Spetisbury
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox UK place Spetisbury (Template:IPAc-en) is a village and civil parish in north Dorset, England, situated on the River Stour and the A350, Template:Convert southeast of Blandford Forum.
According to the Domesday Book of 1086, the village had 30 households.<ref name="Domesday Book">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Taylor Article" /> According to the 2011 census the parish had 224 households and a population of 555.<ref name="2011 Census">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> According to the 2021 census, the parish had 250 households and a population of 590.<ref name="2021 Census">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
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.<ref name="Bypass?">Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Additional citation needed A large solar farm was commissioned near Spetisbury in 2023 to provide energy for the City of London Corporation.<ref name="Echo Solar">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="BBC solar">Template:Cite news</ref>
Spetisbury is twinned with Le Vast, a village in the Manche department of Normandy, France. The Manche department is itself is twinned with Dorset.<ref name="Twinning">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
EtymologyEdit
Spetisbury takes its name from the Old English words speoht (woodpecker) and byrig (a fort).Template:Citation needed Woodpeckers are commonly found in the village, and there is an Iron Age fort.
Buildings and historyEdit
Spetisbury RingsEdit
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.<ref name="Jardine">Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref name="Taylor Article" /> Alongside skeletons, a large number of items, including seaxes and spearheads, were discovered.<ref name="BHO" /><ref name="Hardown Hill">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="BM Finds">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The hillfort is a scheduled monument.<ref name="Spetisbury Rings Listing">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
St John the BaptistEdit
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.<ref name="BHO">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Church Spetisbury">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Church Listing">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Hutchins">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Pevsner">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="War Memorial Listing">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Rackett Monument">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Crawford BridgeEdit
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.<ref name="Crawford Bridge Listing">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
St Monica's PrioryEdit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}Template:See also 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.<ref name="BHO" /><ref name="Priory">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Spetisbury StationEdit
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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.<ref name="Taylor Article">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Spetisbury SchoolEdit
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.<ref name="Hutchins" /><ref name="School History">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Cedar Court">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The WoodpeckerEdit
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.<ref name="Taylor Article" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>