was on holiday recently and went to Thomas Hardy’s cottage. The following photos are what I took!!
Some interesting facts:
1. Thomas Hardy’s great-grandfather built the cottage and is where Hardy was born and grew up
2. The family were masons by trade
3. Hardy’s mother was literate (pictured)
4. The left side of the cottage is the one built by his great-grandfather, the right side was added on after his grandmother became a widow
5. He never went to university. I find it symbolic that we study him at university level
6. He lived 3.3 miles away once he was married, where he designed the house and lived there with his first and second wife
7. Hardy originally wanted to be buried with his first wife, but the people around him “didn’t want their world famous poet and author to be buried in some country church” ( direct quote from my tour guide). So when he did die, his heart was cut out and buried with his first wife whilst his ashes were cremated and buried in Poets Corner at Westminster Abbey
8. It’s where his book “Under the Greenwood Tree” was written
