Thomas Hardy and his Wessex Place Names

Abbey, north of Blackmore = Sherborne Abbey, Dorset.
Abbey, south of Blackmore = Milton Abbey, Milton Abbas, Dorset.
Abbot's Cernel = Cerne Abbas, Dorset.
Abbotsea = Abbotsbury, Dorset
Aldbrickham = Reading, Berkshire.
Alderworth = Alderley, Briantspuddle, in Affpuddle parish, Dorset DT2 7HR.
Alfredston = Wantage, Berkshire.
Ancient West Highway = Roman road west of Winterbourne Abbas, Dorset (north of the present A35) to Eggardon Hill and from there on an uncertain course towards Exeter, Devon.
Anglebury = Wareham, Dorset.
Anglebury Heath = Northport Heath, now southern part of Wareham Forest, and Great Ovens Hill, Wareham St Martin parish, Dorset.
Arrowthorne Lodge = Minstead Lodge, New Forest, Hampshire (the "arrow" connection being that King William II was assassinated a mile and a half to the north-west, at what became Rufus Stone, between Minstead and Blackthorn Copse).
Aquae Sulis = itself, being the Roman name for Bath, Avon.
Athelhall = Athelhampton Hall, Athelhampton, Dorset DT2 7LG.
Badger's Clump = possibly near Chydyok Farm, a mile south of East Chaldon, Chaldon Herring, Dorset, on a coastal smuggling route.
Bank Walk = itself, westward, beside the north arm of the river, from Lower Bockhampton bridge to Stinsford, Dorset. Barnes's Lane = itself, now a bridleway on the parish boundary of Buckland Newton with Alton Pancras, Dorset (nearly two miles long, north of Holbarrow Beacon = composite of Beacon Hill, Puddletown, with the Rainbarrows, Duddle Heath, Puddletown, Dorset.
Barwith Strand = Trebarwith Strand, near Tintagel, Cornwall.
Batten Castle = Lulworth Castle, East Lulworth, Dorset.
Beal Lantern = Portland Bill Lighthouse, Dorset, but the one that is now the Bird Observatory rather than the 1905-built present tower. "The Beell" is the name of the island's southern tip on the 1710 map in John Hutchins's County History.
Bede's Inn = Clement's Inn, London WC2.
Beersheba = Jericho district of inner-city Oxford.
Beluidere Hotel = itself, Belvidere Private Hotel, now known as the SandsHotel, 117-118 Esplanade, Weymouth, Dorset DT4 7EL.
Benvill Lane = itself, Benville Lane/ Corscombe, Dorset DT2 ONW and DT2 ONN.
Biblioll College = Balliol College, Oxford.
Birthplace Hardy's Cottage, Cherry Lane (formerly Veterans' Alley), Higher Bockhampton, Stinsford, Dorset DT2 8QJ.
Black Bull Hotel = Bull Hotel, 34 East Street, Bridport, Dorset DT6 3LF.
Blackmoor = itself, though it is now spelt Blackmore Vale, Dorset.
Black'on = itself. Black Down, Portesham, Dorset (on which stands Admiral Hardy's Monument).
Blooms-End = Bhompston Farm, between Lower Bockhampton and Norris Mill, Stinsford, Dorset DT2 8QN.
Bramshurst Manor = Moyles Court, Ellingham, Ringwood, Hampshire.
Bredy Knap = itself, on the A35 above Long Bredy, Dorset.
Broad Sidlinch = Sydling St Nicholas, Dorset.
Brown House = Red House, between Fawley and Wantage, Oxfordshire.
Bubb-Down Hill = itself, Bubb Down Hill, Melbury Bubb, Dorset.
Buckbury Fitzpiers = Okeford Fitzpaine, Dorset (renamed Oakbury Fitzpiers for the later novels).
Budmouth = Weymouth, Dorset.
Budmouth Regis = Melcombe Regis, Weymouth, Dorset.
Bulbarrow = itself, Bulbarrow Hill, above Stoke Wake and Woolland, Dorset.
Bull Stake Square = itself, though it has since become known as the North Square, Dorchester, Dorset.
Camelton = Camelford, Cornwall.
Cardinal College = Christ Church College, Oxford.
Cardinal Street = St Aldate's Street, Oxford. ?
Carriford = West Stafford, Dorset.
Carriford Road = Crossways, at the junction of the parishes of Owermoigne, Woodsford and Moreton, Dorset.
Carriford Road Station = Moreton Station, Dorset (I do not go along with Hermann Lea's dismissal of the "Carriford" placenames as "imaginary creations" because in 1964 I was directed to "the Crossways Road Station" from West Stafford, and it happens to be the only railway station in these parts that was built to serve a road rather than a community).
Casterbridge = Dorchester, Dorset.
