The ‘Broad One’

THE BROAD ONE’ Dorset’s little rivers — The Lydden and the Caundle Brook.These two streams flow through the western part of the Blackmore Vale, Thomas Hardy’s ‘Vale of the Little Dairies’. The Lydden, a stream that is about twelve miles long, rises under the Chalk escarpment near Buckland Newton, then flows northwards to join the Stour about a mile to the south-west of Marnhull, near the now disused King’s Mill. The Caundel Brook is its principal tributary, rising in the shadow of Dogbury Hill, on the other side of the hill from where the Cerne rises near Minterne Magna. It flows north for ten miles before it joins the Lydden about half a mile to the north of Twofords Bridge, which carries the main road from Blandford to Sherborne and Shepton Mallet. The Lydden derives its name from the Celtic language, Lydden simply meaning ‘the broad one’, although for almost the whole of its course it does not seem to merit this description. https://www.dorsetlife.co.uk/…/dorsets-little-rivers…/The image above: The Lydden River and its Food Zones, along with the Wonston Brook, almost surround the proposed solar plant. Maybe that’s why the Celts named it the ‘Broad One’