High energy costs – are farmers turning green with fury?

By

-

16 October 2022

The current cost of energy may well prove the turning point in the country’s proactive adoption of renewables, says Andrew Livingston

Despite the government’s plans to cap the cost of electricity for homes and businesses, the start of October once again saw the cost of lighting and heating increase.
The government’s intervention will have saved many farms around the country that typically survive on small profits. Nevertheless, the still-high costs remain crippling for so many small businesses.
I have heard of one large broiler farm spending tens of thousands of pounds on electricity for a crop, deciding to run their farm on a (much cheaper) red diesel generator.
Other farmers and landowners are being driven into green renewable energy solutions as they look to take their businesses off the national grid.
Farmers won’t just be cutting the power cables onto their farms figuratively; long term, investing in greener energy will actually save thousands of pounds.

Burn it or blow it
The most popular green option is biomass, where organic material is burned in a boiler to produce high-pressure steam. This in turn rotates turbine blades to power a generator and produce electricity.
The process releases some carbon dioxide, but nowhere near the amount released by conventional fossil fuels. Biomass is unsurprisingly popular on farms – they have surplus amounts of organic matter that are a by-product of their land and animals.
Even manure can be used, but it has to go through a lengthy period of moisture removal before it can be burned.
Another popular option, especially in hilly Dorset, is wind turbines – a truly green source, with the only side-effect being the noise of the turning turbines.
On our farm at the top of Beaminster Downs, wind is our constant companion; we are currently considering installing one ourselves, although the local townsfolk may have some frustrations at what they would probably call an eyesore.
Of course, on the five days a year it’s not blowing a hurricane we are treated to some sunshine. The shed roofs such as our hen house, are the perfect location for solar panels.
In the southwest, solar panels are the main source of renewable energy, with Butleigh Solar Park being one of the main contributors. Companies installing freestanding solar panels insist that sheep can easily graze underneath them and that enough sunlight reaches the grass to grow for them to eat. Near the village where I grew up, there were plans for a large solar farm on the site of the old World Service radio transmitters.
However, the plans were quashed in Rampisham – when work on the infrastructure had already started – because an ecological survey discovered extremely rare grass …

Carbon targets
Looking at the long-term picture, a year or so of astronomical electricity prices might turn out to be the very best thing for our carbon footprint.
If it takes the risk of bankruptcy to get farmers to turn green, then I say, so be it.
Rumours are circulating that the government is planning to renege on its targets to reach net zero by 2050.
Shame on Liz Truss and her government if they pull out. The NFU needs to stand strong and set an example by committing to net zero and committing to protecting the future of our country.

Sponsored by Trethowans – Law as it should be

The life and work of a print maker

By

Editorial team

-

16 October 2022

0

Wild Light – A printmaker’s day and night
by Angela Harding (£25)

With more than 70 original illustrations, printmaker Angela Harding invites you to look at how the light changes the world around us, and how that, in its turn, changes us.
‘I, like many other people, find great inspiration in the way mornings, evenings or bright midday light changes the way we see the things around us. The bouncing light of a cloud-filled storm sky can change a seascape through a palette of blues, greys, and turquoises. The cool summer moonlight that crosses my back garden sends long shadows that change the mood of the garden from homely to unfamiliar. And whether it’s the low light of an English February afternoon or the sharp, bright mid-morning light of the Cornish seaside, the light and dark we experience affects our moods.
‘But life is busy, and I am as guilty as anyone of being too preoccupied by daily life to just stop and look. This book is a collection of illustrations from those moments when I have stopped and looked; when a particular encounter with nature has been highlighted, becoming a strong image long remembered and one that I wish to illustrate.
‘I hope you enjoy this journey through 24 hours of my collected memories of the nature that surrounds me.’
Angela Harding is a fine art painter and illustrator based in Wing, Rutland. She is inspired by British birds, nature and countryside. Angela is also the book illustrator featured in Raynor Winns’s books, Salt Path, Wild Silence and Landlines.