Castle Boterel = Boscastle, Cornwall.
Castle Inn = itself, 7 Middle Street, Yeovil, Somerset (demolished in the 1920s).
Castle Royal = Windsor Castle, Berkshire.
Catknoll Street = Chetnole, Dorset.
Chalk Newton = Maiden Newton, Dorset.
Chalk Walk = Colliton Walk, Top o' Town, Dorchester, Dorset.
Charmley =- Charminster, Dorset.
Chaseborough = Cranborne, Dorset.
Chasetown = alternative for Cranborne, Dorset.
Chateau Ringdale = house at Allington, Bridport, relocated to Harbour Road, West Bay, Bridport, Dorset.
Chene Manor = Canford Manor, Poole, Dorset (so named because Lady Wimborne's Drive led from Canford Manor, Canford Magna, down to Branksome Dene Chine on the coast at Westbourne).
Chief Street = High Street, Oxford.
Chillington Wood = Killerton Gardens, the grounds of Killerton House, Broadclyst, near Exeter/ Devon (where Fred Pitfield has found the summer house, specimen trees and a whole setting that Hardy detailed). I think Hardy borrowed the name from the real Chillington Wood, on the slopes leading up to Windwhistle Inn between Crewkerne and Chard, Somerset (which Hardy certainly knew as he has a footnote to "A Tramp-Woman's Tragedy" saying that when he asked for tea at the Windwhistle Inn he was told he would have to walk back down the hill to fetch the water).
Christminster = Oxford.
Church "with the Italian porch" = St Mary the Virgin, Oxford.
Cirque of the Gladiators = Maumbury Rings, Dorchester, Dorset.
Clammers Gate = itself, being the gate at the south end of Melbury Osmond, Dorset, leading into Melbury Park.
Classical Mansion = Wilton House, Wiltshire.
Clavinium = the "Clavino" of the Ravenna Cosmography, a placename of Roman west Dorset, which Hardy applied to the probable Roman temple found on Jordan Hill, Weymouth.
Clyffe-Hill Clump = Pallington Clump, above Clyffe House, Tincleton, Dorset (but in Affpuddle parish at Ordnance Survey map reference SY 787 922,growing on a Bronze Age burial mound).
Cloton = in the Dorset-Somerset borderlands westwards of Corscombe; perhaps Chedington or Clapton.
Cliff Martin = Combe Martin, Devon.
Cliff "without a name" = Beeny Cliff, Boscastle, Cornwall.
Coomb-Barn = barn south of Puddletown, Dorset.
Coomb-Ewelease = sheep pasture on White Hill, Puddletown, Dorset.
Corvsgate = Corfe Castle village, Dorset, using one of the names from the Middle Ages for this gap in the Purbeck Hills.
Corvsgate Castle = Corfe Castle itself, Dorset.
Cresscombe = Letcombe Bassett, near Wantage, Oxfordshire.
Creston = Preston, Dorset.
Crimmercrock Lane = Cromlech Crock Lane, as it then was on the Ordnance Survey map, sheet XVIII, running up out of Maiden Newton and across Rampisham Down, Dorset (now A356).
Crossy Hand = Cross and Hand (roadside stone), Batcombe, Dorset.
Crozier College = Oriel College, Oxford.
Crozier Hotel = Mitre Hotel, Oxford.
Cuclwo Lane = itself, being the lane northward past Higher Bockhampton from Stinsford Cross, Dorset.
Deadman's Bay = Lyme Bay, Dorset, and in particular the inner curve at Chesil Cove, Portland, which was notorious for shipwrecks.
Deansleigh Park = Broadlands, Romsey, Hampshire.
Devil's Bellows = Culpepper's Dish, Affpuddle, Dorset (though I have seen it identified as "a knoll" on Egdon Heath; Hardy's etymological knowledge was such that he would have used bellows for a "bag" in the landscape).
Devil's Door = Devil's Den, Clatford Bottom, Fyfield, near Marlborough, Wiltshire (described by Hardy as a trilithon on the Marlborough Downs, as it was depicted by William Stukeley in 1723, though the capstone of the burial chamber is in fact supported by four sarsen base stones and one of these now has a concrete buttress, dated 1921).
Devil's Kitchen = itself, half a mile north-west of Dogbury Gate, Minterne Magna, Dorset, in the trees at the foot of High Stoy.
Dole Hill = itself. Dole's Hill, Piddlehinton, Dorset.
Dorchester 43 = Thomas Hardy's telephone number at Max Gate, which he started to give his friends in 1920 at the age of eighty and thoroughly enjoyed their calls (the instrument had been in^he house for years but he had refused to use it).
Downstaple = Bamstaple, Devon.
Duke's Arms = Grosvenor Arms, Shaftesbury, Dorset (Grosvenor being the family name of the Duke of Westminster).
