Spetisbury () is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in north

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

, England, situated on the River Stour and the

A350 The Airbus A350 is a flight length, long-range, wide-body twin-engine airliner developed and produced by Airbus. The initial A350 design proposed in 2004, in response to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, would have been a development of the Airbu ...

, southeast of

Blandford Forum Blandford Forum ( ) is a market town in Dorset, England, on the River Stour, Dorset, River Stour, north-west of Poole. It had a population of 10,355 at the United Kingdom 2021 census, 2021 census. The town is notable for its Georgian archit ...

. According to the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086, the village had 30 households. According to the 2011 census the parish had 224 households and a population of 555. According to the 2021 census, the parish had 250 households and a population of 590. Spetisbury is a linear settlement, adjacent to the A350 road, which was included in Dorset County Council's response to the Major Roads Network (MRN) consultation, leading to some anticipation of a bypass of Spetisbury and neighbouring Charlton Marshall. A large solar farm was commissioned near Spetisbury in 2023 to provide energy for the

City of London Corporation The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the local authority of the City of London, the historic centre of London and the location of much of the United Kingdom's f ...

. Spetisbury is twinned with Le Vast, a village in the

Manche Manche (, ; Norman language, Norman: ) is a coastal Departments of France, French ''département'' in Normandy (administrative region), Normandy on the English Channel, which is known as , literally "the sleeve", in French. Manche is bordered by ...

department of

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

, France. The Manche department is itself is twinned with

Etymology

Spetisbury takes its name from the Old English words ''speoht'' (woodpecker) and ''byrig'' (a fort).

Woodpecker Woodpeckers are part of the bird family (biology), family Picidae, which also includes the piculets, wrynecks and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar and the extreme ...

s are commonly found in the village, and there is an Iron Age fort.

Buildings and history

Spetisbury Rings

Spetisbury is home to the

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

fortifications known as Spetisbury Rings (previously known as Crawford Castle). Spetisbury Rings is the third in a series of Iron Age earthworks, after

Hambledon Hill Hambledon Hill is a prehistoric hill fort in Dorset, England, in the Blackmore Vale five miles northwest of Blandford Forum. The hill itself is a chalk outcrop, on the southwestern corner of Cranborne Chase, separated from the Dorset Downs by t ...

and

Hod Hill Hod Hill (or Hodd Hill) is a large hill fort in the Blackmore Vale, north-west of Blandford Forum, Dorset, England. The fort sits on a chalk hill of the same name that lies between the adjacent Dorset Downs and Cranborne Chase. The hill fo ...

, before Buzbury Rings,

Badbury Rings Badbury Rings is an Iron Age hill fort and Scheduled Monument in east Dorset, England. It was in the territory of the Durotriges. In the Roman era a temple was located immediately west of the fort, and there was a Romano-British town known as ''Vi ...

, Dudsbury Camp and the port at

Hengistbury Head Hengistbury Head (), formerly also called Christchurch Head, is a headland jutting into the English Channel between Bournemouth and Mudeford in the English county of Dorset. It is a site of international importance in terms of its archaeolog ...

. In the 1850s, during the construction of the

Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway The Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway (S&DJR, also known as the S&D, S&DR or SDJR), was an English railway line Joint railway, jointly owned by the Midland Railway (MR) and the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) that grew to connect Bat ...

, two

mass grave A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may Unidentified decedent, not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of exec ...

s were found that contained over 80 skeletons. At least two of these had been killed violently. Alongside skeletons, a large number of items, including

seax A ''seax'' (; also sax, sæx, sex; invariant in plural, latinized ''sachsum'') is a small sword, fighting knife or dagger typical of the Germanic peoples of the Migration Period and the Early Middle Ages, especially the Saxons. The name comes f ...

es and

spear A spear is a polearm consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with Fire hardening, fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable materia ...

heads, were discovered. The hillfort is a

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage, visu ...

