Mill Cottage
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Briantspuddle today is the larger of two villages comprising the parish of Affpuddle, the other village being Affpuddle itself. Both villages sit on the lower reaches of the river Piddle (or Trent for the Victorians). Briantspuddle boasts a village shop and Post Office, a Social Club and one of the finest village halls in the county of Dorset. Some 200 people live in the village.

The parish lies within the Purbeck conservation area and is stunningly beautiful. The River Piddle itself is a natural chalk stream with crystal clear waters except immediately after heavy rain. Locally "Piddle" is said to have meant "clear running stream", however the more widely accepted meaning is said to have offended in Victorian times, which resulted in all of the "Piddles" being renamed "Puddles". However, this is anecdotal and unsubstantiated.

Briantspuddle is in the heart of Thomas Hardy Country only 8 miles from Dorchester, the setting for "The Mayor of Casterbridge", and is within half an hour’s drive of Dorset’s Jurassic Coast. (England’s only World Heritage site).

The written history of Briantspuddle begins with the Inquisitio Gheldi, the assessment for Geld Tax (Land tax), in 1084, 2 years before Domesday Book. The entry runs thus: "Godricus Presbyter habet 4 hidas 10 agris minus in dominio" which translates as Godric the Priest holds 4 hides ten and a half acres in his demesne (land attached to a Manor, which was usually acquired by Royal Charter).

Briantspuddle was then known as Pidele held by Godric the Priest and later in 1086, the Great Domesday Book entry translated reads, "Godric holds Pidele. Azor held it in King Edward’s time and it paid geld for 5 hides. (In the West of England 1 hide was generally 40 acres). There is land for 3 ploughs (the acres judged to be a ploughland, that is the amount which one team of eight oxen could work in a year, varied according to the type of soil and the configuration of the land), a mill, thirty eight acres of meadow, twelve acres of woodland, eleven furlongs of pasture in length and four in width. The whole lot was worth £4 including the mill rendering 7s.6d. In demesne there are 7 serfs (non land owning labourers), 2 villans (who owned larger amounts of arable land and owed services) and 4 bordars (from the French BORDE, a wooden hut, who owned less land). At this time the parish of Affpuddle was divided under the manorial system into three manors, known to us today as Affpuddle, Briantspuddle and Throop.

By the 13th Century Pidele had become Priestspidele presumably through association with Godric, and by the early 14th Century several people owned various pieces of this land. The part owners were at one time identified as the Prior of Christchurch, the Frampton family and the Turbeville family. It was from this period that a member of the Turbeville family, probably Brian, gave his name to that parcel of this land now called Briantspuddle. (In 1332 the Mill is recorded as "the mill of Turberuylepudele").