Dundagel = Tintagel, Cornwall.
Durnover = Fordington, Dorchester, Dorset.
Durnover Great Field = Fordington Field, Dorchester, Dorset.
Durnover Green = Fordington Green, Dorchester, Dorset.
Durnover Hill = Fordington Hill, Dorchester, Dorset.
Durnover Hole = weir-pool on the River Frome downstream from Grey's Bridge, Fordington, Dorchester, Dorset.
Durnover Lea = water-meadows beside the River Frome at Fordington, Dorchester, Dorset.
Durnover Mill == East Mills, Mill Street, Fordington, Dorchester, Dorset.
Durnover Moor = the broader expanse of water-meadows beyond the north bank of the River Frome, opposite Fordington, Dorchester, Dorset, but actually in the parish of Stinsford.
Earl ofWessex = Digby Tap, Cooks Lane, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3NS (though the Digby s were actually the Earls of Bristol).
East Egdon = Affpuddle parish, Dorset (which includes the hamlets of Briantspuddle and Throop, though the present "model" village at
Briantspuddle dates from the 1920s).
East Endelstow = Lesnewth, near Boscastle, Cornwall.
East Mellstock = Lower Bockhampton, Stinsford, Dorset.
East Quarriers = Grove Cliff group of quarries on Portland, Dorset (namely France, High Headlands, Broadcroft, Yeolands and Silklake Quarries).
Eastern village = Easton, Portland, Dorset.
Egdon Heath = the south Dorset heath stretching from Hardy's birthplace to Poole (in particular the part from Stinsford to Turners Puddle).
Eggar = Eggardon Hill, Askerswell, Dorset.
Elm Cranlynch = Corfe Mullen, Dorset. In the Middle ages the manor was owned by the Phelips family of Montacute House, near Yeovil, with which
Elm Cranlynch has been misidentified. Fred Pitfield, in Hardy's Wessex Locations, points out that the novelist describes what can only be the Jacobean
Court House in the Stour valley which, with Pamphill on the other side of the river, used to have the tallest elms in Dorset.
Elsenford = Ilsington, Puddletown, Dorset DT2 8QW (on the Tincleton boundary and not to be confused with Ilsington House in Puddletown
village, DT2 8TQ).
Emminster = Beaminster, Dorset.
Endelstow = St Juliot, near Boscastle, Cornwall.
Endelstow House = house in the valley of the River Valency, near Boscastle, Cornwall.
Endelstow Vicarage = St Juliot Rectory, near Boscastle, Cornwall.
Enkworth Court = Encombe House, west of Worth Matravers on the Purbeck coast, Dorset.
Evershead = Evershot, Dorset.
Exonbury = Exeter, Devon.
Falcon Hotel = White Hart Hotel, Launceston, Cornwall.
Falls Park = Mells Park, near Frome, Somerset.
Fane, The = Temple-style summer house beside the lake, Kingston Maurward, Stinsford/ Dorset.
Farnfield = Farnborough, Hampshire.
Fensworth = a village near.Fawley, Berkshire.
Fernell Hall = Embley House (Embley Park School) near Romsey, Hampshire.
Field of the tombs = Cemetery, Weymouth Avenue, Dorchester, Dorset.
Flintcomb Ash = Barcombe Farm, Alton Pancras, Dorset DT2 7RT (there is also an actual Flintcomb at Alton Pancras; DT2 7RS).
Flower-de-Luce Inn = Fleur-de-Lis public house, Cranborne, Dorset.
Flychett = Lytchett Minster, Dorset.
Forest of the White Hart == King Stag, Lydlinch, Dorset (the hamlet of King Stag now has a White Hart Close).
Forum = Blandford Forum, Dorset.
Fountall = Wells, Somerset.
Fourways = Carfax, Oxford (itself a corruption of the French for crossroads).
Froom Everard = Stafford House, West Stafford, Dorset DT2 8AA.
Froom River = River Frome, Dorset (it being pronounced as Hardy wrote it).
Froom Side Vale = valley of the River Frome, Dorset.
Gaymead = Shinfield, near Reading, Berkshire.
Giant's Town = Hugh Town, St Mary's, Isles of Scilly.
Glaston = itself, being the milestone contraction for Glastonbury, Somerset.
Gloucester Lodye = Gloucester Hotel, Gloucester Row, 85 The Esplanade, Weymouth, Dorset DT4 7AU.
Great Forest = New Forest, Hampshire.
Great Grey Plain = Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire.
Great Hintock = Minterne Magna, Dorset.
Great Hiniock House = Minterne House, Minterne Magna, Dorset DT2 7AU.
Great Mid-Wessex Plain = Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire.
Great Plain = Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire.
Great Pool = weir on the River Frome, Woodsford, Dorset.
