Where on earth is this?

annabel

annabel

Puts the Heart into Hertfordshire
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Can anyone work out where Richard Meech was from? This marriage is in 1698 in Stratton, Dorset
 
It looks like Pitcher Wadden in the the parish of Possom. Dorset isn't my area, but from a list of parishes I wonder if it's Portisham, and this is how locals pronounced it? There's an area of the parish called Waddon.

That was going to be my final suggestion, but I just searched for Pitcher Wadden, and came up with what looks to be a very useful site for old place names:
Code: 
http://placenames.org.uk/browse/mads/epns-deep-86-c-mappedname-000253
With multiple spelling variants, it appears there was a Pitcher Wadden somewhere there. So that might well be your answer.
 
So does that mean it is what is now Portesham? Can't find a Waddon or Little Waddon on Google maps which is what the site says is Pycher Waddon now
 
I haven't found Pitcher Wadden on a map, but these two show the eastern parts of Portisham parish (also spelt Portesham, I've found):
Code: 
Waddon - due east of Portisham:
http://maps.nls.uk/view/101447210

Further east again is Friar Waddon:
http://maps.nls.uk/view/101447246

Edit: Waddon can be seen on modern Ordnance Survey maps, available at Streetmap and Bing Maps.
 
I've just had another look at this, and I think it might be possible to pin it down fairly precisely. This is the list of places in Waddon that I found before:
Code: 
http://placenames.org.uk/browse/mads/epns-deep-86-c-mappedname-000253
If you go up a level to Portisham using the breadcrumbs links at the top, you'll find a long list of localities within the parish, and there are so many of them that they must refer to very specific areas. Waddon/Little Waddon is one of these.

The Waddon/Little Waddon page gives all the names that have been found referring to that small area, and the bottom one and the one two above it may be significant. They are both taken from the same source (J. Hutchins, The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset (3rd edition), 1863), so it's reasonable to assume that they refer to different but related places.

The bottom one is East Waddon, Little Waddon, or Gerard's Waddon and the other is West Waddon, vulgo Pitcher's Waddon (vulgo is Latin for commonly).

East Waddon can be seen on this map:
Code: 
http://maps.nls.uk/view/101447210
West Waddon isn't marked, but as there doesn't appear to be any other settlement between there and Portisham, I strongly suspect it's what is shown as simply Waddon. So based on Hutchins, that seems to be Pitcher's Waddon.
 
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