History of Pentridge, Dorset
The village name is derived from the Celtic pen (‘hill’) and twrch (‘boar) and therefore translates to ‘hill of the wild boar’. The existence of Pentridge was first recorded in the eighth century, eighty years before the birth of Alfred the Great. It was then recorded as ‘Pentric’.
Pentridge, Handley, Woodyates and Gussage St Andrew are described in William I’s 1086 Domesday Book with named farmers, areas farmed and numbers of stock.
The village is located amongst many Neolithic Roman and Saxon earthworks, notably Bokerley Dyke, a long defensive ditch which was dug by the Romano-British to keep out the Saxon invaders.
Memorials of Pentridge past, range from those of Poet, Robert Browning’s grandfather, born in Pentridge in 1749 to World War 2 flying ace Roland Beamont (Bee) who retired to Cross Cottage.
The village of Pentridge is believed to have been the real location of the mentioned ‘Trantridge Village’ in Thomas Hardy’s, Tess of the D’Urbervilles.
The Dorset for you website have this information sheet on Pentridge as part of their ‘Conservation in Dorset’ section: http://www.dorsetforyou.com/media.jsp?mediaid=134047&filetype=pdf (opens in a new window)
Links to other web pages relating to the history of Pentridge:
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Gravestone of Roland ‘Bee’ Beaumont