Thomas Hardy’s Birthplace

Built by his great-grandfather, this was the birthplace of Thomas Hardy in 1840. This is where Hardy wrote his early works, including 'Under the Greenwood Tree' and 'Far from the Madding Crowd'. It is a beautiful place to visit, secluded and little altered since it was first built.

The cottage is traditionally built from cob with a thatched roof set in a gorgeous cottage garden with roses and honeysuckle climbing the walls. On a sunny day, it is a magical place to wander, full of colour and summer scents. The cottage has just three rooms on the ground floor- the parlour, the kitchen and the study (which used to be the scullery), each presented as if the family had just left the room, although none of the furniture there now actually belonged to the family.

Upstairs, there are three bedrooms with undulating floorboards and whitewashed walls. The space is so small that it can only accommodate a few visitors at a time. All four of the Hardy children were born in their parents’ bedroom and after their Granny’s death in 1857, Hardy moved into what had been her room where he wrote his early novels, including ‘Under the Greenwood Tree’ and ‘Far From the Madding Crowd’, at a desk by the window. Here, he would sit at a small wooden table or on the window seat to read and write. The original table, given to him by his mother, is now in the Dorset museum.

Behind the cottage stretches Egdon Heath, which Hardy wrote of in ‘The Return of the Native’. The National Trust now look after the property and the visitors’ centre has been built a little distance from the cottage so there is nothing to spoil its idyllic charm, but gives a sense of travelling back in time as you wander down the lane or through the woodland to reach it. “Domicilium” is the earliest known poem by Hardy to survive and it is said to describe this house. It begins…

It faces west, and round the back and sides

High beeches, bending, hang a veil of boughs,

And sweep against the roof. Wild honeysucks

Climb on the walls, and seem to sprout a wish

(If we may fancy wish of trees and plants)

To overtop the apple trees hard-by.

Hardy’s Cottage,

Higher Bockhampton, near Dorchester,

Dorset, DT2 8QJ