DORSET IS HARDY COUNTRY

Friday 9th November 2007

Angharad Rhys

Poet and novelist Thomas Hardy was born in 1840 in a thatched cottage in Higher Bockhampton, Dorset that is now owned by the National Trust.

From this humble cottage, built by his great-grandfather, Hardy walked the three miles to school in Dorchester. At the age of 16, he started training as an architect and met his future wife, Emma Gifford.

Hardy wrote his early novels, Under the Greenwood Tree and Far from the Madding Crowd, while living here. They were such a success that he abandoned his architectural work and devoted the rest of his life to writing.