Thomas Hardy country and the Hardy Trail

Thomas Hardy's land is Dorset; most of his life was spent here and was the inspiration for most of his works. He was born in 1840 at Higher Bockhampton, near Dorchester, to an ordinary west country family; he was sent to the village school for a year and then to Dorchester. He was a shy and reflective child and was encouraged by his mother to read and study beyond the usual level for local children although he was not thought to be particularly clever at lessons.
At the age of 16 he was articled to a Dorchester architect, he could have become accomplished in this profession had he not chosen to concentrate on writing. He lived in London for 5 years but then returned to Dorset, living in Weymouth and continuing to work as an architect while seeking publishers for his books.
His last novel, Jude the Obscure, was published in 1895, from then to the end of his life he turned to poetry. In 1885 he moved to Max Gate, a house of his own design on the outskirts of Dorchester. He died there on 11th. January 1928.
The name "Wessex" used for the home county of his characters - "a partly real, partly dream-country" comes from the ancient kingdom of central, southern and western England. Most of his stories are centred on "South Wessex" - Dorset.

THE OUTER TOUR	*References to his work.*
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PORTLAND The Isle of Portland (our Rock of Gibraltar) is a windswept limestone peninsula which juts 4 miles into the Channel and is joined to the mainland only by Chesil Beach and the road bridge. Famous for its Portland stone which has been used on many magnificent buildings all over England. Naval harbour overlooked by castle built by Henry VIII. Visit the Lighthouse. Pounding seas have carved magnificent sculptures out of the cliffs and thrown up Chesil's great barrier of shingle, 40 ft. high in places and stretching for 10 miles. Take the A354 Map of tours	*Isle of Slingers* Featured in The Trumpet-Major and main setting of The Well-Beloved.
WEYMOUTH Roman Port. He worked for the architect Crickmay at Weymouth from the summer of 1869 until 1870. He also stayed here for a short period while working on The Trumpet-Major. Take the A354 The scenic route along the coast passing through Portesham, Abbotsbury (Abbotsea) and Burton Bradstock. Map of tours	*Budmouth Regis* Referred to in Under the Greenwood Tree and The Trumpet-Major. Sergeant Troy lost money at Budmouth Races in Far from the Madding Crowd.
The Hardy Monument will be seen to the right on Black Down. Not our author, but Captain Hardy, later Vice Admiral Sir Thomas Masterman, Nelson's Captain on the Victory at Trafalgar and erected to his memory in 1844. He was born in Portesham and was descended, like our author, from the Hardy's of Jersey who had settled in Dorset centuries earlier. The site provides almost 360 degrees in views. On a clear day it can be seen from the bedroom window in his birth-place at Higher Bockhampton.	He features in The Trumpet-Major and The Dynast.
BRIDPORT A mile south of the town is the "little haven, seemingly a beginning made by Nature herself of a perfect harbour" of West Bay. Take the A3066 Map of tours	*Port Bredy* Setting for the story Fellow Townsmen in which the Town Hall, St. Mary's Church, The Black Bull Hotel and the flax and rope making industries are featured. Melbury in The Woodlanders had a "great stake in that harbour" because he sent off timber from there.
Pilsdon Pen will be on your left. "Little Pilsdon Crest" - another Wessex height which ironically is the highest hill in Dorset, with magnificent views over the Marshwood Vale. Then on your right will be Eggardon Hill. Another hill fort with splendid views over the Marshwood Vale and across Lyme Bay. The rippling downland flanks of 827 ft. high Eggardon Hill rise to an Iron Age hill fort and Bronze Age barrows on the summit.	Harggardon Hill in The Trumpet-Major.
BEAMINSTER A pinnacled market cross and prosperous 18th. century houses, built in the golden Ham Hill stone of the region. Much loved by the 19th. century poet William Barnes. Elizabeth Parnham House, rescued by John Nash in 1810, now home to John Makepeace's furniture workshops. Take the B3163, A356, A37 via Evershot (Evershead) and Holywell. Map	*Emminster* In Tess of the D'Ubervilles, Angel Claire's father was vicar of this "hill surrounded little town". Desperately seeking support after Angel had left her, Tess walked the fifteen miles from Flintcombe-Ash to Emminster on a frosty winter's Sunday only to find her parents-in-law out. To compound her problems not only does she lose her boots but she encounters Alec once more on her return walk.
On your right will be Batcombe/High Stoy. From this mid Dorset line of chalk hills opens up a splendid view of the north of the county and into Somerset.	*High Stoy* features on a number of occasions in The Woodlanders and provided a favourite walk of his. The poem Under Stoy Hill was probably occasioned by his last visit in August 1922. Nearby is Cross-in-Hand, a stone pillar, featured in Tess of the d'Ubervilles which may "mark the site of a miracle or murder, or both".