Greenhill = Woodbury Hill, Bere Regis, Dorset.
Greenhill Fair = Woodbury Hill Fair, Bere Regis, Dorset.
Grey's Bridge = Grey's Bridge being "the second bridge of stone" over the main-stream of the River Frome on the turnpike road east of Dorchester,
Dorset
Grey's Wood = itself. Grey's Wood, Higher Kingston, Stinsford/ Dorset.
Haggardon Hill = Eggardon Hill, Askerswell, Dorset.
Hangman's cottage = itself. Hangman's Cottage, Glydepath Road, Dorchester, Dorset DT11XE.
Havenpool = Poole, Dorset.
Heedless William's Pond = itself, on the south side of Duddle Heath at the parish boundary of Stinsford with Puddletown, Dorset.
Henry the Eighth's Castle = Sandsfoot Castle, Weymouth, Dorset.
High Place Hall = Colliton House, Clyde Path Road, Dorchester, Dorset.
Higher Crowstairs = Waterston Ridge, which is the lip of the downs between the Frome and Piddle valleys at the northern extremity of Stinsford parish
(Ordnance Survey map reference SY 717 943).
Hintock House = Turnworth House, Turnworth, Dorset (demolished about 1960).
Hintocks = countryside around Minterne Magna, Melbury Osmond and Hermitage on the northern lip of the Dorset Downs (since being given reality
by the Post Office/British Telecom adopting "Hintock" as the name for a telephone exchange).
Hocbridge = amalgam of Hoccum and Stourbridge, to convey a town in the West Midlands. , _
Hoi-way or Hollo-way Lane = itself, from Cattistock north to Evershot, Dorset.
Holmstoke = amalgam of East Stoke and East Holrne, Dorset (they are adjoining parishes beside the River Frome upstream of Wareham).
Hope Church = St Andrew's church. Church Ope Cove, Portland, Dorset (now a ruin).
Icen Way = the Roman road across Puddletown Heath, Puddletown, Dorset.
Icenway House = Hackwood House, Winslade, Basingstoke, Hampshire.
Idmouth = Sidmouth, Devon.
Ikling Way = Ackling Dyke Roman road, Badbury Rings, Shapwick, Dorset, to Salisbury and London.
Isle of Slingers = Portland, Dorset.
Ivel or Ivell = Yeovil, Somerset.
Ivelchester = Ilchester, Somerset.
Ivel Way = Long Ash Lane, now the A37 road from Dorchester and Stratton, Dorset, to Yeovil, Somerset.
Jordon Grove = itself, the Jordan valley south of Preston, near Weymouth.
Kennetbridge = Newbury, Berkshire (on the River Kennet).
Kingsbere = Bere Regis, Dorset.
Kingsbere Hill = Black Hill, BereRegis, Dorset.
Kingsbere-sub-Greenhill = the allusion being Bere Regis village beneath the slopes of Woodbury Hill.
King's Hintock = Melbury Osmond, Dorset.
King's Hintock Court = Melbury House, Melbury Sampford, Dorset (seat of the Earls of Ilchester).
Knapwater House = Kingston Maurward House, Stmsford, Dorset DT2 81Y (being named for its position beside a lake).
Knollingwood Hall = Wimborne St Giles House, Wimborne St Giles,Dorset (which is on a rise among the trees south of Cranborne; the seat of the Earls of Shaftesbury).
Knollsea = Swanage, Dorset.
Leddenton = Gillingham, Dorset (the River Lodden flows east of the town)
Lewgate = identified by Fred Pitfield as another name for the vicinity of Hardy's Cottage birthplace at Stinsford, but it has been associated with
Lewesdon Hill, Stoke Abbott, Dorset, and even Leweston near Sherborne (Stevens Cox gives "Lewstock" as the actual placename but that has me
more puzzled; it sounds like a Hardyesque fusion of Lewesdon and Burstock, near Broadwindsor).
Little Enkworth = Kingston hamlet, south of Corfe Castle, Dorset.
Little Hintock = Stockwood and Melbury Bubb, Dorset, or alternatively Hermitage, Dorset.
Little Weatherbury Farm = Druce Farm, half a mile north-west of Puddletown,Dorset DT2 7SU.
Little Welland = Winterborne Zelstone, Dorset.
Long Ash Lane = itself, the Roman road along the four miles of the western boundary of Sydling St Nicholas parish, Dorset (now the A37).
Longpuddle = Piddletrenthide ("Upper Longpuddle") and Piddlehinton ("Lower Longpuddle"), Dorset.
Longpuddle Church = All Saints church, Piddletrenthide, Dorset.
Lornfon Inn = Horton Inn, a mile north-west of Horton, Dorset BH21 SAD.
Lower Longpuddle = Piddlehinton, Dorset.
