Higher Bockhampton, Dorchester, Dorset
Higher Bockhampton is a tiny hamlet 3 miles from Dorchester; like a lot of hamlets in Dorset, it’s all terribly idyllic and romantic, with high hedged lanes that bustle with flowers in the spring, surrounded by beautiful rolling hills and ancient woodlands. What people come here for is to visit Hardy’s Cottage, where Thomas Hardy was born in 1840 – the cottage is pretty much as it was then and is now owned and managed by the National Trust