Hardy's birth place at Higher Bockhampton is a picture-postcard thatched cottage, while his home in later years, Max Gate, a rather austere Victorian pile. Designed by Hardy himself it rather proves that he did well to stick to the day job. Both are owned by the National Trust and lie close to Dorchester.
Being just a few miles apart it is possible to walk or cycle between the two, along the footpaths and lanes that Hardy must have walked many times visiting the family cottage.
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| Max Gate |
This off and on-road route passes through the grounds of Kingston Maurward, a beautiful Palladian mansion, now an agricultural college, and past the Old Manor, an exquisite late Elizabethan mansion, available for B&B.
From Max Gate you can stroll through Dorchester to the County Museum which holds a collection of Hardy memorabilia including his writing desk.
Distance around 7 miles there and back.
People often say to me they'd love to take the children cycling but are put off by cars. Well here's reasonably gentle route where you'll hardly see a gas guzzler.
Apart from the climb out of Evershot the terrain wheels across gentle downland with wide skies beneath the chalk escarpments of the Dorset Downs.
Note: It is advisable to dismount and cross the busy A37 on foot!
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| Saxon font, Melbury Bubb |
orth a detour is St Mary's Church at Melbury Bubb which possesses an intriguing and exotic font made from the inverted base of a Saxon cross. The sinuous carvings covering it have a definite influence of the Norse.
The village of Leigh has the remains of an ancient miz maze or turf maze and further on you pass the Friary of St Francis- no Gothic pile but a beautifully situated farm open to the public for retreats.
