Spetisbury, Dorset
Historical Description
Spetisbury, a parish, with a village, in Dorsetshire, and a station on the Somerset and Dorset railway, 118 miles from London, and 3 miles SSE of Blandford. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Blandford. Acreage, 2250; population of the civil parish, 562; of the ecclesiastical, 1131. The parish council consists of seven members. There is a priory of Canons Regular with a handsome church attached. Spetisbury Ring is a small circular camp, probably Saxon. The living is a rectory, united with Charlton Marshall, in the diocese of Salisbury; gross value, £640 with residence. The church was rebuilt in 1861. There are Congregational and Primitive Methodist chapels and an endowed school.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Dorsetshire | |
| Diocese | Bristol | 1542 - 1836 |
| Diocese | Salisbury | 1836 - |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Spetisbury St. John the Baptist | |
| Hundred | Loosebarrow | |
| Poor Law union | Blandford | 1835 - |
| Registration district | Blandford | |
| Registration sub-district | Milton Abbas |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1705. The original register books are now deposited with the Dorset Archives Service, but have been digitised by Ancestry.co.uk and made available on their site (subscription required).
Churches
Church of England
St. John the Baptist (parish church)
The parish church of St. John the Baptist is of flint and stone in the Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel, nave of three bays, north aisle, south porch and an embattled western tower containing 5 bells, and was rebuilt (with the exception of the tower) in 1859: there is a monument in the north aisle to John Bowyer, d. 1599, and an hour-glass dated 1700: in 1895 the belfry was restored, and the bells rehung, at a cost of £134: there are 220 sittings.
Civil Registration
Spetisbury was in Blandford Registration District from 1837 to 1956 and Poole Registration District from 1956 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Spetisbury from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Spetisbury (St. John the Baptist))
- Hunt & Co.'s Directory of Dorsetshire, Hampshire, & Wiltshire 1851
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Dorset is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Spetisbury are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the Dorset County Chronicle and the Sherborne Mercury online.
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Dorset, 1623 is available on the Heraldry page.