St John the Baptist

The parish church of

St John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

lies on the west side of the A350. The north

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated video, pinball, electro-mechanical, redemption, etc., game ** Arcade video game, a coin-operated video game ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade video game's hardware ** Arcad ...

dates from the late 12th or early 13th century and the tower (with a ring of six heavy bells) from the late 15th or early 16th century. Most of the church was built in 1858, before

Thomas Henry Wyatt Thomas Henry Wyatt (9 May 1807 – 5 August 1880) was an Anglo-Irish architect. He had a prolific and distinguished career, being elected president of the Royal Institute of British Architects for 1870–1873 and being awarded its Royal Gold Me ...

restored the building in 1895. The church was built with a mixture of building stones, chiefly knapped flint. The early-17th-century

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accesse ...

has ornate panelled sides, including cherub heads. The

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

was made of

Purbeck marble Purbeck Marble is a fossiliferous limestone found in the Isle of Purbeck, a peninsula in south-east Dorset, England. It is a variety of Purbeck stone that has been quarried since at least Roman times as a decorative building stone. Geology S ...

, and is likely the same age as the tower. In the north wall, there is an early 17th-century monument to John Bowyer, who died in 1599. In the churchyard, close to the porch, is the three-sided pyramid gravestone of Thomas Rackett, rector of the village and Charlton Marshall for 60 years. The church is a

Grade 1 listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

and the Rackett monument and octagonal memorial to the fallen of WWI and WWII are both

Grade 2 listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

Crawford Bridge

The B3075 crosses the River Stour at Crawford Bridge. The bridge was built in the medieval period and widened in 1819. It has nine semicircular arches and is a

St Monica's Priory

In 1800, an 18th-century country house in the village was acquired by some

Augustinian nuns Augustinian nuns are the most ancient and continuous segment of the Augustinian religious order. Named after Augustine of Hippo, there are several Catholic religious communities of women living according to a guide to religious life known as the ...

(of the

Congregation of Windesheim The Congregation of Windesheim () is a congregation of Augustinian canons that regularly takes its name from its most important monastery, which was located at Windesheim in the Netherlands. The congregation was founded as an offshoot of the Br ...

). The priory was then occupied by various religious groups including

Brigittines The Bridgettines, or Birgittines, formally known as the Order of the Most Holy Saviour (; abbreviated OSsS), is a monastic religious order of the Catholic Church founded by Saint Birgitta (Bridget of Sweden) in 1344 and approved by Pope Urban V ...

( Syon nuns), Canons Regular of the Lateran and

Ursulines The Ursulines, also known as the Order of Saint Ursula (post-nominals: OSU), is an enclosed religious order of women that in 1572 branched off from the Angelines, also known as the Company of Saint Ursula. The Ursulines trace their origins to th ...

. Although most of the original building was destroyed, some still remains and forms part of the village hall. There had previously been a house of

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

monks in the village.

Spetisbury Station

The village has a disused

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

on the former

. The station opened in 1860, but was one of four stations on the Dorset section of the line closed as an economy measure in 1956 before the whole railway closed for passengers in 1966 as part of the

Beeching Axe The Beeching cuts, also colloquially referred to as the Beeching Axe, were a major series of route closures and service changes made as part of the restructuring of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain in the 1960s. They are named ...

. The route is now a footpath.

Spetisbury School

Dr Charles Sloper, rector of the parish, bequeathed £500 in his will to found a school in Spetisbury. Sloper also funded the construction of the village's rectory. Sloper's bequest complemented money given by

John Hall John Hall may refer to: Academics * John Hall (NYU President) (fl. c. 1890), American academic * John A. Hall (born 1949), sociology professor at McGill University, Montreal * John F. Hall (1951–2023), professor of classics at Brigham Young Univ ...

to buy bibles. In 1733, a Christian school was founded in the village. This was before the introduction of compulsory state education. In 1862, it moved to its current building, next to the parish church. It is now called Spetisbury CofE Primary School, formerly Spetisbury (Hall and Sloper) School. During the Second World War, the school building was used as a radar base by the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

The Woodpecker

There have been at least five

pub A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private ho ...

s in the village, but all are now closed. The last was called "The Woodpecker", before it ceased trading in early 2019.

References

External links

Spetisbury Parish CouncilSpetisbury CofE Primary School, founded in 1733Spetisbury Station ProjectWalk to Spetisbury Rings
{{authority control Villages in Dorset Civil parishes in Dorset