Higher Bockhampton is a tiny hamlet on the edge of Puddletown Heath containing the woodland cottage where Thomas Hardy was born on 2nd June 1840.

His great grandfather built the cottage out of traditional cob, brick and thatch and little has altered since the family left. Hardy lived here for most of his first twenty-two years, walking the 3 mile route to school and work in Dorchester before then venturing to London.

When he returned, he resided back in the cottage and it was from the bedroom behind the right hand dormer window that he wrote his first five novels including ‘Under the Greenwood Tree’ and ‘Far from the Madding Crowd’, all set in the immediate area.

The cottage is now owned by the National Trust and is open to the public.