Having passed through the Snail Creep and crossed over the A35 on a bridge, I made my way past Keeper's Cottage above.
Have just read somewhere on the Internet that Keeper's Cottage is said to be the model for the gamekeeper Geoffrey Day's cottage in 'Under the Greenwood Tree', and that the cottage having more than one chimney and two floors indicates that it was superior in status to a bungalow.
In 'The Hardy Way' (page 15), Margaret Marande adds to the mystique of Keeper's Cottage:
"In 2015 the tenant, Mr Gordon Cutler, has lived here all his life, enjoying the solitude. Before
his retirement he made thatching spars, an ancient craft which has largely died out . . . Mr
Cutler's father was given a shilling by Thomas Hardy who showed him where he had envisaged
the Greenwood Tree, today a magnificent beech".
To give myself some idea of what making thatch spars means/involves, I had to go to Youtube:
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