Thomas Hardy's Wessex

Locations in Wessex

The English author Thomas Hardy set all of his major novels in the south and southwest of England. He named the area "Wessex" after the medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom that existed in this part of that country prior to the Norman Conquest. Although the places that appear in his novels actually exist, in many cases he gave the place a fictional name. For example, Hardy's hometown of Dorchester is called Casterbridge in his books, most famously in The Mayor of Casterbridge. In an 1895 preface to the novel Far From the Madding Crowd he described Wessex as "a merely realistic dream country".

The actual definition of "Hardy's Wessex" varied widely throughout Hardy's career, and was not definitively settled until after he had retired from writing novels. When he first created the concept of a fictional Wessex, it consisted merely of the small area of Dorset in which Hardy grew up; by the time he wrote Jude the Obscure, the boundaries had extended to include all of Dorset, Wiltshire, Somerset, Devon, Hampshire, much of Berkshire, and some of Oxfordshire, with its most north-easterly point being Oxford (renamed "Christminster" in the novel). Similarly, the actual nature and significance of ideas of "Wessex" were developed over a long series of novels through a lengthy period of time. The idea of Wessex plays an important artistic role in Hardy's works (particularly his later novels), assisting the presentation of themes of progress, primitivism, sexuality, religion, nature, and naturalism; however, this is complicated by the economic role Wessex played in Hardy's career. Considering himself primarily to be a poet, Hardy wrote novels mostly to earn money: books that could be marketed under the Hardy brand of "Wessex novels" were particularly lucrative, which gave rise to a tendency to sentimentalised, picturesque, populist descriptions of Wessex - which, as a glance through most tourist giftshops in the south-west will reveal, remain popular with consumers today.

Hardy's resurrection of the name "Wessex" is largely responsible for the popular modern use of the term to describe the south-west region of England (with the exception of Cornwall); today, a panoply of organisations take their name from Hardy to describe their relationship to this area. Hardy's conception of Wessex as a separate, cohesive geographical and political identity has proved powerful, despite the fact it was originally created purely as an artistic conceit, and has spawned a lucrative tourist trade, and even a secessionist Wessex Regionalist Party.

Thomas Hardy's Wessex names

Wessex regions and actual English counties

Map of the historic counties of England on which the regions of Wessex can be found.

Region of Wessex	Actual English County	Position on Map
Lower Wessex	Devon	9
Mid Wessex	Wiltshire	37
North Wessex	Berkshire	2
Outer Wessex	Somerset	30
South Wessex	Dorset	10
Upper Wessex	Hampshire	14

(Note: The Isle of Wight, although today a separate administrative county, was considered to be a part of the county of Hampshire - and thus Upper Wessex - during Thomas Hardy's lifetime)

Specific places in Thomas Hardy's Wessex

Key to references for the place name table

The abbreviations for Thomas Hardy's novels that are used in the table are as follows:

• UtGT - Under the Greenwood Tree (1872)
• PoBE - A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873)
• FftMC - Far from the Madding Crowd (1874)
• RotN - The Return of the Native (1878)
• MoC - The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886)
• TM - The Trumpet-Major (1880)
• W - The Woodlanders (1887)
• WT - Wessex Tales (1888)
• TotD - Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891)
• JtO – Jude the Obscure (1895)

Table of Wessex place-names, their actual places, and their appearance in Hardy's novels

