thumb|255px|Bridehead House
Littlebredy (also written Little Bredy, pronounced ) is a small village and civil parish in the English county of Dorset, situated approximately 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. In the 2011 census it had a population of 121.
History
The area around Littlebredy is rich with evidence of early human occupation, including stone circles, strip lynchets, tumuli (long and round barrows) and a probable hill fort. North and east of the village the density of barrows is as great as the area around Stonehenge. One mile north of the village and just outside the parish is a group of 44 Bronze Age round barrows of various sizes, known as Winterbourne Poor Lot Barrows or just Poor Lot. On a hill immediately south of the village are the earthworks of Old Warren (or Danes' Camp), which most likely was a univallate (single rampart) Iron Age hill fort. Old Warren may later have been used as a burh in the time of Alfred the Great, though it may have been not completed, or abandoned in favour of a site at what is now Bridport.
Records from the 10th century refer to the area as 'Bridian' or 'Brydian' 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.—made substantial changes to the estate. The architects Peter Frederick Robinson and then Benjamin Ferrey were employed. Bridehead House was extended and altered by Robinson in 1830–33, then extended further by Ferrey a few years later. 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.
thumb|145px|left|Frederic Wallis memorial in the churchyard of [[St Michael and All Angels Church, Littlebredy|St Michael and All Angels Church (base not shown)]]
In 2024 the Williams family put the estate, which includes the 32 houses in the village, up for sale. In 2025 it was sold to unknown buyers. The new owners terminated the previous public access to the lake and waterfall on Bridehead Estate. In June 2025 it was reported by the journalist and activist George Monbiot that the new owners had served notice of eviction on the tenants of all the houses in the village. However, the new owners, Belport Limited, stated that they intend to reopen access to the closed area after certain issues are addressed following works, and denied that they plan to evict tenants from properties on the estate.
Government
For elections to the British House of Commons, Littlebredy is in the West Dorset parliamentary constituency.
At the upper tier of local government, Littlebredy is the Dorset unitary authority area. For elections to Dorset Council, it is in the Chesil Bank electoral ward.
At the lower tier, Littlebredy is a civil parish. It does not have a parish council, but it does have parish meetings.
Geography
Littlebredy village is sited between 85 and 110 metres above sea-level All of Littlebredy parish lies within the Dorset National Landscape area.
240px|thumb|The Valley of Stones
Valley of Stones
In the south of the parish is the Valley of Stones, which in 1906 was described by Sir Frederick Treves as "a mysterious glen among the downs, on whose grassy slopes many huge stones are scattered." In prehistoric times it was used as a source of building material for nearby constructions such as tombs and stone circles, and within 4 miles are two-thirds of all such structures in the county. Folklore attributes the origin of the stones to have been two giants playing stone-throwing games, but they are the result of conditions at the end of the last ice age, when freezing and thawing caused sandstone on surrounding hilltops to break up and slump downhill. They form one of the best British examples of a sarsen stone boulder train. The stones and the surrounding dry chalk valley provide habitats for a variety of flora and fauna—including clustered bellflower, autumn gentian, lichens, bryophytes and the adonis blue butterfly—and the area is designated a National Nature Reserve. 45 households and a population of 121.</small>
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In the 1861 census the parish had 41 inhabited dwellings and a population of 199.
Notable people
- Robert Meller (c.1564-1624), member of parliament
- Ben Pentreath (born 1971), architect and interior designer