Over the summer we spent a week exploring Dorset, surely one on the prettiest counties in England? The weather was pretty good to us and we were able to use our National Trust membership to explore some new properties, such as Hardy’s Cottage and Max Gate, the home he built in later life. Thomas Hardy was a British author, of poems and novels including Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Far From The Madding Crowd, Jude The Obscure and The Mayor of Casterbridge.

{Exploring} Hardy’s Cottage, Higher Bockhampton

You need to pre-book a visit to Hardy’s Cottage online and turn up at your allotted time. We parked in the car park next to Hardy’s Birthplace Visitor Centre. This is a new, free visitor’s centre which is open all year round, with a cafe and toilets. Unfortunately they were shut on the day of our visit.

We walked from the car park to Hardy’s Cottage, this was the family cottage built by his great-grandfather and where he was born in 1840. It’s a traditional cob and thatched cottage and very small. We waited in the garden whilst we waited for our tour to start today it is planted as a pretty cottage garden with herbs, fruit and vegetables (very different to how it would have been!).

The cottage was originally one, with another little cottage added on to the right side which were eventually knocked through to create one. Despite this it is very small. Our guide was amazing and painted a brilliant picture of the family home.

It was donated to the National Trust who have filled it with pieces of furniture from the period that Hardy lived there.

It is full of character and atmosphere, and easy to look out one of the windows and see how Hardy was inspired to write his poetry and novels. He lived in the house until he was 34 and left to get married, living with his parents, brother and sisters.

We probably spent about an hour at the cottage, before walking back through Thorncombe Wood to the car park. There are a couple of different trails depending on how much time you have. The cottage isn’t dog-friendly but we were able to take our dog with us into the cottage garden.

Have you ever read anything by Thomas Hardy? I ready a couple of his novels a long time ago, definitely time to re-read them!