Join Wayne and the team at Winstone’s for a Talk and signing with Angela Harding on 8th November in The Butterfly Room at Castle Gardens, Sherborne, at 6.30 for 7pm.
Tickets, £5, available from Winstone’s Sherborne or online here

In The Seed Detective, Adam Alexander shares his tales of seed hunting and the stories behind many of our everyday vegetables. We learn that the common garden pea was domesticated from three wild species more than 8,500 years ago; that Egyptian priests considered it a crime to even look at a fava bean, that the first carrots originated in Afghanistan (and were purple or red in colour) and that the Romans were fanatical about asparagus.

Taking us on a journey that began when we left the life of the hunter-gatherer to become farmers, Adam tells tales of globalisation, political intrigue, colonisation and serendipity. Exploring the world’s rare and endangered heritage and heirloom vegetables, Adam explains the importance of continuing to grow these varieties and saving their seeds, not only for gardening and culinary pleasure, so that their stories can be passed on to future generations.

Join Adam for a talk and book signing in The Butterfly Room at Castle Gardens. Doors open at 6:30pm and free refreshments will be provided. FREE event – please register online here

Annual Hatch House event raises £20,000 for Salisbury hospice

By

Editorial team

-

15 October 2022

0

The Open Garden at Hatch House has this year raised in excess of £20,000 for Salisbury Hospice.
The annual event, held on Saturday the 10th of September this year, is always hosted by Sir Henry and Lady Rumbold and organised by the Tisbury Fundraising Committee.
The event is beloved for its vintage and pre-loved designer clothes, shoes, hats and bags, but the varied stalls also include antiques and collectables, raffle, cakes, organic produce, local honey, plants, ethical gifts and homewares, jumble and books. Refreshments were provided by a team of wonderful volunteers and a barbecue by Compton McRae. The glorious weather ensured guests could make the most of the outdoors and were able to sit and enjoy the idyllic scenery that surrounds the house.

All leftover items from the stalls were donated to Alabaré, a local charity that supports the homeless. Salisbury Hospice Charity are keen to thank Sir Henry and Lady Rumbold for once again welcoming the event to the grounds of Hatch House. Notable thanks went to Lady Rumbold and her team of helpers for their many hours of organising the clothes for sale, the entire Tisbury committee for their hard work organising and running the event and all the Hospice volunteers who helped the event run so smoothly.
Salisbury Hospice say the money will fund vital hospice services, ensuring the service remains free to patients and their families.

Tamsin Murley, Community fundraiser for Salisbury Hospice Charity said: ‘I am delighted to announce the huge fundraising total for this event, and express our huge gratitude to the Tisbury Committee and all extended volunteers. The continued support shown by Sir Henry & Lady Rumbold is phenomenal and they are without doubt the heart and soul of this event. We look forward to seeing you all again next year!’

Profitability and productivity

By

Editorial team

-

15 October 2022

0

As the challenges keep on coming, the NFU continues to represent UK farmers to policy makers, says county advisor Gemma Harvey

Sunrise across farmland fields near Stalbridge

As has been described in this column over the past year, UK farming is experiencing some significant challenges; the prolonged dry weather over the summer, the changing policy environment and the ever-increasing costs of inputs from seed and fertiliser through to labour and machinery, and, last but not least, energy.
We are all well aware of the rising energy costs and this is being felt significantly on-farm. The NFU has been hearing some shocking figures in terms of price increases from members.
The challenge of food security is ever increasing, particularly against the backdrop of the Ukraine invasion and its ramifications across the globe. It is vital that UK farmers are able to continue to produce high welfare, high standard food for the nation, while at the same time protecting and enhancing the wonderful British countryside that we all love and enjoy. This is key and the NFU absolutely believes that food production and the environment go hand in hand – and our domestic agricultural policy must allow this to take place.
The Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS) is the Government’s replacement offering for farmers following the removal of direct subsidy in the form of the Basic Payment Scheme. The NFU has always maintained that it is vital that any scheme is fit for purpose, delivering for both food production and the environment, allowing our fantastic British farmers to farm profitably and productively as well as protecting and enhancing the natural environment.