Lower Mellstock = Lower Bockhampton, Stinsford, Dorset.
Lower Wessex = Devon.Lulstead= West Lulworth, Dorset.
Lulwind Cove = Lulworth Cove, West Lulworth, Dorset.
Lumsdon == Cumnor, near Oxford.
Maidon = Maiden Castle, Winterborne St Martin, Dorset.
Mai Dun Castle = Maiden Castle, Winterborne St Martin, Dorset.
ManorCourt = Rushmore House, Tollard Royal, Wiltshire (the seat of the Pitt-Rivers family).
Markton = Dunster, Somerset.
Marlbury Downs = Marlborough Downs, Wiltshire.
Martlott = Marnhull, Dorset.
Marshall's Elm = itself, on the Polden Hills a mile south of Street, Somerset.
Marshwood = Middlemarsh, Minterne Magna, Dorset (in damp and densely wooded countryside).
Martock Moor = transferred to the flat-lands at Martock on the edge of the Somerset Levels but Hardy had in mind his "Durnover Moor" at Fordington,
Dorchester, Dorset.
Mary Green = Fawley, Berkshire.
Max Gate = itself. Max Gate, Alington Avenue, Dorchester, Dorset DT1 2AA (Hardy adopted the name of the old turnpike barrier and toll house. Mack's Gate, which stood opposite his new home).
Melchester = Salisbury, Wiltshire.
Melchester Cathedral = Salisbury Cathedral, Wiltshire.
Mellstock = the parish of Stinsford, Dorset (in which Hardy was born).
Mellstock Cross = Stinsford Cross, Stinsford, Dorset (between the hamlets of Lower Bockhampton and Higher Bockhampton).
Mellstock churchyard = St Michael's church, Stinsford (in which Hardy's heart would lie; his body, against his wishes, was incinerated at Woking for a state funeral in Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey).
Mellstock Lane = lane from the main road at Stinsford Hill, east to Stinsford Cross, then continuing to Tincleton, Dorset.
Mellstock Leaze = meadow lands (the Saxon word) south of Church Lane, Stinsford, Dorset.
Mellstock Rise = Stinsford Hill, Stinsford, Dorset (which is only a gentle rise, half a mile north-east of Grey's Bridge, on the old course of the A35 with the milestone "Blandford 15. Dorchester 1").
Middleton = Milton Abbas, Dorset (the actual name of its demolished mediaeval town).
Middleton Abbey = Milton Abbey, Milton Abbas, Dorset.
Mid Wessex = Wiltshire.
Millpond St Jude's = Milborne St Andrew, Dorset.
Milton Wood = woods around Delcombe Bottom, Milton Abbas, Dorset.
Mistover = scattering of cob and thatch cottages on Puddletown Heath, Dorset.
Mistover Knap = house (demolished) on Puddletown Heath, Puddletown,Dorset.
Mixen Lane = Mill Street, Fordington, Dorchester, Dorset.
Moreford = Moreton, Dorset.
Moreford Rise = Broomhill, Winfrith Newburgh, Dorset.
Mount Lodge = Killerton House, Broadclyst, near Exeter, Devon (another of Fred Pitfield's identifications in Hardy's Wessex Locations).
Narrobourne = West Coker, near Yeovil, Somerset.
Nest Cottage = Chine Hill Cottage, Druce, Puddletown, Dorset DT2 7ST (Fred Pitfield tells me it has been demolished).
Nether Moyntm = Owermoigne, Dorset.
New Castle = Pennsylvania Castle Hotel, Wakeham, Portland, Dorset DT5 1HZ (to distinguish this early ^nineteenth century castellated house from the
genuine mediaeval ruin, Rufus Castle, alias "the Red King's Castle" on the adjacent clifftop).
Newland Buckton = Buckland Newton, Dorset.
Nicholas's Cottage = possibly St Nicholas Cottage, East Chaldon, Chaldon Herring, Dorset DT2 8DN.
Norcombe = Burnt Bottom and Westcombe Coppice, Hooke, Dorset (the first element has been transferred from Norwood Farm, Corscombe).
Norcombe Hill = Winyard's Gap, Chedington, Dorset (after Toller Down and Corscombe Down where the highway, Cromlech Crock Lane, plunges into a deep cutting).
North Wessex = Berkshire, particularly the part given to Oxfordshire in 1974.
Nuttlebury = Hazelbury Bryan, Dorset.
Nuzzlebury = Hazlebury Bryan, Dorset.
Oakbury Fitzpiers = Okeford Fitzpaine, Dorset (called "Buckbury Fitzpiers" in the earlier Hardy's novels).
Octagonal Chamber = Cupola, Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford.
Old Melchester = Old Sarum, near Salisbury, Wiltshire.
Old Rooms Inn = itself, the Old Rooms, Trinity Street, Weymouth, Dorset DT4 8TW.
