Sunday 22nd February 2026
Starts 14:00 until 17:00
The Casterbridge Room, The King's Arms, 30 High East Street, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1HF

Hardy and Dorset Dialect

Date: Sunday, 22nd February 2026

Time: 2pm to 5pm

Venue: The Casterbridge Room, The King's Arms, Dorchester

Cost: £10 THS and WBS Members; £15 Non-Members (includes tea and cake)

Thomas Hardy, a native of Dorset, masterfully incorporated the local dialect into his novels, using it to reveal character, emotion, and a vanishing rural culture, often contrasting it with Standard English. Hardy's teacher and mentor, William Barnes, was a dialect champion, and had a major influence on Hardy throughout his life.

Hardy's father and local "work-folk" spoke the dialect, giving him firsthand knowledge to infuse his characters with authentic speech, revealing their roots and emotions. Hardy used dialect shifts to show characters' social standing or decline, such as Michael Henchard reverting to dialect when drinking heavily. The use of dialect in Hardy's novels and poetry captures a lost way of life.

At this event, we explore Hardy's rich "Wessex" world, focusing on its flavour and social implications rather than phonetic transcription,

If you'd like to give a reading, please bring along Hardy extracts featuring Dorset dialect.

This is a fun and friendly event with a nod to poet William Barnes on his 225th birthday.