Farming voices heard
Over recent weeks, reflecting the changes in the Government and with the appointment of a new DEFRA Secretary of State in Ranil Jayawardena, there has been conversation about the progress of the roll out of the new ELM scheme. The NFU has once again repeated the message of the need for a scheme that is fit for purpose, delivering for both the environment and food production.
The NFU continues to represent its members at all levels. With party conference season in full swing, we have already had a key presence at the Labour and Conservative party conferences. Our President, Minette Batters, is meeting key ministers to ensure that the farming voice is hears, reinforcing the messages regarding for the ELMS to be fit for purposes to allow farm businesses a level of certainty and confidence.

Sponsored by Trethowans – Law as it should be

Blandford’s Baroque B’Stards

By

Editorial team

-

15 October 2022

0

A recent clean of William B’Stard’s portrait revealed an intriguing detail, says Rupert Hardy, chairman of North Dorset CPRE

Blandford’s church has never had the B’Stards planned steeple – it is finished instead with the wooden cupola which they didn’t get to build. All images: Rupert Hardy

The brothers, William and John B’Stard (schoolchildren … no tittering please) or Bastard, as some call them, owed a lot to a candle-maker whose workshop is now the site of the King’s Arms in Blandford.
His apprentice was boiling up some soap, but the fire in the furnace got out of control and within an hour much of the town was alight, the fire fanned by a strong wind. More than 400 families lost their homes on that fateful day in 1731. The abundance of thatched houses in that period contributed greatly to the high incidence of domestic fires. However, the sheer scale of Blandford’s fire meant it was soon designated as a Great Fire, and was considered a national disaster. Charity performances and parish church collections throughout England helped raise a large sum to start reconstruction.

The portrait of William B’Stard, with his black eye, clearly shows the planned steeple on the church.

Rebuilding Blandford
John and William were surveyor-architects and civic dignitaries in Blandford. Their father Thomas’ workshop was destroyed in the fire, but the fortunes of his sons were made as soon as they were appointed fire assessors.
They were thus in a strong position to benefit from the rebuilding, which was mostly done in a vernacular Baroque style.
The most significant buildings in Blandford today were built by the B’Stard brothers, including the impressive Town Hall and Corn Exchange, the Greyhound Inn and their own splendid house overlooking the widened and improved Market Place. They also built a terrace of almshouses and private houses such as Coupar House.
The parish church of St Peter and St Paul was designed and built by them between 1732 and 1739. It was originally intended to have a steeple, but funds ran out. The brothers were rather put out when the contract for the wooden cupola was given to a competitor.
Recent cleaning of a portrait of William, now hanging in the Town Hall, revealed that he had curiously been painted sporting a black eye! At first it was thought that the darker patch was simply dirt that had accumulated over the years but further research revealed that it may have related to a dispute over the completion of the church. There is no evidence though to confirm it.
The interior of the church is imposing, with a grand arcade of well-spaced Ionic columns. When visiting, do not miss the Dad’s Army effort to confuse the enemy in the north transept; all references to Blandford in the charity boards there were deleted in 1940!
The church is now acknowledged to be one of the better examples of a classical Georgian church in England, thankfully little altered by the Victorians.
Beside the church is a memorial to the Great Fire. It comprises four Doric columns with a stone canopy made of Purbeck stone, also built in the classical style. It was erected over a piped spring so that fire hoses could be attached, but is now a drinking fountain. A more recent memorial by the Blandford Poetry Group is on a Purbeck paving stone in front of the Town Hall, and reads ”Recipe for regeneration: take one careless tallow chandler and two ingenious Bastards”.

