Mary and Kate Hardy: Salisbury, Wessex and Beyond

A THS Conference Book Signing and Q&A with authors Ann Johns and Jenny Head

Friday 29th July at 6.00pm - The Corn Exchange, Dorchester

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Mary and Kate Hardy, sisters of the famous Thomas Hardy, novelist and poet, have featured little in books about their brother.

The story of their lives is worth telling, because of the influence it had on their brother’s writing. Their experiences at College in Salisbury, and in their teaching years in Wessex and beyond, provided him with rich material for his work.

Mary and Kate’s austere and rigorous years at Salisbury Diocesan Training College were followed by the hardship of teaching in impoverished country schools. The book explores the different personalities of the sisters and their journeys through life at a time when women were often treated unfairly and with injustice.

The book is fully illustrated, with the pictures setting the scene as much as the words.

The authors Anne Johns and Jenny Head will be in conversation with THS Chairman Rev. Canon Richard Franklin, which will be followed by a book signing.

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Jenny Head trained at the College of Sarum St Michael in the 1960s. Friends, fun and fulfilment stand out in her memory, as well as a growing realisation that teaching is a vocation. She was one of the first eight B Ed students, graduating from Bristol University in 1969.

Jenny subsequently taught in primary schools in Cheltenham, Rugby and Jersey, before moving to Salisbury with her husband and family in 1992. She then made the decision that she has never regretted and specialised in teaching children with special educational needs. She obtained a Diploma from Southampton University and worked in local primary and preparatory schools, including spending eight happy years as joint SENCO at Chafyn Grove Preparatory School.

Anne Johns (M.Ed Oxon) thoroughly enjoyed her years at the College of Sarum St Michael in the swinging sixties. Her keen interest and passion for children's education was developed in those years. Anne's first teaching post was in Bournemouth. She then moved to Salisbury with her husband and after having children, taught in Warminster where she became a deputy headteacher. In 1988, she was appointed headteacher of St Martin's C. of E. Infant School in Salisbury where she remained for ten very happy years. It was while she was at St Martin's that she studied in the evenings for her research degree. She later became a school inspector and had the privilege of travelling around the country visiting all types of schools.