'Walking to Hardy's Cottage from - The Casterbridge, Dorchester, Dorset',
'description'=>'Our Georgian residence and concealed courtyard annex combine to provide a peaceful haven behind the bustling street scene of this pleasant and historic county town.'
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$PageDetails[ 'copy' ] = << Author Thomas Hardy coined the name Casterbridge.
You are responsible for your own safety. The route shown is only a suggestion. Follow the countryside code and take due care when walking on roads and alongside water, especially so after wet weather. Information here was checked at time of writing but the countryside changes continually. Neither the author nor The Casterbridge are liable for loss or injury incurred on this walk.
Turn left out of The Casterbridge and walk east out of Dorchester.
The first landmark is Greys Bridge over the River Frome. Walk
straight on, reading the notice on the bridge as you pass.
In a
short while, before the first road junction, you pass the kissing gate to
Bockhampton Path on the right. If you take the circular route this is where
you will eventually emerge — or if you prefer to walk the route in
reverse this is where you turn off. Continue up
the hill to the roundabout. On the way you will pass this milestone as Hardy
would have done daily. Although you are now a mile from the centre of
Dorchester you have only come three quarters of that distance from The
Casterbridge.
Cross the
roundabout; take the second exit marked "Bockhampton" among other
destinations. A short way along this road, on the right, is the lane to Stinsford
Church. You may like to detour for a visit but if you are intending to take
the circular route it is better to leave it until later.
Note: Wheelchair users will emerge here later if they choose
the alternative route for the last stage.
Carry
straight on for a little way, passing the entrance to Kingston Maurward
College and, under the sweet chestnut trees, the entrance to Birkin House.
On the left is a finger post pointing to Higher Bockhampton. This is a new
footpath — Hardy could have walked diagonally over the field but this
route runs parallel to the road through a newly planted copse on the
line of a Roman road. It is the roughest section of the walk and includes a
stile. Some may prefer to continue along the metalled road to the bottom of
the hill as Hardy might have done on occasion. At the foot of the hill take a short section of farm track leading north west from the road.
Here is where diverted walkers rejoin the route. Please leave
all gates as you find them. This is
the view back to the road from the gateway. A fingerpost marks the bottom of
the path that we followed along the Roman road. Another
fingerpost shows the path running diagonally up the hill to the east and
around the end of a small wood.
If you look closely at the right hand edge of this picture you will
see a narrow pathway leading through the bushes. This leads into a old marl
pit, a place where lime was excavated for agricultural use. The young Hardy
would have known it as a small open quarry. Now it is a tree shaded,
secret place where occasional children play and rabbits burrow into
the banks. Return to
the main path and climb the hill. The straight route goes around the end of
the wood and through a gate but more adventurous walkers might like another
diversion: There is a stile leading into the wood a hundred yards or so from
the end. Once inside there is no definite path so thread your way between
the trees to your left but mind where you tread. Here are
dozens of holes comprising a magnificent badger's sett which must have
already been ancient in Hardy's time. As a schoolboy passing daily he would have known it well. The wood
ends just beyond the sett and you rejoin the path up the hill to a gate by a
distinctive barn. Go through the gate and turn right onto a farm
track. Looking
back from the gate. You have just climbed the biggest hill on the walk.
The badgers are in the parcel of trees in the centre and the path by which
you came runs close to the hedge on the right. Follow the
track to its end where it joins the road at Higher Bockhampton and turn
left. A short distance away you will see the sign for Hardy's Cottage on
the right. This picture shows the end of the track and the short stretch of
road to the turning for the cottage. Beyond the turning the road is
sometimes known as Cuckoo Lane because the bird was once common there. Turn right at the sign. Soon the
road becomes a gravelled track. Hardy's Cottage is the very last house on
the track, on the right.
The cottage now belongs to the National Trust. For details of
opening times and charges see the National
Trust, Hardy's Cottage WWW page.
