Wessex Walks: Weatherbury

Sunday 29th March 2026
Starts 11:00 until 13:00
The Blue Vinny, 12 The Moor, Puddletown, Dorchester DT2 8TE

Wessex Walks: Puddletown - Hardy's Weatherbury

Date: Sunday, 29th March 2026

Time: 11:00am to 1pm

Cost: Free to THS Members - £5 to Non-members

Meet: Outside the Blue Vinney Pub

Puddletown was both the closest village with a market to Thomas Hardy’s Higher Bockhampton home, and the place where so many of his uncles, aunts and cousins, both Hands and Hardys, lived. It was here that his grandfather, Thomas Hardy, married Mary Head and set out to start a new life at Higher Bockhampton in 1800. When in his poem The Roman Road Hardy recalls walking that ancient thoroughfare with his mother, his destination was Puddletown, and especially his Sparks and Antell cousins. As a young man recently returned from London it was his cousin Tryphena who lived and taught there who would have proved a particular attraction for him.

This walk will explore some of the places associated with Hardy’s family, the Weatherbury of his career changing novel Far From The Madding Crowd, the church where Fancy Day, Bathsheba Everdene and, arguably, even Tess D’Urberville was married – as well as so many of his own relatives – and the Eweleaze Near Weatherbury illustrated by his own hand in his 1898 collection Wessex poems. The walk will last approximately 2 hours, including a visit to the church, followed by an optional visit to The Blue Vinny public house from where the walk will commence.

3.30 km (2miles) 2 hours 43m (141 ft) ascent Sturdy shoes recommended