School Visits and Workshops

Some of us are getting on a bit so it is always a joy to share our love of Thomas Hardy with a new generation of potential admirers of Dorset’s favourite son. Life is short, and the nineteenth century novel is long, so it is not surprising that great literature doesn’t float everybody’s boat – and I’m not going to condemn anyone who finds their moments of light elsewhere - but those who discover its joys will find something that is life enhancing - and for life, a bottomless mine of possibilities, a never ending opportunity to travel through time and see the world as Thomas Hardy saw it in the latter half of the 19th century and the joy of savouring the English language at its best. The bonus comes when we find that the living, breathing characters he creates, some of the Dorset landscapes he celebrates and the issues he wrestled with are still with us today.

And that is a round about way of saying that one of my great pleasures is meeting young people who are just discovering Hardy. I am sure they think I am mad when I say that I am genuinely envious of their reading Tess of the D’Urbervilles for the very first time – particularly when the many fanged monster of the examination system is lowering over them. Yet it is true. And this is where the Thomas Hardy Society can help make that entry into our world a little easier. For several years now we have had people ready to lead workshops in schools or to help organise school visits to Hardy’s houses and Dorset Museum and Art Gallery.

Here are three recent examples to illustrate what we can offer – without naming the schools. Within the last 12 months, myself and two colleagues, Byron Silver and John Eames, delivered a poetry workshop in a secondary school. It was designed for a year 8 class but it is our belief that there is so much in Hardy to choose from (974 poems for starters, not to mention 14 novels and 54 short stories) that we should be able to find something to suit any age group. In this case we began with a true or false Hardy quiz, went on to read and discuss three short poems and then asked the children to write their own poems or prose pieces inspired by what we had read together. Nothing new there from a teacher’s point of view (we are not trying to teach our grandmothers to suck eggs!) but having someone come in from outside does add novelty value – and perhaps the surreal sight of unfamiliar adults getting excited about poetry.

The second example involved working with Dorset Museum and Art Gallery and was targeted at sixth-formers studying Hardy for A level. Dorset Museum and Art Gallery has a full time education co-ordinator in Emma Talbot, the Head of Education and Learning at the museum. Thankfully our Thomas hasn’t completely disappeared from the curriculum. Tess of the D’Urbervilles is the novel of choice for A level, often as the core text which can then be compared with a novel of the student’s own choice, though Neutral Tones, The Man He Killed and A Wife in London have all been spotted in GCSE Literature anthologies. Typically sixth formers will come into the museum for a brief powerpoint introduction followed by a guided tour of the Hardy gallery – and then some free time to explore the rest of the museum. Sometimes there is also a chance to go out of the museum and find the spot round the corner where Martha Brown was hanged. (Not because we enjoy the macabre, but because thirty-five years after 16 year old Hardy witnessed the hanging, he published Tess of the Durbervilles, some would say as expiation for the guilt he felt at being there.) University students have also enjoyed similar visits.

The third alternative is a full on whole day visit. Twice this year, and several times in the past, we have been able to suggest an itinerary and provide a guide for the day. This year that has involved a walk up to Rushy Pond or Rainbarrows to see where Tess saw the Valley of the Great Dairies – ‘the valley in which milk and butter grew to rankness’ and where ‘The Froom waters were clear as the pure River of Life shown to the Evangelist, rapid as the shadow of a cloud, with pebbly shallows that prattled to the sky all day long’ – for the first time; a tour of the cottage (not always possible because of visitor numbers but certainly worth enquiring about); a visit to the museum gallery preceded by access to the learning room where bags can be left and packed lunches eaten; a visit to Max Gate and, finally, a visit to Stinsford church to see where Hardy’s heart is buried, and the church of St. Michael’s which has so many connections with the Hardy family. Not surprisingly after that our sixth-formers are Hardy-ed out but better ready to return to the novel, and we hope enjoy it more, when they get back to the classroom.

So if you think your school would benefit from one or the above, or if you would like some planning advice or if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. We are all volunteers with a love of Thomas Hardy and some of us are still working – and so cannot guarantee that we will always be available to guide or give a workshop on the day you want – but there is never any harm in asking. And thank you for keeping the love of literature alive out there and even perhaps being an advocate for our very own Thomas Hardy.

Alban O’Brien

Thomas Hardy Society

Contact: info@hardysociety.org