Spetisbury

Spetisbury takes its name from the Old English words speoht (woodpecker) and byrig (a fort).{{Citation needed|date=July 2023}} Woodpeckers are commonly found in the village, and there is an Iron Age fort.

File:Spetisbury Rings, trig point - geograph.org.uk - 2892648.jpg

Spetisbury is home to the Iron Age 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 and Hod Hill, before Buzbury Rings, Badbury Rings, Dudsbury Camp and the port at Hengistbury Head.{{cite book |last1=Jardine |first1=David E. C. |title=Hill Forts of the Stour Valley |date=1 January 1985 |publisher=Bournemouth Local Studies Publications |isbn=978-0-906287-60-6 |edition=1st |language=English}} In the 1850s, during the construction of the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway, two mass graves were found that contained over 80 skeletons. At least two of these had been killed violently. Alongside skeletons, a large number of items, including seaxes and spearheads, were discovered.{{cite journal |last1=Austin |first1=Matthew |title=Rethinking Hardown Hill: Our Westernmost Early Anglo-Saxon Cemetery? |journal=The Antiquaries Journal |date=September 2014 |volume=94 |pages=49–69 |doi=10.1017/S0003581514000250|s2cid=163113153 }}{{cite web |title=Collections Online - Spetisbury |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/x98547 |website=British Museum |access-date=18 July 2023 |archive-date=21 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210621205740/https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/x98547 |url-status=live }} The hillfort is a scheduled monument.{{cite web |title=Slight univallate hillfort called Crawford Castle, Spetisbury - 1004563 |url=https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1004563 |website=Historic England |access-date=18 July 2023 |language=en |archive-date=4 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230704204938/https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1004563 |url-status=live }}

File:Looking down the Nave, St John the Baptist, Spetisbury.jpg

The parish church of St John the Baptist lies on the west side of the A350. The north arcade 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 restored the building in 1895. The church was built with a mixture of building stones, chiefly knapped flint. The early-17th-century pulpit has ornate panelled sides, including cherub heads. The font was made of Purbeck marble, 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 and the Rackett monument and octagonal memorial to the fallen of WWI and WWII are both Grade 2 listed.{{cite web |title=Spetisbury |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/dorset/vol3/pp242-246 |website=British History Online |access-date=17 July 2023 |archive-date=1 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221201035154/https://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/dorset/vol3/pp242-246 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title=St John the Baptist Church |url=http://www.spetisbury.org.uk/St_John_the_Baptist_Church_24549.aspx |website=Spetisbury Parish Council |access-date=16 July 2023 |language=en |archive-date=7 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220807151811/http://www.spetisbury.org.uk/St_John_the_Baptist_Church_24549.aspx |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title=CHURCH OF ST JOHN, Spetisbury - 1305220 |url=https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1305220?section=official-list-entry |website=Historic England |access-date=16 July 2023 |language=en |archive-date=20 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230720091625/https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1305220?section=official-list-entry |url-status=live }}{{cite book |last1=Hutchins |first1=John |title=The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset |date=1774 |url=https://wellcomecollection.org/works/h5cuarzu/items?canvas=205&manifest=2 |access-date=16 July 2023 |pages=189–194 |language=en |archive-date=20 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230720091626/https://wellcomecollection.org/works/h5cuarzu/items?canvas=205&manifest=2 |url-status=live }}{{cite book |last1=Newman |first1=John |last2=Pevsner |first2=Nicholas |title=The Buildings of England: Dorset, by J. Newman, N. Pevsner |date=1975 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-071044-1 |pages=394–5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2_hNAAAAMAAJ |language=en |access-date=16 July 2023 |archive-date=20 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230720091625/https://books.google.com/books?id=2_hNAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title=Spetisbury War Memorial, Spetisbury - 1441320 |url=https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1441320 |website=Historic England |access-date=18 July 2023 |language=en |archive-date=20 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230720091627/https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1441320 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title=RACKETT MONUMENT, IN THE CHURCHYARD, 2 METRES SOUTH OF PORCH OF ST JOHN'S CHURCH, Spetisbury - 1110162 |url=https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1110162 |website=Historic England |access-date=18 July 2023 |language=en |archive-date=20 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230720091653/https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1110162 |url-status=live }}

File:Crawford Bridge - geograph.org.uk - 3946678.jpg

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 Grade 1 listed building.{{cite web |title=CRAWFORD BRIDGE, Spetisbury - 1305264 |url=https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1305264?section=official-list-entry |website=Historic England |access-date=17 July 2023 |language=en |archive-date=20 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230720092129/https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1305264?section=official-list-entry |url-status=live }}

{{Main|St Monica's Priory, Spetisbury}}{{See also|Spetisbury Priory}}

In 1800, an 18th-century country house in the village was acquired by some Augustinian nuns (of the Congregation of Windesheim). The priory was then occupied by various religious groups including Brigittines (Syon nuns), Canons Regular of the Lateran and Ursulines. 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 monks in the village.{{cite web |last1=Stead |first1=Sue |title=St. Monica's Priory |url=https://sites.google.com/site/stmonicaspriory/ |website=Google Sites |access-date=16 July 2023 |archive-date=1 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161001113818/https://sites.google.com/site/stmonicaspriory/ |url-status=live }}

File:Spetisbury Halt, abandoned platform (geograph 2135894).jpg{{Main|Spetisbury railway station}}

The village has a disused railway station on the former Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. 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 route is now a footpath.{{cite web |last1=Taylor |first1=Ann |title=History of Spetisbury |url=http://www.spetisbury.org.uk/History_of_Spetisbury_24548.aspx |website=Spetisbury Parish Council |access-date=16 July 2023 |language=en |archive-date=16 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210616193054/http://www.spetisbury.org.uk/History_of_Spetisbury_24548.aspx |url-status=live }}

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 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.{{cite web |title=Hall and Sloper |url=https://www.spetisbury.dsat.org.uk/hall-and-sloper/ |website=Spetisbury CofE Primary School |access-date=16 July 2023 |archive-date=20 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210920175731/https://www.spetisbury.dsat.org.uk/hall-and-sloper/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title=CEDAR COURT, Spetisbury - 1110160 |url=https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1110160 |website=Historic England |access-date=16 July 2023 |language=en |archive-date=20 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230720092128/https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1110160 |url-status=live }}

There have been at least five pubs in the village, but all are now closed. The last was called "The Woodpecker", before it ceased trading in early 2019.{{cite news |last1=Bevins |first1=Trevor |title=APPROVED: Former pub to be converted into homes |url=https://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/19698810.homes-built-woodpecker-pub-spetisbury/ |access-date=18 July 2023 |work=Dorset Echo |date=6 November 2021 |language=en |archive-date=6 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211106082128/https://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/19698810.homes-built-woodpecker-pub-spetisbury/ |url-status=live }}

{{reflist}}

{{Commons category|Spetisbury}}

• [http://www.spetisbury.org.uk/ Spetisbury Parish Council]
• [https://www.spetisbury.dsat.org.uk/ Spetisbury CofE Primary School, founded in 1733]
• [https://spetisburystationproject.wordpress.com/ Spetisbury Station Project]
• [http://www.strollingguides.co.uk/books/dorset/walks/spetisbury1.php Walk to Spetisbury Rings]

{{North Dorset}}

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Category:Villages in Dorset

Category:Civil parishes in Dorset