Wessex Name	Region of Wessex	Actual Name	Appearance in Hardy's Novels
Abbot's-Cernel	South Wessex	Cerne Abbas
Abbotsea	South Wessex	Abbotsbury
Aldbrickham	North Wessex	Reading
Alfredston	North Wessex	Wantage	Jude Fawley becomes a mason's apprentice there. It is also where he works following his marriage to Arabella Donn. (JtO)
Anglebury	South Wessex	Wareham
Bramhurst	West Wessex	Lyndhurst
Budmouth	South Wessex	Weymouth	Where Frank Troy goes to gamble on horse races. (FftMC) Eustacia Vye's hometown (RotN)
Casterbridge	South Wessex	Dorchester	Where Rhoda and Farmer Lodge's son is hanged. The Withered Arm. Also the principal location of the Mayor Casterbridge(WT)
Chalk Newton	South Wessex	Maiden Newton
Chaseborough	South Wessex	Cranborne
Christminster	North Wessex - although Christminster is technically not within the borders of Hardy's Wessex, as it is located to the north of the River Thames, he describes it in Jude the Obscure as being "within hail of the Wessex border, and almost with the tip of one small toe within it"	Oxford	This is where Jude Fawley goes to become a scholar, and is advised to give up his career choice. Sue Bridehead works in a shop which produces religious artifacts there, meets her cousin, and is thrown from her lodgings. (JtO)
Cliff Martin	Outer Wessex	Combe Martin
Cresscombe	North Wessex	Letcombe Bassett
Downstaple	Lower Wessex	Barnstaple
Durnover	South Wessex	Fordington
Emminster	South Wessex	Beaminster	The home of Angel Clare, and the site of Clare's father's vicarage. (TotD)
Evershead	South Wessex	Evershot
Exonbury	Lower Wessex	Exeter
Falls Park	Outer Wessex	Mells Park
Fountall	Outer Wessex	Wells
Havenpool	South Wessex	Poole	Newson landed here on his return from Newfoundland. (MoC)
Isle of Slingers	South Wessex	Isle of Portland
Ivell	Outer Wessex	Yeovil
Kennetbridge	North Wessex	Newbury	"A thriving town not more than a dozen miles south of Marygreen" (JtO)[1] between Melchester and Christminster.[2] The main road (A338) from Oxford to Salisbury runs past Fawley and through Hungerford, which may be Kennetbridge instead of Newbury, which is to the south-east of Fawley.
Kingsbere	South Wessex	Bere Regis	Here is situated the Church of the d'Urbervilles. After Tess' Father's death, the Durbeyfield family take refuge outside the chapel.
Knollsea	South Wessex	Swanage
Lulwind Cove	South Wessex	Lulworth Cove
Lumsdon	North Wessex	Cumnor	It is there that Jude Fawley meets up with his old teacher Mr. Phillotson again. It is where Sue Bridehead starts to work as a teacher and promises herself in marriage to Mr. Phillotson. (JtO)
Marlott	South Wessex	Marnhull	Tess Durbeyfield is born and brought up there. After becoming pregnant by Alec D'Urberville she returns to the village and gives birth to a baby boy, who dies in his infancy. (TotD)
Marygreen	North Wessex	Fawley	Drusilla Fawley runs a bakery there. It is the place where Sue Bridehead spent her childhood. Jude Fawley is brought there following the death of his father, and it is where he matures into a man. (JtO)
Melchester	Mid Wessex	Salisbury	This is the place where Jude goes to prepare himself for the ministry, and where Sue Bridehead is studying to become a teacher. The latter runs away from her school there, and later marries Mr. Phillotson in the town. (JtO)
Mellstock	South Wessex	Stinsford and Higher & Lower Bockhampton	Thomas Hardy's birthplace. Hardy's heart is also buried here, next to his first wife, Emma. Jude Fawley's father died there. (JtO) Nearly all of Under the Greenwood Tree is set in Mellstock.
Overcombe	South Wessex	Sutton Poyntz	The Trumpet-Major
Port Bredy	South Wessex	Bridport
Po'sham	South Wessex	Portesham	The home of Captain Thomas Hardy, one of Lord Nelson's commanders at the Battle of Trafalgar, who lived at Portesham House. (TM)
Quartershot	Upper Wessex	Aldershot
Sandbourne	Upper Wessex	Bournemouth	This is the place where Tess Durbeyfield lives with Alec D'Urberville as his mistress, and where she murders him upon the return of her husband, Angel Clare. (TotD). It is also the place where Sue Bridehead's freethinking friend was buried, and where she was the only mourner at his funeral. (JtO)
Shaston	South Wessex	Shaftesbury	Jack Durbeyfield visits the doctor in Shaston and learns that he has a bad heart. (TotD). Mr. Phillotson moves there in order to run a school. Jude Fawley travels there to see Sue Bridehead, who, married to Mr. Phillotson, is working in the town, and they flee the place together. (JtO)
Sherton Abbas	South Wessex	Sherborne
Slingers	South Wessex	Isle of Portland
Solentsea	Upper Wessex	Southsea
Stancy Castle	Outer Wessex	Dunster Castle
Stoke Barehills	Upper Wessex	Basingstoke
Street of Wells	South Wessex	Fortuneswell
Toneborough	Outer Wessex	Taunton
Trantridge	South Wessex	Pentridge	Site of the D'Urberville estate.
Weydon-Priors	Upper Wessex	Weyhill	It is there that Michael Henchard sells his wife while he is drunk. (MoC)
Wintoncester	South Wessex	Winchester	Tess Durbeyfield is imprisoned and executed in this former capital of Wessex. (TotD)

Hardy's Wessex in art and books

Artists such as Walter Tyndale, Edmund Hort New, Charles George Harper, and others, have painted or drawn the landscapes, places and buildings described in Hardy's novels. Their work was used to illustrate books exploring the real-life countryside on which the fictional county of Wessex was based:

• B. C. A. Windle & E. H. New (ill.). The Wessex of Thomas Hardy (London, New York, J. Lane, 1902).
• Charles G. Harper. The Hardy country; literary landmarks of the Wessex novels (London, A. & C. Black, 1904).
• Clive Holland. Wessex (A & C Black, 1906).
• Sidney Heath.The Heart of Wessex (Blackie & Son, 1910?).
• Charles G. Harper. Wessex ("Beautiful Britain", London: A. & C. Black, 1911).
• Hermann Lea. Thomas Hardy's Wessex (London, Macmillan and co. 1911).
• Walter Tyndale. Hardy country water-colours (A & C Black, 19??).
• R. Thurston Hopkins & E. Harries (ill.). Thomas Hardy's Dorset (New York: D. Appleton and co. 1922).

References

1. ^ Paragraph 4, Chapter VII, Part Fifth, Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/153/153-h/153-h.htm#5-7
2. ^ Paragraph 6, Chapter X, Part Third, Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/153/153-h/153-h.htm#5-7

External links

• Thomas Hardy's Wessex Research site, including maps, by Dr Birgit Plietzsch