After visiting the cottage you might wander for a while in the
countryside behind the building. Much of it is wooded but if you carry
straight on you will come upon one of the many remnants of what Hardy called
"Egdon Heath". This section is known as Puddletown Forest. Puddletown itself; Hardy knew it as Piddletown and called it Weatherbury, is some three miles further east.
After leaving the village school at Lower Bockhampton the young Hardy went
to school in Dorchester. He passed our door twice daily. This walk
combines two of the routes he knew.
The Walk
When you have seen enough retrace your steps to the road, turn left and follow the road south past the point where you joined it and on for another half mile to Bockhampton Crossroads. From here to Stinsford Church you are following the route taken by the carol singers in Under the Greenwood Tree. Continue straight on, (the signpost points to Lower Bockhampton and West Stafford) and you will come to the village that Hardy called Mellstock.
Hardy's first school was here in Lower Bockhampton and later he recast
the old school house as Fancy Day's house.
Walk
through the village to the bridge at the southern end. This bridge carries
two of the famous nineteenth century warning plates, take note of
their admonitions as you pass.
Immediately
after the bridge turn right and take the waterside footpath. This is not
strictly a river, it is a watermeadow carrier, an artificial channel used to
direct water where it was needed for the "drowning" of the
meadows. You will encounter many remnants of watermeadow engineering on
this section of the walk. For a description of the form and operation of
the meadows see: Farm
Direct's watermeadow pages.
Much of the
footpath here lies on a raised bank between two watercourses. The route runs
almost straight between trees until it crosses another wide carrier just
before the turning for Stinsford Church.
Take a closer look at the bridge structures here. The plan shows them in Hardy's day. Hidden behind the trees on your right is an
ornamental lake and the formal gardens of what is now Kingston Maurward
College. Hardy made little mention of it although the Pitt family, who
owned it, must have been the local notables of his youth. The
wide carrier feeds the lake and the path crosses it by a bridge. Next to
it and a little higher was another carrier, dry for many years now, on a low aqueduct that
fed the garden water features. The bridge crosses this too and then a third,
lower channel. The water from a spring and the meadows beyond was too low to
power the gardens and so it was led beneath the higher carrier to augment the lake and some was taken off to power lower watermeadows. The builders had such control over the water levels that the whole multi-layered structure stands little more than waist high from the bed of the lower carrier.
For those wishing to follow Hardy's steps in older age: Note that the narrow footpath to the left, alongside the existing carrier and signposted to St. George's Road, leads via Long Bridge and St. George's Road, to Syward Lane and thence to Max Gate.
The route to Dorchester lies straight on through a narrow gate and follows the line of yet another waterway, this time a narrow, spring fed, stream. Note the path for later.
Now is the best stage at which to divert to the right, uphill, to St. Michael's Church at Stinsford, the Mellstock Parish Church of Under the Greenwood Tree and other tales. The signpost is just marked "Stinsford". This was Hardy's parish church as a child and it is here that his heart lies buried alongside members of his family. Here too lies the Poet Laureate, Cecil Day-Lewis.
Resist the temptation to enter the churchyard by the lower gate.
Carry on up the hill to the upper gate with its huge stone urns and the
magnificent yew tree. The Hardy graves are just inside the gate on the
left.
Note: This last section has narrow kissing gates. It is passable with a light pushchair that can be lifted over but wheelchair users should continue north along the lane from the church to the turning we passed on the outward journey and backtrace the route from there.
Go back down
to the riverside path and turn right for Dorchester. The path from here is
mostly double fenced. It leads over more derelict watermeadows and if you
look closely you can still see traces of the interleaving patterns of
shallow channels, the mains and drains, that conducted the water over the
land.
Something Hardy never encountered is the bypass. Follow the path under it and continue straight ahead through the gate on the other side.
Two fields further on the path joins the main road just outside
Dorchester. Turn left into town. The Casterbridge is straight ahead.
You may download a printable (500kb PDF) version of this page. If printed double sided it can be folded to form a dll size leaflet.
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