SPETISBURY, a parish, with a village, in Blandford district, Dorset; on the Somerset and Dorset railway, 3 miles SSE of Blandford. It has a post-office under Blandford, and a r. station. Acres. 2.148. Real property, £3,820. Pop., 688. Houses, 129. The property is divided among a few. An alien priory was founded here in the time of Henry II. by the Earl of Mellent. S. Ring is a small circular camp, probably Saxon. The living is a rectory, united with Charlton-Marshall, in the diocese of Salisbury. Value, £517.* Patron, J. S. E. Drax, Esq. The church was rebuilt in 1861. There are chapels for Independents and Primitive Methodists, an endowed school with £100 a year, and a convent.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))