Old Time Street = Oriel Lane, Oxford.
Oldgate College = New College, Oxford.
Oozewood = Ringwood, Hampshire.
Oriel Window = the former building where the Buzz Inn now stands, in High West Street, Dorchester, Dorset
Outer Wessex = Somerset.
Overcombe = Sutton Poyntz, near Weymouth, Dorset.
Oxwell Hall = Poxwell House, Poxwell, Dorset DT2 8ND.
Peakhill Cottage = Manor Gardens Cottage, Lower Bockhampton, Stinsford, Dorset DT2 8PZ
Pen-Zephyr = Penzance, Cornwall.
Peter's Finger = King's Head, Mill Street Fordington, Dorchester, Dorset (the county's actual St Peter's Finger being at Lytchett Minster, west of Poole).
Phoenix Inn = itself, now Phoenix Court, High East Street, Dorchester, Dorset DT11NB.
Port Bredy = Bridport, Dorset.
Pos'ham = itself, being how the locals pronounce Portesham, Dorset.
Puddle-sub-Mixen = a lesser parish of Dorset's Piddle valley, downstream of a mill, with Affpuddle being the prime contender.
Pummery = Poundbury Camp hill-fort, Dorchester, Dorset.
Pummery-Tout = Poundbury Camp hill-fort, Dorchester, Dorset.
Pure Drop Inn = The Crown, Marnhull, Dorset DT10 1LN (actual Pure Drop inns being at Glanvilles Wootton and in West Street, Wareham, Dorset; since closed).
Pydel Vale = valley of the River Piddle upstream of Puddletown, Dorset.
Quartershot = valley of the River Piddle upstream of Puddletown, Dorset.
Quiet Woman Inn = former Wild Duck Inn, at Duck Dairy House, Duddle Heath, Puddletown, Dorset (Dorset's actual Quiet Woman Hotel being at
Halstock, and the similarly inspired, beheaded. Silent Woman at Coldharbour, in the parish of Wareham St Martin).
Red King's Castle = Rufus Castle, Church Ope Cove, Portland, Dorset (William II was nicknamed Rufus on account of his red hair).
Revellers' Inn = former Revel's Inn, Cosmore, Buckland Newton, Dorset DT2 7TW.
Rimsmoor Pond = itself, Rimsmoor Pond, Bryants Puddle Heath, Affpuddle, Dorset.
Rings Hill Speer = Weatherby Castle Obelisk, Milborne St Andrew, Dorset.
Rollivers Inn = Blackmore Vale Inn, Burton Street, Marnhull, Dorset DT10 1JJ.
Rookington House = Hum Court, Hum, Dorset (though it has been known as Heron Court since becoming an independent boys' school in 1952).
Rookington Park = Hum Park, Hum, Dorset (the thirty acres around Heron Court School were formerly the seat of the Earl of Malmesbury).
Roy-town = Troy Town, Puddletown, Dorset (the hamlet below Yellowham Hill; its real name usually means slums, but there may be a purer derivation
in this case, from a mediaeval maze on the chalky hill to the north).
Rubdon Hill = Bubb Down Hill, Melbury Bubb, Dorset.
Rubric College = Brasenose College, Oxford.
Rushy Pond = itself. Rushy Pond, Duddle Heath, Puddletown, Dorset.
St Launce's = Launceston, Cornwall.
St Maria's = St Mary's, Isles of Scilly.
St Peter's Finger = King's Head, Mill Street, Fordington, Dorset (the actual St Peter's Finger being at Lytchett Minster, near Poole).
St Silas = St Barnabas church, Oxford (designed by Hardy's architectural associate Sir Arthur Blomfield [1829-99] who specialised in ecclesiastical
buildings, including Church House, Westminster).
Sandbourne = Bournemouth, Dorset.
Sandbourne Moor = Bourne Bottom, Poole, Dorset.
Sarcophagus College = Corpus Christi College, Oxford (the name meaning "body of Christ" and hence sarcophagus; I can see no sense in Hermann Lea
suggesting New College as an alternative).
Scrimpton = Frampton, Dorset.
Shadwater = Woodsford, Dorset.
Shadwater Weir = weir at Woodsford Farm, Woodsford, Dorset.
Shakeforest Towers = probably Clatford House, near Fyfield, on the Marlborough Downs, Wiltshire.
Shaston = itself, being the milestone contraction for Shaftesbury, Dorset.
Sherton Abbas = Sherborne, Dorset.
Sherton Castle = Sherborne Castle, Sherborne, Dorset.
Sherton Turnpike = Turnpike Toll House (now West Hill Cottage) at the northern extremity of Longburton parish, on the hill above Sherborne, Dor-
set.
Shottsford = Blandford, Dorset.
