The
River Piddle or
Trent or
North River is a small rural
Dorset river which
rises next to
Alton Pancras church. Alton Pancras was originally named Awultune, a
Saxon name meaning the village at the source of a river. The river's name has Germanic origins and has had various spellings over the years. In AD 966 it was called the 'Pidelen', and on the church tower at
Piddletrenthide—the first village to which it gives its name—it is spelled 'Pydel'. Several villages which the river passes through are named after it: as well as Piddletrenthide there are
Piddlehinton,
Puddletown,
Tolpuddle,
Affpuddle,
Briantspuddle and
Turnerspuddle. The
Victorians changed the spelling to 'Puddle', due to 'piddle' being an alternative word for 'piss', although Puddletown was still called Piddletown into the 1950s.