The monument in Blandford’s market place was erected by John B’stard in 1760

Baroque or Palladian?
Many are confused by the brothers’ building style. Primarily they designed in a vernacular Baroque style, harking back to Wren and Gibbs, (their capitals reminiscent of Borromini, with volutes turned inwards), but they did not ignore the more austere Palladianism so fashionable at the time. The Town Hall appears to be Palladian, but the ground floor, with its open arcade of three segmented arches, is more typical of Renaissance market halls. If you visit the Mezzanine Room in the B’Stards’ own house (ask at the Age UK shop, 73 East Street, which now occupies part of it) you will see the ornate plasterwork and interior decoration of which they were capable. It was a showroom for clients. Look carefully and you will see that the pediment of the overmantel is Palladian, while the pediment of the door opposite is Baroque.

Unmarried and childless
William died in 1766, and John four years later in 1770. Both men were unmarried and without issue. Both are buried in Blandford.

Record-holding Sherborne student Mack is flying high

By

Laura

-

14 October 2022

1

Sherborne School student Mack Rutherford recently became the youngest person to fly around the world, setting a new Guinness World Record. To celebrate the achievement, Sherborne School’s playing fields today became an international airport for the morning. Instead of marking out the rugby pitches, the groundsmen marked a 300 metre landing strip with cones so that Mack could land before journeying on to his home in Belgium for half term.

Mack Rutherford at Henstridge Airfield. Image: Rachael Rowe

Mack’s round-the-world journey took five months, flying 30,000 miles through 30 countries – alone. He left from Sofia on 23rd March 2022 in his high performance ultralight Shark and celebrated his 17^th birthday on the plane. When he landed back in Sofia on 24th August, he had four world records to his name:

Youngest person to circumnavigate the world by aircraft solo
Youngest person to circumnavigate the world by aircraft solo (male)
Youngest person to circumnavigate the world by microlight solo (male)
Youngest person to circumnavigate the world by microlight solo

The 30,000 mile journey included Sudan, Madagascar, and the Yemeni island of Socotra, ending back in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Mack’s epic adventure had numerous set-backs, including spending a night on an uninhabited island on his own, an aircraft electrical failure, a monsoon-soaked fuel tank, and a solar panel system failure.

‘I was there on the night they told his House.’ George Marsh, governor at Sherborne School, was excitedly anticipating the arrival of Mack’s plane from Henstridge Airfield. ‘There was a stunned silence and then a huge cheer!’

Mack’s friends also waited in the drizzle for Mack’s arrival. ‘We really missed him,’ Richard Xu remarked, ‘And we had a map in the house so we could see where he was every day.’

Another friend Will Frost described his experience flying with Mack: ‘He and his sister flew from Belgium to Popham Airfield and picked me up, then we flew to Henstridge – we got a taxi back to school.’

In the drizzle! The cone landing strip at Sherborne School. Image: Rachael Rowe

Sadly the weather meant it was unsafe to fly, and the prep school pupils were encouraged back to the classrooms with promises of less maths and a fish and chip lunch. Instead I caught up with Mack at Henstridge Airfield where he was waiting for the weather to clear.

Five generations of Mack’s family have flown so he naturally grew up with flying. His sister holds the world record for the youngest female flying around the world at age 19. ‘I started properly learning to fly at 14 and got my licence at 15. But I have always flown.’

Planning a journey like that takes significant effort. So how did it all start?

‘When I got my licence I was 15 and I knew I wanted to do something special. My sister became the youngest woman to fly solo around the world and I thought “that’s an amazing thing” – and knew I wanted to do something similar.’

Mack Rutherford and his high performance ultralight Shark. Image: Josie Sturgess-Mills

The 30,000 mile journey included Sudan, Madagascar, and the Yemeni island of Socotra, ending back in Sofia, Bulgaria.

