On the last afternoon of my trip to Thomas Hardy's Wessex, I was determined to visit Woolbridge Farm, 'Wellbridge Manor' where Tess and Angel Clare spend their ill-fated honeymoon in 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles'. I did this the easy way by catching a train from Dorchester South to Wool train station, where Woolbridge Farm/Manor was little more than a stone's throw away.
As usual, despite not walking the 'Hardy Way', I was targeting key attractions on it through using Margaret Marande's incredible guidebook. Regarding Woolbridge Farm's idyllic-looking setting, Marande believes it is probably "the best known" and "one of the most photographed of all Hardy locations" ('The Hardy Way' pages 30-31):
However, Marande also explains that Tess has a "premonition of disaster" here, feeling "immediately oppressed by the 'mouldy old habitation' isolated in the water meadows with its mural portraits of her ancestors, the d'Urberville ladies", and reveals that the "portraits of the Turberville family" still remain at Woolbridge but "in poor condition" ('The Hardy Way' page 30).
More than anything, I found the five arches of the "Elizabethan bridge over the Frome" that lead to the "seventeenth century Woolbridge Farm" stunningly beautiful ('The Hardy Way' page 31):
Marande further explains that the "16th century bridge with five arches" and Woolbridge Manor/Farm were once "part of the monastery at Bindon Abbey" with the monks exacting "tolls for use of the bridge" ('The Hardy Way' page 31)
Have also just read somewhere on the Internet that a local legend, discussed by Tess and Angel in 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles', points towards a phantom coach crossing the bridge by 'Wellbridge Manor' late at night with only those of Turberville blood being able to see it, which, of course, doesn't bode well for poor Tess (Margaret Marande goes into more detail about this on page 32 of 'The Hardy Way').
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