Spetisbury

Spetisbury is a village and civil parish in north Dorset, England, situated on the River Stour and the A350 road, 4mi south-east of Blandford Forum. In the 2011 census the civil parish had 224 households and a population of 555.Spetisbury village is a linear settlement, with mostly only one line of buildings adjacent to the A350 road. Currently, a large project is underway which may lead to the construction of a new bypass of the A350, meaning that the high traffic that currently passes through would be redirected.Spetisbury is twinned with Le Vast, a village in the north-east of the Cotentin Peninsula in Normandy, France.History and buildingsSpetisbury takes its name from speht - woodpecker, and byrig - a fort. Spetisbury is home to the Iron Age fortifications known as Spetisbury Rings or Crawford Castle (but not related to Crawford Castle in Scotland), destroyed by Roman advances in the first century A.D.The earthworks, known as Spetisbury Rings, was a stronghold of Ionia before the Romans came, and Roman and Briton lie side by side in graves. Spetisbury Rings is the third in a series of Iron Age earthworks, starting from Hambledon Hill, and also including Hod Hill, Spetisbury Rings, Buzbury Rings, Badbury Rings and Dudsbury Camp. The Iron Age port at Hengistbury Head forms a final Iron Age monument in this small chain of sites.