‘We made a set route to begin with but over time that route changed completely. We did a lot of planning beforehand but some has to be done in the countries themselves because of permits and visas. They often need to be done nearer to when you arrive. I got stuck for a month and a half in Crete and Dubai due to paperwork.’

Did any country in particular impress him?

‘The thing is, they are so different. You can’t really compare Greenland ice caps to the Sahara! They were all amazing. But the places that marked me were probably the Sahara Desert, Kenya, South East Asia, Japan, and the big cities of the US and Greenland.’

We’re all mindful of climate change these days so how does Mack consider his carbon footprint?

‘So, of course flying around the world is not the most eco-friendly but my plane is very efficient. It’s a small aircraft, and it does a tiny fraction of what a bigger jet engine would do. So it’s not ideal, but it’s better than many of the planes out there, and hopefully in the future I’ll be able to do something with electric planes.’

17 year old world record holder pilot Mack Rutherford. Image: Rachael Rowe

Had travelling around the world changed Mack?

‘I feel a lot more confident both in the air and on the ground. I understand a lot more about aviation – and the world in general, how things work. And I have been able to cope with stress much better, helping me progress through various difficulties and challenges.’

So, what’s next?

‘I’m working on my A levels at the moment and trying to catch up with that! And carry on flying – I’m not sure what area of flying, but I’ll just keep flying.’

Sherborne School headmaster Dr Luckett said. ‘We could not be more proud of Mack, he has shown skill, commitment, resilience and courage’.

Mack’s journey was sponsored by ICDSoft.

Are you working on your ESG demands? Free workshops offered for ALL Dorset businesses

By

Editorial team

-

14 October 2022

0

Dorset businesses are being offered a free course to gets to grips with new Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) demands.
Dorset Chamber is running the free programme – called The Business Case for ESG – over the next six months, with the online workshops open to all firms countywide.
Industry experts will offer workshops on subjects ranging from energy efficiency, carbon footprints and offsetting, renewable energy to employee wellbeing and community and voluntary sector links.
They will also feature details about support available from Low Carbon Dorset.
Dorset Chamber chief executive Ian Girling said: ‘ESG remains a mystery for some in business but it is becoming increasingly important and difficult to ignore.
‘Essentially it is a set of principles by which a business’s accountability and transparency as well as its impact on society and the environment is measured.
‘Investors, existing and potential employees, customers and contractors are become more socially, ethically and environmentally aware, so businesses need to increasingly demonstrate their commitment to the principles of ESG.
‘Our new programme aims to bust some myths surrounding ESG, provide practical advice and show the very real benefits it can bring.’
Ian added: ‘we’re keen to see as many businesses as possible take advantage of these free sessions.’
The launch event – An Introduction to ESG – is on October 20 with ESG champion Gary Neild, chief executive of Blue Sky Financial Planning, and Phoebe Stone, head of sustainable investing at LGT Vestra LLP.
It will also feature from Dr Matt Montgomery, head of climate action at BCP Council and Dr Steven Ford, corporate director for climate and ecological sustainability at Dorset Council.
Businesses can attend all of the sessions or choose which ones are of most interest.
Places for each session can also be booked on the chamber website at dorsetchamber.co.uk/the-business-case-for-esg/.

Nature, connected

By

Editorial team

-

14 October 2022

0

The protected grasslands at Dorset Wildlife Trust’s Kingcombe Meadows may hold the key to new wildlife-rich corridors across Dorset

The species-rich unspoilt grasslands at Kingcombe Meadows
Image © Tony Bates

Set in the beautiful Hooke valley, Kingcombe Meadows is one of the finest examples of lowland meadows in the country, a rare mosaic of habitats which is open for visitors to explore. Dorset Wildlife Trust purchased the Kingcombe land at auction in 1987 following a national appeal to save ‘the farm that time forgot’. From 1917, the land had been farmed by two generations of farmers in the traditional way, resulting in an unspoilt landscape. Retaining its patchwork of meadows, thick hedgerows and ancient green lanes, the land teems with an abundance of wildlife.

