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Fordington Vicarage Receives Blue Plaque
Celebrating Hardy's Great Friends the Moule Family
A new blue plaque has been erected on the door of the former Fordington Vicarage, originally built in 1222 and sadly demolished in 1971. This was the ancient building where the Reverend Moule lived from 1829-1880. Moule had eight sons and Horatio Moseley Moule (Horace) was a key mentor to the young Hardy, teaching him both the Classics and Greek.All eight Moule sons were brilliant scholars who attended either Oxford or Cambridge Universities. Moule was the Vicar of Fordington and he and his wife Mary were pivotal in helping the poor in Mill Street (Hardy's Mixen Lane) during the Cholera epidemic of the nineteenth century. Moule also had his invention, the Earth Closet, an evironmentally-friendly toilet, patented. In 1912 the O’Rourke family moved to the Old Vicarage and May O’Rourke became Hardy’s Secretary at Max Gate. She typed the manuscript for the dramatised version of Tess of the d'Urbervilles. In 1942 my grandmother Faith Irene Damon (nee Bugler)and her family moved to the Old Vicarage, living there until it was demolished. The blue plaque has been created by both myself and the Dorchester Heritage Committee. Please do come and visit this plaque and there is also an information board regarding Fordington Vicarage in Salisbury Field.
Mark Damon Chutter
Thomas Hardy Society Chairman and Academic Director
5th March 2023
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