Little Bredy is a delightful park and village in Dorset
Little bredy is a small village in the English county of Dorset, 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. The area around Littlebredy is rich with evidence of early human occupation, Records from the 10th century refer to the area as 'Bridian' or 'Brydian' and in 1086 Littlebredy specifically was recorded in the Domesday Book as 'Litelbride'. 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. Littlebredy was owned by Cerne Abbey until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century. During the 19th century the Williams family made substantial changes to the estate. The architects Peter Frederick Robinson and then Benjamin Ferrey were employed. The River Bride was dammed near its source to create a lake as part of landscaping around the house. 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. Some Jacobean buildings in the village were also changed around this time, being reworked into a Gothic farmyard or stable block. 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.
Size: 4517px × 6497px
Location: Littlebredy, Dorset, UK
Photo credit: © Philip Chapman / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: abbey, benjamin, bredy, bride, bridian, brydian, cerne, dorset, downs, estate, ferrey, frederick, gushing, lake, litelbride, littlebredy, peter, river, robinson, snowdrops, stones, stream, torrential, valley, village, williams