MELBURY OSMOND His parents were married in the church and at the northern end of the footpath through the churchyard is a thatched house where His mother is thought to have lived as a child. Take the A37, Yetminster, Thornford, A352 Map	*Great Hintock* On a hill overlooking Blackmoor Vale (White Hart Vale) the final scene of The Woodlanders sees Marty South alone in the churchyard.
SHERBORNE 15th. century Abbey town with a ruined 12th. century Old Castle and Sherborne castle built by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1594. A market is still held here. Sherborne Abbey Church. Take the A352, A3030, A357 Map	*Sherton Abbas* In the Market Place, Giles Winterborne stood with his sample apple trees in The Woodlanders. Sherborne Abbey is where Giles Winterborne and Grace Melbury walked and talked of their future in The Woodlanders.
STURMINSTER NEWTON He and his then wife Emma had their first real home together here from 1876 to 1878 - "a pretty cottage overlooking the Dorset Stour, called Riverside Villa". It was, he said, "our happiest time". A graceful six arched 15th. century bridge over the river carries the dire warning of 'Transportation for life' for those who damage it. Take the B3092 Map of trail	*Stourcastle. Here he wrote The Return of the Native* and memories of their time here can be found in a number of poems.
MARNHULL On a narrow no through road about 1 mile from the church there is a delightful white-washed cottage. Tess Cottage is thought by some to be the original of the D'Ubervilles home. (It is a private residence not open to the public and one should respect the owner's privacy.) The cottage is clearly visible from the lay by. Take the B3092, East Stour, A30 Map of trail	*Marlott*
SHAFTESBURY Built on edge of 700 ft. plateau. The best known thoroughfare, cobbled Gold Hill, has magnificent views over Blackmoor Vale. The Vale covers all the undulating pastoral and wooded country running north from the chalk hills which include Bubb Down, High Stoy, Nettlecombe Tout and Bulbarrow. The Vale proper is mainly to the north of Sturminster Newton and is watered by the upper part of the Stour and tributaries. Take the A30 Map	*Shaston* In Jude the Obscure, Phillotson, the schoolmaster, was dismissed from his post after allowing his wife Sue Bridehead to go and live with her cousin, Jude Fawley, who had visited her in town.
SALISBURY 13th. century cathedral city on rivers Avon, Bourne, Nadder and Wylye. Early gothic cathedral , with England's tallest spire at 404 ft. has a clock made in 1386, claimed to be the world's oldest working piece. North of city is the hill called Old Sarum on which was built a Norman cathedral, stone was taken from this to build the present cathedral. Black and white half timbered houses. "Upon the whole the Close of Salisbury, under the full summer moon on a windless midnight, is as beautiful a scene as any I know in England - or for the matter of that elsewhere". Salisbury Cathedral Take the A354 Map	*Melchester* *St. Thomas Church is mentioned in Jude the Obscure; Sue and Phillotson were married in this church.* Jude worked at the Cathedral during his stay in Melchester. The Market House , now the City Library, was where Jude confessed to Sue that he had married Arabella. Sue attended Teacher Training College here, and in real life Hardy's two sisters attended it. At nearby Stonehenge, Tess was finally arrested in Tess of the D'Ubervilles.
BLANDFORD FORUM To the west is Bulbarrow. From here, and from the Iron age hill fort, Rawlsbury camp, nearby, a huge panorama of the Blackmore Vale - "the Vale of the Little Dairies" - unfolds. Handsome Georgian town rebuilt after fire in 1731 with chequered brick and stone. The Corn Exchange is outstanding, as is the 200 year old pump under a graceful Doric porch. ` Take the B3082 Map	From Wessex Heights. "Homely Bulbarrow" - one of those "heights in Wessex, shaped as if by a kindly hand for thinking, dreaming, dying on...".
WIMBORNE MINSTER He was attracted to Wimborne when in 1875, house hunting in Dorset, he visited the Minster and "having seen a light within, sat in a stall listening to the organist practising, while the rays from the musician's solitary candle streamed across the arcades". He and his wife Emma, lived here from 1881 to 1883. The twin towered Minster, reflects 1000 years of varied architecture, from Norman to late Gothic. The Astronomical clock shows Earth as the centre of the Universe. Nearby is the triple banked Iron Age defensive earthworks of Badbury Rings. Take the A349 Map	*Warborne*
POOLE 13th. century port with a natural harbour about 95 miles around and market town. A port long engaged in "the Newfoundland trade". Yachts in Poole harbour. Drive east. Map	*Havenpool* Newson in The Mayor of Casterbridge, landed here when he returned from Newfoundland. It features in two stories from A Changed Man and in the poems The Chapel Organist and The Mongrel.
