This secluded traditional cob and thatch cottage in Dorset, built by his grandfather, was home to novelist and poet Thomas Hardy from birth, in 1840, until he left home to work in an architect’s office in London. For Hardy, the cottage at Higher Bockhampton and surrounding heathland formed the centre of his poetic universe.
He eventually returned, determined to become a writer and it was in this idyllic setting, in his small upstairs bedroom, he penned Under The Greenwood Tree and one his best-loved works, Far From the Madding Crowd.
