Thomas Hardy was born on 2 June 1840 at Higher Bockhampton near Dorchester, Dorset UK. During his lifetime he wrote almost a thousand published poems and fourteen published novels including ‘Far From the Madding Crowd’ and ‘Tess of the D’Urbervilles’.
He died in Dorchester on 11 January 1928. His heart is buried in his home parish churchyard at Stinsford, Dorset; his ashes in Poet’s Corner, Westminster Abbey, London. Much of Thomas Hardy's work is set in an area he called ‘Wessex’. This area covers mainly the South and West of England. For more information visit Dorchester Museum website.
If you have been inspired by the work of Thomas Hardy then it is most likely that you have been inquisitively drawn, like so many before you, to seek and experience the locations described in his novels and poems. 
Thomas Hardy chose to set most of his work in an area he called 'Wessex', the name of one of the ancient Saxon kingdoms of England. The area covers mainly the South and West of the country. Here you can visit Hardy's fictional settings such as 'Christminster' the Oxford of today or 'Melchester' which is Salisbury with its famous cathedral spire.
'South Wessex' has been closely identified with the county of Dorset and it is here that you find the very heart of Hardy Country. You can follow in the family's footsteps to the place of his birth, or visit Max Gate where he wrote some of his greatest works.
You can stroll, cycle or drive along highways and byways, footpaths and river walks, tracing the route of the 'Mellstock Quire' as in the novel 'Under the Greenwood Tree', climbing to 'Rainbarrow' as Eustacia Vye in 'Return of the Native', or visiting 'Shaston', overlooking the Vale of Blackmoor, where Sue and Phillotson lived at Old-Grove Place in 'Jude The Obscure'
There are so many places that feature in Hardy's work that you could spend a week or more reading poems or passages from novels in exactly the place Hardy describes and in fact many people do. A few places are open to conjecture and you can decide for yourself that spot Hardy is exactly talking about.
Many people come from all over the world to experience the literature of Thomas Hardy and the landscape he describes.Whilst visiting you will find the heart of Hardy Country is in itself very attractive.
A large part is designated an Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The 95-mile stretch of coastline from Studland Dorset to Exmouth in East Devon forms England's first Natural World Heritage Site. Along this coast is Hardy's 'Knollsea', 'Lulwind or Lulstead Cove', 'Budmouth','Gibraltar of Wessex' or 'Isle of Slingers', 'Abbotsea' and 'Port Bredy'.