BOURNEMOUTH "A city of detached mansions; a Mediterranean lounging place on the English Channel". Beaches and pier from East Cliff. Cross the mouth of Poole Harbour to Studland. Map	*Sandbourne* Features in The Hand of Ethelberta. Here Christopher Julian lived and taught music. It was from Sandbourne that Sol Chickerel and Lord Mountclere's brother attempted to reach Knollsea by sea to prevent Ethelberta's marriage to Lord Mountclere. Afterwards she provided her father with a smart villa at Sandbourne for his retirement. In Tess of the D'Ubervilles, Tess lived with Alec D'Urberville in a lodging house called The Herons, where she murdered him when Angel Clare returned. Featured in The Well Beloved and Jude the Obscure.
SWANAGE He lived here in 1875-76 while completing The Hand of Ethelberta. "Everybody in the parish who was not a boatman was a quarrier, unless he were the gentleman who owned half the property and has been a quarryman, or the gentleman who owned the other half, and had been to sea". King Alfred beat the Danes in the 877 naval battle in the bay. Wellington clock taken from London bridge. The facade of the town hall was designed by Christopher Wren in 1670. Take the A351 Map	*Knollsea*
CORFE CASTLE A dramatic ruined castle. Centuries of cruelty in this fortress began with the murder of 18 year old King Edward the Martyr in 978 by his stepmother Queen Aelfthryth (buried in Wareham below), and ended with the castle being wrecked by Cromwellians in 1646. Take the A351 Map	*Corvsgate Castle*
WAREHAM Market town with spacious Georgian main street. The saxon church has a sculpture of his friend, T.E.Lawrence (of Arabia) by Eric Kennington. (Lawrence died in Dorset) St. Mary's Church contains marble coffin of Edward the Martyr, who was murdered in Corfe. Take the A352, B3070 Map
EAST LULWORTH A permanent exhibition of He's life and work is on display in St Andrew's Church. He was associated with the drawings of the church in 1861 when working with John Hicks in Dorchester and with the 1863 restoration and extension. You can also visit Lulworth Castle. Has 1786 Rotunda, first Roman Catholic church built after Reformation. Go to Coombe Keynes, B3071 Map	St. Andrews Church.
WOOL This village on the River Frome has one of the most beautiful 17th. century bridges in the county. On the staircase of the manor, now an hotel, can be seen the faint tracings of two portraits of the real Turberville family. Woolbridge Manor. Map	The *Wellbridge Manor* and ill fated honeymoon home of Tess and Angel Clare in Tess of the D'Ubervilles
If you head back to Weymouth you will pass Tadnoll Old Knowle, one of a number of pockets of heath land surmounted by a barrow. Egdon Heath extends for about fourteen miles eastward from Higher Bockhampton towards Poole Harbour, though its "original unity ... is now somewhat disguised". Map	Reminiscent of his description of *Rainbarrow* in The Return of the Native.

THE INNER TOUR	*References to his work.*
Navigating aids - Map of tours click on to select new area. Road numbers and directions given.
MORETON The grave of Lawrence of Arabia - a friend of his - is situated here in the cemetery. All the windows in the nearby 18th century church are of engraved glass designed by Lawrence Whistler. Take the B3390, turn right you will pass Clouds Hill, home of T.E.Lawrence, and then left to:-
Gallows Hill which provides one of a number of views of what now remains of "the vast tract of unenclosed wild known as Egdon Heath". Map
BERE REGIS On Woodbury Hill, just east of the village, stands the remains of an Iron Age fort from which there are views across heath and river valleys stretching east toward Poole. "The decayed old town" overlooked by Woodbury Hill. "The Nijni Novgorod of South Wessex" whose annual sheep fair was once "the busiest, merriest, noisiest" of them all. The Saxon parish church has become a place of pilgrimage for admirer's of his novels. Inside the church are the tombs of the Turbervilles (on whom He based his novel). Tess was buried here. There is a richly decorated oak ceiling, a gift from Cardinal Morton, Henry VII's chancellor. Its arches, supported by figure of the 12 apostles in 15th. century dress, bear the arms of the Cardinal's various offices. Map	*Kingsbere* Greenhill in Far from the Madding Crowd. In Tess of the D'Ubervilles, Tess and her family set up their four poster bed outside the church under the D'Urberville window which is in the south wall.
ATHELHAMPTON His father probably worked on the restoration of the fine timbered roof in the 15th. century Great Hall, one of the finest examples of that era's domestic architecture in the country. Essentially a medieval house, surrounded by walls and courts, Athelhampton has been a family home for centuries. He painted a water colour of the buildings. Take the A35 Map	*Athelhall*
PUDDLETOWN His grandfather and great grandfather both came from here, as did other relations. The 15th. century church is memorable for its fine west gallery, home to a long tradition of music making. There is a superb oak roof in the nave. Take the A354, B3142 Map	*Weatherbury* Celebrated in Under the Greenwood Tree. Fanny Robin was buried in the churchyard and Troy spent a night in the porch in Far From the Madding Crowd.
