Greenwood Grange in Higher Bockhampton, five minutes from Dorchester, is a magnificent conversion of farm buildings, built by Thomas Hardy’s father in 1849. In fact, we’re a stone’s throw from Hardy’s Cottage where he was born in 1840. The brick, stone and slate barns have been rebuilt, refurbished and extended over the years and today, provide luxury holiday accommodation. In fact, the 16-cottage village includes two tennis courts, a badminton lawn, play yurt, trampoline, swings, football nets, croquet lawn, willow den, games room with a pool table, kitchen garden, dog exercise area, a paddock and field shelter for two horses and a laundry room – oh and plenty of parking.
In October 2016 we won Gold in the Dorset Tourism Awards Self catering category which then propelled us onto the South West Tourism awards where in January 2017 we won Gold in the Self catering holiday provider of the year out of five counties!
Greenwood Grange was first rebuilt and converted into holiday accommodation in 1988. Subsequent owners continued to develop the property, with the addition of the games room and further cottages. The next owner bought Greenwood Grange in 1997, fully establishing the business and adding two substantial cottages, Durbaville and Henchard.
Greenwood Grange offers extensive facilities which give guests the ideal balance of relaxing and enjoying all that is available on site and the opportunity to discover the delights of the county of Dorset, many of which are right on the doorstep.
As we mentioned, the cob and thatch cottage where Hardy was born is only a short distance away and remains virtually unchanged since his great-grandfather built it. Hardy wrote Under The Greenwood Tree and Far From The Madding Crowd here and he walked three miles to school in Dorchester, his Casterbridge, every day.
Higher Bockhampton is Hardy’s Upper Mellstock and anyone interested in the literary landscape can explore the locations of his famous novels.
You can see the window seat in his bedroom where he wrote Under The Greenwood Tree. Also next-door is the 66-acre Thorncombe Wood, with its huge diversity of trees, flora, fauna and wildlife, and Egdon Heath which Hardy wrote of in The Return of the Native.
This is more than self-catering accommodation, this is somewhere with a story to tell…
More on Thomas Hardy and the local history here.