Kingcombe’s diversity
The woodlands, wildflower meadows, ponds and streams of Kingcombe Meadows are home to some of the rarest plants and animals in the UK. Yellowhammers and linnets make their home here and the ancient trees drip with lichens. The chalk slopes burst with spring cowslips, harebells and bee orchids while many species of waxcap fungi can be found in the acid grasslands. In summer, clouds of marbled white, meadow brown and ringlet butterflies can be seen.

Common today … rare tomorrow.
We have lost, at a conservative estimate, more than before 97 per cent of the UK’s species-rich grassland in less than a century. An estimated 3,000 miles of hedgerows were destroyed each year between 1946 and 1963. Species like the grey long-eared bat, water vole and marsh fritillary butterfly are already on the verge of disappearing forever. Common wildlife like blue-tits, bumblebees and grasshoppers, plants and trees like bluebells and oaks could be next. Making more space for nature is the key to reversing these declines.

Wildlife corridors
Wildlife needs the chance to breed, feed and move freely beyond the boundaries of nature reserves. Part of Dorset Wildlife Trust’s strategy to create a Wilder Dorset by 2030 is to establish Nature Recovery Networks on land and sea. Together with local landowners, farmers and communities, the trust is working across 5,000 hectares to establish an ambitious nature recovery programme to enable Kingcombe’s wild energy to spread out through wildlife-rich corridors across Dorset. By replanting hedgerows, managing ponds and allowing billions of seeds from wildflower meadows to spread and grow, mammals, insects, amphibians and plants can thrive again and the landscape can recover … a win-win for nature and for humanity. As the President of The Wildlife Trusts, Sir David Attenborough said, “Everything works better when it’s connected.”

To find out about Dorset Wildlife Trust’s trailblazing Kingcombe’s Wild Energy project and how you can help reconnect nature, visit dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk/WildEnergy

You may enjoy our Dorset walk which begins at the DWT Kingcombe Centre. It’s easy to just enjoy the first section through the Meadows themselves. The whole route is 13 miles, and one of our favourite, most beautiful walks – and don’t take our word for it, it gets 5* reviews too

The map that Hardy drew

By

Editorial team

-

14 October 2022

0

A sketch map of Wessex is a priceless companion to Hardy’s masterpiece, Tess of the d’Urbervilles, says Roger Guttridge

