Hardy's Wessex: Athelhampton Hall and 'St. John's Church'

After visiting Puddletown, I followed a road round to Athelhampton Hall where (I've just read that) Thomas Hardy's father worked as a stonemason, with Hardy himself having visited the place often, even painting a watercolour of it.

Have also just seen that Hardy wrote a poem called 'The Dame of Athelhall' set at Athelhampton Hall.  Will have to give this a read, I think.

More interesting for me, I've just read that Hardy himself participated in the building of St. John's Anglican church (now an Orthodox church) which I passed near Athelhampton Hall:

This is an interesting juxtaposition for me, as Thomas Hardy is probably my favourite writer (just edging out DH Lawrence) and was an agnostic (albeit with an incredible knowledge of 'The Bible'), while Eastern Orthodoxy is one of the two forms of Christianity that I deeply respect, the other being pre-Vatican II Catholicism.

Bury (Lancashire): Ainsworth Road Landmark

Might not be to everybody's taste, but I love this landmark on Ainsworth Road in Bury.

Also love the direction post below which is nearby:

It's amazing what interesting things can be found in Bury.

Kerry: The Maharees to Cloghane

Early morning, we set off from the Maharees for Cloghane and Brandon, passing a basking shark sand
castle (in the foreground above) while still on the beach.

However, the map below showed that the beach had to give way to the road:

Still, there were plenty of beautiful sights to be gained from the road:

The pile of chopped wood below reminded me of some other chopped wood I'd seen about a week before while walking through part of Puddletown Forest ('Egdon Heath') in Thomas Hardy's Wessex (Dorset):

Loved this river scene as we started to get nearer to the village of Cloghane:

Remembering Great Music

Love this, think I can remember listening to this on a John Peel session (or more than one Peel session) back in the mid/late-1990s while living in an attic flat on Walmersley Road in Bury, Lancashire, or in the early 2000s while living in attic flats on The Borough and Whitstable Road in Canterbury, Kent.  Through a quick bit of Internet research, I've just discovered it's more than probably the latter.

Hardy's Wessex: Puddletown Parish Church

After going through Puddletown Forest ('Egdon Heath') for a while, I came across Puddletown, the model for Weatherbury in Thomas Hardy's 'Far from the Madding Crowd'.

The parish church of St. Mary's the Virgin was my main point of interest here.  Just read that Hardy's grandfather played the violin in the musician's gallery at the church, and that his uncle, John Antell, often said to be the model for Jude in 'Jude the Obscure', is buried somewhere in the graveyard here.

However, my main reason for visiting the church was that I could remember the macabre 'Weatherbury church' scene from 'Far from the Madding Crowd' where gushing water from a gargoyle spout washes away Frank Troy's flowers from the top of poor Fanny Robin's grave.

The picture of Puddletown parish church tower below seems to contain a couple of gargoyles at the top, but I'm not 100% sure:

Just read that Puddletown parish church dates back to Norman times, although much rebuilding work was done in the 15th century.

Hardy's Wessex: Entering 'Egdon Heath' (Puddletown Forest)

Shortly after visiting the Thomas Hardy childhood/early adulthood, Higher Brockhampton cottage, I found myself entering Puddletown Heath (now a forest), the model for Hardy's 'Egdon Heath' in 'The Return of the Native':

As can be seen, the heath/forest was full of tall trees:

And the occasional bundle of tree trunks:

It's a real pity I only got round to reading J.B. Bullen's 'Thomas Hardy: The World of His Novels' after visiting Hardy country, as the chapter on 'The Return of the Native' gives directions for finding the possible locations of 'Mistover Knap'; 'Rainbarrow' etc. in the heath/forest.

Hardy's Wessex: Catapults at Higher Bockhampton

One of the interesting things I saw at Higher Bockhampton, what look like very well-made catapults being sold outside a cottage.

In general, Higher Bockhampton is a pleasant-looking village.