Shottsford Forum = the formal name for Blandford Forum, Dorset.
Sidlinch = Sydling St Nicholas, Dorset.
Silverthorne Dairy = farm at Up Exe on the River Exe, beside its former branch railway, between Silverton and Thorverton, Devon.
Sleeping Green = village green in the area of Carhampton and Withycombe,
between Minehead and Williton, Somerset.
Slopeway Well = Fortuneswell, Portland, Dorset (which is indeed built upon a slope).
Slyer's Lane = itself. Slyer's Lane, Coker's Frome, Stinsford, Dorset DT2 7SD.
Snail-creep = track from Hardy's cottage birthplace north to Grey's Wood, Higher Kingston, Stinsford, Dorset.
Solentsea = Southsea, Hampshire (though the waters off Southsea are known as Spithead, the Soleni starting to the west).
Southerton = Stoborough, Dorset (to distinguish this part of "Anglebury", as Hardy called Wareham, from its Northport suburb which clusters around the
railway station on the other side of the Piddle meadows).
South Wessex = Dorset.
Sow and Acorn = itself, almost, being the Acorn Inn, Evershot, Dorset.
Springham = Warmwell, Dorset (the wet bit of the parish being a mile north of the village on Empool Heath).
Stagfoot Lane = Hartfoot Lane, Bingham's Melcombe, in the parish of Melcombe Horsey, Dorset DT2 7PF (where there is now also a Stagfoot Cottage).
Stancy Castle = Dunster Castle, Dunster, Somerset.
Standfast Bridge = bridge at East Mills, Mill Lane, Fordington, Dorchester, Dorset.
Stapleford = Stalbridge, Dorset.
Stapleford Park = Stalbridge Park, Stalbridge/ Dorset.
Stoke-Barehills = Basingstoke, Hampshire (Hardy was not alone among English writers in showing a prejudice against Basingstoke).
Stoke Lane = itself, between Mappowder and Stoke Wake, Dorset.
Stourcastle = Sturminster Newton, Dorset (which does have a castle, the ruin of a fortified manor house with a view over the Rivci Stour).
Street of Wells = High Street, Fortuneswell, Portland, Dorset.
Sylvania Castle = Pennsylvania Castle Hotel, Wakeham, Portland, Dorset DT5 1HZ.
Talbothays = Lower Lewell Farm, West Knighton, Dorset DT2 SAP (Denys Kay-Robinson having shown that Hermann Lea's claim that "the dairy house
is drawn from no particular building" is itself fiction, this three-storey farmhouse with an eighteenth century thatched barn being not only identifiable
but having in the novels the give-away Hardy character Bill Lewell working there).
Talbothays Lodge = itself, Talbothay[e]s, West Stafford, Dorset DT2 SAL (built by Hardy for his sister, Kate, and only half a mile from Lower Lewell farm, on the same road, giving its fictional name a physical reality).
Targan Bay = Pentargon Bay, near Boscastle, Cornwall (the modern spellingends in "on", not "an", as given by Stevens Cox and others).
Ten Hatches = Coker's Frome Weir, Stinsford, Dorset.
Ten Hatches Hole = pool below Coker's Frome Weir, Stinsford/ Dorset.
Tess's Cottage = two claimants have since adopted her name: Tess Cottage,Walton Elm, Marnhull, Dorset DT10 1NH, and Tess Cottage, just west of the church at Evershot, Dorset.
The Hintocks = countryside around Minterne Magna, Melbury Osmond and Hermitage below the downland escarpment west of Bulbarrow, Stoke Wake, Dorset.
The Fane = Temple-style summer house beside the lake, Kingston Maurward, Stinsford/ Dorset (Fred Pitfield points out that "fane" means "temple")
The Island = Isle of Wight.
The Ring = Maumbury Rings, Dorchester, Dorset.
The Slopes = foothills of Cranborne Chase, Dorset.
The Union = itself, the Union Workhouse, otherwise known as the Poor Law Institution, Darner's Road, Dorchester, Dorset (facing the junction with
Maud Road).
Theatre of Wren = Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford.
Thorncombe Wood = itself, Thorncombe Wood, Higher Bockhampton, Stinsford, Dorset (the deciduous wood beside Hardy's Cottage birthplace, on its
south side).
Three Manners' Inn = former King of Prussia tavern. High East Street, Dorchester, Dorset (it stood on the north side of the street, east of Friary Lane).
Three Tranters' Inn = probably the Wise Man Inn, West Stafford, Dorset DT2 5AG.
Tintinhull = itself, Tintinhull, near Montacute, Somerset.
Tintinhull valley = itself, beside Wellhams Brook below Stoke sub Hamdon, near Montacute, Somerset.
Tolchurch = Tolpuddle, Dorset.
