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Thomas Hardy's Cottage, Dorset

This cottage in Higher Bockhampton near Dorchester in Dorset was Thomas Hardy's home from his birth in 1840 until his move to London in 1860. He then returned to the cottage to write Under The Greenwood Tree, in 1872 and Far From The Madding Crowd in 1874..

It is only in visting the cottage that you get an appreciation of the quiet solitude of Hardy's early life. In one of the rooms is a copy of a poem that Hardy wrote one winter's day after a deer had wandered up to one of the cottage windows and looked in:

 

 

 

 

From the sheet of glistening white

One without looks in tonight

As we sit and think

By the fender brink

 

Those winter nights must have left much time for thinking.

Hardys Cottage is now owned by the National Trust.

Opening Times: from 23rd March to 30th October 2008, 11am to 5pm Sunday to Thursday.

 

Hardy's Cottage is the starting point for the Hardy Way, a two hundred mile walk through many of the places that were important to the Wessex novels.

Directions: Higher Bockingham is just off the A35 near Dorchester. Leave the road at the Stinsford roundabout and follow signs to Higher Bockhamton. The car park is a five to ten minute walk from the property. There are two routes, one along a track, and a nicer route through the woods. Click here for an interactive road and satellite map centred on Hardy's Cottage.

Access: The track from the carpark to the cottage is flat, though rough underfoot. The path through the woods is hilly in parts. The cottage itself would be difficult for those in wheelchairs, though the grounds are accessible. There is a Braille and large print guide.

Contact:

telephone: 01305 262366

e-mail: hardyscottage@nationaltrust.org.uk