90
Source:Dorset County Council<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation															CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In the 1861 census the parish had 41 inhabited dwellings and a population of 199.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Notable people

• Robert Meller (c.1564-1624), member of parliament
• Ben Pentreath (born 1971), architect and interior designer