Thomas Hardy’s novels often come with a map of the writer’s Wessex, complete with all his renamed towns and villages.
Far less well-known – but vastly more interesting to me at least – is the rough-and-ready sketch-map of ‘Tess’s Country’ that Hardy drew as he was preparing to write Tess of the d’Urbervilles.
It was published in Harper’s magazine in 1925, three years before Hardy died.
Dorset’s most famous literary son knew North Dorset well, of course, not least because he lived at Riverside, Sturminster Newton, for two years, and wrote The Return of the Native during that period.
The first thing that jumps out at me from the map is the oval-shaped dotted line surrounding the words ‘Vale of Blackmoor’.
Most people today, of course – including the editor of this magazine – spell it ‘Blackmore’, but it’s interesting that Hardy was originally thinking of this alternative version.
By the time Tess was published in 1891, he had adopted a third option, and hedged his bets, writing in the opening sentences of both chapters one and two of the ‘Vale of Blakemore or Blackmoor’.
This suggests that in Hardy’s time or earlier, some people might have pronounced it ‘Blakemore’.
The only Blackmore Vale town or village that appears on the map is Marlott, but unlike most of the other locations further afield, Hardy doesn’t bother to add its real name, Marnhull.
Marlott also appears in the novel’s opening sentence as Hardy describes John Durbeyfield’s walk to his home in the village following his weekly visit to the market at Shaston (Shaftesbury), which also appears on the map.
Semley Station on the ‘South Western Railway’, which served Shaftesbury and appears in Jude the Obscure, is one of two stations on the map, the other being London Waterloo.
It’s during his journey home from Shaston that Durbeyfield meets the antiquary Parson Tringham, who sows misplaced ideas of grandeur in his head by calling him ‘Sir John’ and alleging his descent from Sir Pagan d’Urberville, who came over with William the Conqueror.
The suggestion sets in motion a tragic train of events that culminates in the ill-fated Tess Durbeyfield’s execution at Wintoncester (Winchester).
As elsewhere, Hardy used real buildings in his descriptions of Marlott, including Durbeyfield’s local, Rolliver’s (thought to be based on the Blackmore Vale Inn) and the Pure Drop (the Crown), which according to John offered a ‘very pretty brew’.
Identification of the Durbeyfields’ cottage is more challenging.
In Thomas Hardy’s Wessex, published in 1913, Herman Lea said ‘the old cottage in which Tess was imagined to have been born’ appeared to have been ‘swept away’.
In the introduction, Lea thanked Hardy for correcting a few place identifications.
This is contradicted by later sources, which claim that Hardy identified ‘Tess’s Cottage’ during a visit to Marnhull in later life.
Other places on Hardy’s map include Emminster (Beaminster), home town of Tess’s husband, Angel Clare; Flintcomb-Ash (Plush), which he calls a ‘farm near Nettlecombe Tout’; Shottsford (Blandford); Trantridge (Pentridge), home of the Stoke d’Urbervilles and Tess’s seducer and rapist Alec d’Urberville; nearby Chaseborough (Cranborne), where Tess waits for her friends at the Fleur-de-Luce, which in real life has happily regained its traditional name the Fleur de Lys; and Melchester (Salisbury), where Angel and the fugitive Tess pass over ‘town bridge’, based on St Nicholas Bridge, built in 1245.
To the south of Dorset, Hardy creates a smaller dotted shape enclosing the words ‘Valley of the Frome (Froom)’, which he also calls the ‘Valley of the Great Dairies’, in contrast to the Vale of Blackmoor, which is the ‘Vale of Little Dairies’.

The Pure Drop or Crown Inn at Marnhull aka Marlott

Close to the River Frome are Wellbridge (Woolbridge Manor), which once belonged to the d’Urbervilles and where Tess and Angel stay after their marriage, and the ‘half-dead townlet of Kingsbere’ (Bere Regis), where the similarly named Turbervilles were lords of the manor for 500 years.
Casterbridge (Dorchester) and Budmouth (Weymouth), which commonly feature in Hardy’s work, are also shown, as is Sandbourne (Bournemouth), which in Hardy’s lifetime had grown at breakneck pace to become a ‘fashionable watering-place’.
It’s at Sandbourne that Tess effectively seals her fate by murdering Alec d’Urberville with a carving knife following the unexpected return of her beloved Angel Clare.

Dorset Archives Trust (DAT) is leading a fundraising effort to unlock the internationally significant, UNESCO-listed archive of author Thomas Hardy. At present the collection (which consists of more than 150 boxes of material including diaries, photographs, letters, books, architectural plans and poetry), is almost invisible to the wider world. The archive contains such items as the manuscript of The Mayor of Casterbridge, correspondence to Hardy from TE Lawrence and Siegfried Sassoon, and the plans for Max Gate.
Dorset History Centre is keen to unlock this fantastic resource by creating a free online catalogue for all to access. DHC estimates that it will take around 18 months to complete the task. Once done, Hardy’s archives – the bedrock of any research into the author, his life and work – will be permanently discoverable online. Anyone can then come to the History Centre to view the physical collection.
The archive is a true jewel in Dorset’s heritage crown and deserves to be recognised and celebrated as such.
The project will require £60,000, and DAT has started a crowdfunding campaign in support of this. Anyone wishing to contribute can do so by going to www.dorsetarchivestrust.org
or clicking the image above.