Casterbridge
Or Dorchester
Hardy went to school in Casterbridge.
In 1856, at the age of sixteen, he left school to begin his career as an architect at the offices of Mr John Hicks, a well-educated country architect and church restorer. Whilst working here he began, with a colleague, to study the classics, Homer and Virgil, and Latin and Greek.
Casterbridge is mentioned in many of Hardy’s works and the visitor can see where ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge lived, (now
Barclay’s Bank), the Town Hall (includes the Court House), the King’s Arms and the Corn Exchange, bringing the novels to life and very real. At the bottom of High East Street is Grey’s Bridge and a little further on is Ten Hatches Weir where the Mayor of Casterbridge contemplated suicide after his decline in fortune.
In Weatherbury Farm, Bathsheba took her son to see an exhibition of war pictures at a gallery opposite to St Peter’s church. It was a last desperate effort to persuade him not to join the military. Later, Matthew rode through the town to watch the men parading at the barracks at the Top o’ Town.
At the Top o’ Town is the great man’s Statue.
Why not pay a visit to the Thomas Hardy Society?
Just Click Here to go there...
Just Click Here to go there...