Toneborough = Taunton, Somerset (which is on the River Tone).
Toneborough Deane = Vale of Taunton Deane, Somerset.
Tor-upon-Sea = Torquay, Devon.
Trantridge = Pentridge, Dorset.
Trufal = itself, Trufal, Cornwall.
Tudor College = Brazenose College, Oxford.
Union, The = itself, the Union Workhouse, otherwise known as the Poor Law Institution, Darner's Road, Dorchester (facing the junction with Maud Road).
Uplandtowers = St Giles House, Wimborne St Giles, Dorset BH21 SNA.
Upper Longpuddle = Piddletrenthide, Dorset.
Upper Mellstock = Higher Bockhampton, Stinsford (the hamlet of Hardy's birth).
Upper Wessex = Hampshire.
Vagg Hollow = itself, the cutting below Vagg Farm through which the lane which was the Roman road from Dorchesterdto Ilchester descends from the
hills on the north-west side of Yeovil, Somerset (James Stevens Cox, in Hardy's Wessex, misplaces Vagg Hollow "on the Fosseway" — the Fosse is on
the other side of Tintinhull; Vagg Hollow is at Ordnance Survey map reference ST 532187).
Valley of the Great Dairies = Valley of the River Frome, south Dorset.
Valley of the Little Dairies = Blackmore Vale, north Dorset.
Vindilia = Portland, Dorset.
Vindogladia = Woodyates, Pentridge, Dorset (though its earthworks date from the end of the Roman period, and archaeologists now apply the "White
Ditches" placename to Badbury Rings).
Warborne = Wimborne, Dorset (though the "War" element is hardly obvious in relation to the town, unless it is a reference to the Minster's association
with Saint Walburga, one of its nuns who left to join Boniface and founded a German monastery, and Hardy avoided "Wal" so as not to imply Wareham-
type town walls).
Warm'll Cross = Warmwell Cross, Warrnwell, Dorset (now a roundabout).
Waterstone Ridge = itself, Waterston Ridge is half a mile south of Lacock Dairy Farm, Puddletown, Dorset.
Weatherbury = Puddletown, Dorset (called Piddletown in Hardy's time)."Weatherbury" is a transferred real name, from Weatherby Castle hill-fort, Milborne St Andrew, Dorset.
Weatherbury Farm = Waterston Manor, a mile and a half up the Piddle from Puddletown, Dorset DT2 7SP (neither spelt nor pronounced "Waterson" as Stevens Cox gives it).
Welcome Home Inn = Ship Inn, Boscastle, Cornwall.
Welland House = Charborough House, Morden, Dorset BH20 7EW.
Wellbridge = Wool Bridge, Wool, Dorset.
Wellbridge Abbey = Bindon Abbey, Wool, Dorset.
Wellbridge House = Woolbridge Manor Cottages, Wool, Dorset.
Wellbridge Manor = Wbolbridg & Manor, Wool, Dorset BH20 6HQ.
Wessex Heights = escarpments of the Dorset Downs and the whole chalk mass eastwards around the edge of the Hampshire Basin to Ingpen Beacon
West Endelstow = St Julietta's church, St Juliot, near Boscastle, Cornwall
West Mellstock = Stinsford, Dorset (the part around the parish church)
Weydon Fair = Weyhill Fair, near Andover, Hampshire.
Weydon Priors = Weyhill, near Andover, Hampshire.
Wherryborne = Winterborne Came, Dorset.
Wherryborne Wood = Big Wood, Longlands, Winterbourne Abbas, Dorset (Hardy forgot its location, but Wherry Pit and Wherry Cottage, DT2 9LW are to the west of the Nine Stones, Winterbourne Abbas, at the ASS end of the mile-long drive from Lodge Wood and through the Big Wood)
Whit' Sheet Hill = itself. White Sheet Hill, where Cromlech Crock Lane (the A356 westwards from Maiden Newton) ascends the downs north of Toller Fratrum, Dorset.
Windy Beak = Cambeak, St Gennys, near Bude, Cornwall.
Wintoncester = Winchester, Hampshire ("Winton" being its Latin name and the signature of the bishop).
Wolfeton House = itself, Wolfeton House, Charminster, Dorset DT2 9QN
Wyll's Neck = in the Quantock Hills, Somerset.
Wyndway House = Upton House, Poole, Dorset.
Yalbury Bottom = coombe on the west side of Yellowham Wood, Stinsford, Dorset.
Yalbury Hill = Yellowham Hill, Puddletown, Dorset.
Yalbury Wood = Yellowham Wood, Stinsford and Puddletown parishes Dorset.
Yellowham Bottom = itself, the coombe on the west side of Yellowham Wood, Stinsford, Dorset.
Yewsholt Lodge = Farr's House, Cowgrove, Pamphill, Dorset BH214EL.