In a field bordering the
River Divelish the remains of two wings of a Roman villa were found in 1880 and 1903. Floor mosaics and part of a
hypocaust system were uncovered. The archaeological findings are on view in the
Dorset Museum in Dorchester. The Domesday Book records that in 1086 the estate of Fifehead Neville had eight households and was part of
Pimperne Hundred. The
tenant-in-chief of the estate was
Waleran the Hunter whose tenant was Ingelrann. The overlordship descended to Walter Walerand (d. 1200–1) and to his daughter and co-heiress Isabel de Waleran who married William de Nevill. The overlordship was inherited by Isabel de Nevill's daughter Joan de Nevill (d. 1263), wife of Jordan de St. Martin. Before 1920 the parish was in two parts, each with its own settlement—Fifehead Neville in the north and Lower Fifehead or Fifehead St Quentin in the south. It is probable each settlement had previously had its own
open field system. was previously a detached part of
Belchalwell, a former parish that is now part of the parish of
Okeford Fitzpaine. ==Geography==