Back to photostream

Puddletown Forest - National Trust Hardy's Birthplace - Memorial to Thomas Hardy

After Dorchester, a visit to National Trust Hardy's Birthplace, for Hardy's Cottage. We did not know that you had to prebook a visit to the cottage, so only saw it from the outside when we walked up the lane.

 

There was a Visitor Centre near the car park where you could have a drink, or an ice cream.

 

 

Thomas Hardy's Cottage

 

Thomas Hardy's Cottage, in Higher Bockhampton, Dorset, is a small cob and thatch building that is the birthplace of the English author Thomas Hardy. He was born there in 1840 and lived in the cottage until he was aged 34—during which time he wrote the novels Under the Greenwood Tree (1872) and Far from the Madding Crowd (1874) when he left home to be married to Emma Gifford.

 

The cottage was built by Hardy's great-grandfather in 1800. It is now a National Trust property, and a popular tourist attraction. The property has a typical cottage garden, and the interior displays furniture which, although not from the Hardy family, is original to the period. The property is situated on the northern boundary of Thorncombe Wood.It is only three miles from Max Gate, the house that Hardy designed and lived in with Emma Gifford from 1885 until his death in 1928.

 

In 2012 the go ahead was given to a project to build a new visitor centre near the cottage. The project also included new trails in Thorncombe Wood. The project, which secured £525,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund, was a joint partnership between Dorset County Council and the National Trust. The visitor centre opened in September 2014.

 

 

Behind Hardy's Cottage was Puddletown Forest.

 

 

Memorial to Thomas Hardy.

 

 

Thomas Hardy. O.M.

was born in the adjacent cottage 2nd June 1840

and in it wrote

"Under the Greenwood Tree"

and

"Far from the Madding Crowd"

 

This monument is erected to

his memory by a few of

his American admirers

1931

211 views
0 faves
0 comments
Uploaded on October 17, 2021
Taken on October 6, 2021