Hardy's Statue All Spruced Up!

Dorchester Town Council brought in specialist stone conservation company Tudor Rose Ltd to clean and conserve the beautiful statue of Thomas Hardy at Top o’ Town in Dorchester. The specialist low-pressure steam cleaning technique being used removed grime without damaging either the stone work or bronze.

"murked with grime-films, Gatherings of slow years, thick-varnished over..."

The statue was funded by public subscription to commemorate Hardy's life and works, three years after his death. It was made by Eric Kennington, one of the country’s most highly regarded sculptors and shows Hardy sitting on a tree stump, his hat on his knee, gazing benignly at passers-by. It is very aptly sited on the old Roman town walls reminding us of Dorchester's Roman origins that Hardy found so inspiring. The statue was unveiled on 2nd September 1931 by Sir James Matthew Barrie, the author of Peter Pan and a long-time close friend of Thomas Hardy. It has been a Grade II listed monument since 1950.

From an article in the New York Times -

LONDON, Sept. 2.-Sir James Barrie told a new Thomas Hardy story today when he unveiled a life-size bronze statue by Eric Kennington of the novelist and poet at Dorchester, the "Casterbridge" of Hardy's Wessex novels.

"When the child Hardy was born the doctor thought him dead and dropped him in a basket," said Sir James. "That was an anxious moment for this country. But a woman slipped forward to make sure and found he was alive. A statue to this woman-Kennington could have done worse than to give us that!

"What interests me still more is this: Was Hardy shamming in the basket? If so, it was the only time in his life he ever shammed. Yet, knowing what we do of him now, we may think that at his first sight of life he liked it so little he lay very still. There was never any more faltering. An undaunted mind—that was Hardy. He was a great man. That was his hard fate."

Speculating about the statue's appearance before the unveiling, Sir James said:

"I hope it has grown so true of him that I shall even know what is in his pocket-probably a piece of string and an old knife."

View Footage of J M Barrie unveiling Hardy's Statue