On the right you will see Waterston Manor surrounded by a beech hedge. He based his architectural description of Bathsheba's farmhouse on this Jacobean Manor as featured in Far from the Madding Crowd. Take the B3142, B3143, Piddletrenthide.	*Weatherbury Farm* Far from the Madding Crowd.
CERNE ABBAS Half timbered Tudor houses back unto stone cottages. Gatehouse and tithe barn remain from 10th. century Abbey. Famous for the enormous Cerne Giant (thought to be a pagan fertility symbol) cut into the chalk outside the village on the hill side, 180 ft. from head to foot, 1500 years old and cared for by the locals. North east of Cerne, in the area of High Stoy Hill and the Cross-in-Hand, there are extensive views of the western end of Blackmore Vale. Take the A352, A37 Map	*Abbot's Cernel* At the time of the expected French invasion of Wessex it was rumoured, in The Dynasts, that "Boney" (Napoleon Bonaparte) lived on human flesh and ate "rashers o' baby for breakfast, for all the world like the Cerne Giant in old ancient times." The great barn in Far from the Madding Crowd owes some of its architectural features to the ancient tithe barn in the village. Cerne Abbas also figures in The Woodlanders and in Tess of the D'Ubervilles.
DORCHESTER "Shut in by a square wall of trees, like a plot of garden ground by a box edging .... compact as a box of dominoes", Dorchester is at the heart of both himself and his work. He attended schools here and at the age of nine played the fiddle at weddings and dances. He made his home here in 1883, moving from Shire-Hall Place to the house he designed and had built by his brother on the outskirts of the town, Max Gate, in 1885. It is now owned by the National Trust and open to the public. 39 South Street was the home and office of John Hicks, the architect for whom He worked between 1856 and 1862, whilst articled he continued to educate himself studying Greek, Latin and Theology in the early hours of the morning. By his late teens he had begun to write poetry. William Barnes, the Dorset poet and friend and mentor of his, lived and kept his school next door. At the Top o' Town is the Hardy memorial statue sculpted by Eric Kennington and erected in 1931. Roman remains include amphitheatre adapted from Stone Age circle; and villa with mosaics. The Dorset County Museum has a collection of his manuscripts. Head east on London road, B3150, Kingston Maurward Map	*Casterbridge* It is the antiquity of Dorchester that He stresses in The Mayor of Casterbridge: "Casterbridge announced old Rome in every street, alley and precinct. It looked Roman, bespoke the art of Rome, concealed dead men of Rome". There are many buildings in Dorchester associated with Him:- St. Peter's Church, The Kings Arms Hotel, The Corn Exchange, Barclay Bank (Henchard's house) and Grey's Bridge, all of which figure in The Mayor of Casterbridge, Far from the Madding Crowd, The Trumpet Major, and Under the Greenwood Tree.
STINSFORD He requested that he be buried in the churchyard which surrounds the church where he was christened and his family served for many years. At his death, however, his ashes were interred in Westminster Abbey and only his heart was buried in Stinsford churchyard, in the grave of his wife and adjacent to other members of the family. In the church are other family memorials and a stained glass window with an inscription to the writer himself. Cecil Day Lewis, the Poet Laureate is also buried here. Return to A35, turn right Map	*Mellstock* Features in Under the Greenwood Tree and a number of poems.
HIGHER BOCKHAMPTON Follow the signposts to the car park, from which a short walk takes you to his Cottage. This was the birthplace of Hardy on 2nd. June 1840, the son and grandson of master stonemasons. The cottage was built in 1801 by his great grandfather and He wrote Under the Greenwood Tree and Far from the Madding Crowd here. Acquired by the National Trust in 1947. Bluebell filled woods (in spring) nearby. Head south for 1 mile. Map	*Upper Mellstock* Features in Under the Greenwood Tree.
LOWER BOCKHAMPTON The Old School House is at the corner junction on entering the village. It was built and endowed by Mrs Julia Martin of Kingston Maurward House in 1847 and He was one of the first pupils. Go south over the River Frome. Map	*Lower Mellstock* Features in Under the Greenwood Tree.
WEST STAFFORD The church is in the village. Continue east. Map	Tess and Angel were apparently married here in Tess of the D'Ubervilles. Lower Lewell Farm, outside the village, is the most probable site for Talbothays Dairy.
WOODSFORD On the edge of the village is the unusual thatched Woodsford Castle. In 1856 his father was engaged by John Hicks to undertake repairs on the building. The young Hardy helped with preliminary drawings at the castle, and on the strength of these was offered an architectural apprenticeship. Map