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Appendix 1: Wildlife Interest in the Parish

Sources: Nature of Dorset, British Geological Survey, Butterfly Conservation, Wikipedia, The River Restoration Centre (report on the Frome), National Biodiversity Network atlas, DEFRA

Geology

The Geological Map covering the Parish shows :

• Chalk to the north, towards Waterston Ridge (as yellow green areas), comprising Mesozoic (65million+years old) layers of the Upper Chalk.
  
• alluvial deposits to the south associated with the River Frome and its associated channels (the pale yellow areas).
  
• the Quaternary deposits in between (beige to brown areas), mostly poorly stratified clays and sandy clays, often with flints washed out from the Chalk during the last Ice Age.
  

Reproduced with the permission of the British Geological Survey ©UKRI [2021]. All rights Reserved

Wildlife Habitat Types and Examples.

Broadleaved Wood	Thorncombe wood
Parkland	Kingston Maurward
Calcareous Grassland	Waterston Ridge, very limited strips
Dry Heath	Small amount near edge of Thorncombe Wood
Watermeadow	Floodplain of the River Frome
Ditches and streams	Either side of the Hardy Way south of Kingston Maurward
Ponds	Heedless William Pond
Rivers	The River Frome and its associated channels

Species

Clearly the wildlife present is determined by the habitats available. Many of the species recorded are associated with the watercourses, rivers and other bodies of water in the parish.

Mammals

Large mammals noted are badgers, foxes, roe deer and otters. Otters have made a major comeback in the county- a DEFRA survey of 2001/2002 reported widespread signs of them on the River Frome. Smaller mammals noted include the dormouse, the water vole and the water shrew. (Bats...)

Reptiles and Amphibians

All 3 British Snakes have been sighted (Adders,Grass and Smooth Snakes-the last near Thorncombe Wood). Also Palmate and Smooth Newts (in ponds).

Fish

With good water quality reported there are a number of species seen including brown trout and salmon. Grayling , dace and roach breed in the Stinsford Branch of the River Frome. Eels(personal sighting) and lampreys have been seen.

Birds

Again many of the species are associated with water. Notably kingfisher, water rail, grey wagtail, marsh tit and mute swan. Also Reed, Sedge and Cetti’s warblers. Local raptors include little, barn and tawny owls as well as Sparrow hawks and kestrels, with buzzards being the most often seen. A large numbers of jackdaws roost near to Stinsford Church, and there is a large rookery next to the A35 south of Higher Kingston Farm. A local resident (Chris Courtaux) has recorded over 100 different species in the Parish (mainly in the area around Bhompston) over the last 20 years, including:

• Barn Owl
  
• Blackcap – usually a couple of sightings per year between Feb and April
  
• Brambling – a single sighting in Jan 2016
  
• Cetti’s Warblers made a visit in 2013/14
  
• Chiffchaff – seen and heard every year
  
• Common Wheatear – 3 records on the meadows
  
• Cuckoo – heard on average every other year
  
• Egyptian Goose – seen regularly along the Frome
  
• Fieldfare and Redwing – in large numbers
  
• Garden Warbler –single bird sighting in 2004
  
• Grasshopper Warblers –single bird sightings in 2010
  
• Greater Spotted Woodpecker
  
• Green Sandpiper – seen regularly in the period up to 2010 but not since
  
• Greenfinch
  
• Grey Wagtail
  
• Hobby – 10 records over 20 years, and now seen every year between May and July since 2014
  
• Long-tailed Tit
  
• Marsh Tit – a single record in December 2018
  
• Osprey - a one off visit in Aug 2003 (juvenile)
  
• Peregrine Falcon – a one off fly over in 2007
  
• Pheasant
  
• Red Kite – two sightings in the past 3 years.
  
• Red-legged Partridge,
  
• Reed Warbler.
  
• Rose-ringed Parakeet – a single record in 2017
  
• Sedge Warbler
  
• Siskin – seen almost daily since 2018
  
• Skylark
  
• Spotted Flycatcher – a reasonably regular with 11 records since 2000
  
• Waders - Snipe and Lapwing (flocks up to 100) common up to 2010, but not seen recently.
  
• Water Rail - seen once in 2009 and again in 2018
  
• Whinchat – a single record in 2002 – a passage migrant
  
• Willow Warbler – seen and heard every year
  
• Yellowhammer

Insects and spiders

Butterfly Conservation has recorded 28 butterfly species within the parish. Of these the most spectacular is the Silver Washed Fritillary (Thorncombe Wood), a species noted for its spectacular courtship flight. A less common species is the Silver Studded Blue found on the dry heath near Thorncombe Wood. Also the dry heath the green tiger beetle is noted. The watery habitats are good for dragonflies including Emperor and Golden Ringed Dragonflies and the less common 4 Spotted Chaser. Also associated with water are the Wolf Spider and the more fully aquatic Raft Spider - one of Britain’s largest species.

Appendix 2: Designated Heritage Assets in the parish

Appendix 3: Non-designated Heritage Assets in the parish

Appendix 4: Literary Associations with the Landscape, The Heart of Hardy’s Wessex 

Stinsford Parish provides the background for many scenes in Thomas Hardy’s novels and poetry. In the numerous references that have been made, some of the more well-known are mentioned here.

Hardy created a ‘partly real partly dream country’ and many scholars have identified the people and locations in his works, others are debated.  Included within are some of those which can be more easily identified with both real associations and Hardy’s fictional characters who traversed the hamlets, paths, bridleways, tracks, and roads of ‘Mellstock’ during the 19th and early 20th centuries.  

Walk along his ‘embowered’ path by a tributary of the river ‘Froom’ to fully enjoy this favourite local footpath. Listen perhaps to ‘Moaning Hill’ said to take its name from the wind among the trees which cover it.   Or do as the author and lean ‘upon a coppice gate’ in the depth of winter and hear ‘The Darkling Thrush’ the bird’s powerful song at this time is described as of ‘joy illimited’. (the poem is dated 31 December 1900). The image of the thrush today adorns the left side of the West door on the tower of St Michael’s.

Casterbridge (Dorchester) and its relationship with the Landscape

If one stands at the Top o’ Town in the county town of Dorchester, Hardy’s ‘Casterbridge’, and looks down the High Street the town and parish can be seen as Hardy described it in his novel ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge’.  Greys Bridge gives way to a view of ‘deep green’. Meadows, Lime and Horse Chestnut trees form the edge of this part of the parish.  “Casterbridge was the complement of the rural life around not its urban opposite. Bees and butterflies in the cornfields at the top of the town, who desired to get to the meads at the bottom took no circuitous course but flew straight down High Street without any apparent consciousness that they were traversing strange latitudes.”  “Country and town met at a mathematical line”.

Dorchester is the principal location in the novel ‘The  Mayor of Casterbridge’.  The rural parish of Stinsford wraps around its north and eastern sides.  The town’s history can be traced back some 4,000 years. The Roman influence is recognized in and around the town: “Casterbridge announced old Rome in every street, alley, and precinct.  It looked Roman, bespoke the art of Rome, concealed dead men of Rome.  It was impossible to dig more than a foot or two deep about the town fields and gardens without coming upon some tall soldier or other of the Empire, who had lain there in his silent unobtrusive rest for a space of fifteen hundred years.” 

Over Durnover Moor – the landscape north of Grey’s Bridge to Waterston Ridge

At Greys Bridge by ‘Durnover Moor’ (deriving from the Roman name Durnovaria) looking a few meters north along the River ‘Froom’, and featuring in ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge’, is ‘Ten HatchesWeir’.  Today only five hatches remain and nearby this part of the river is used as a local swimming pool. The hatches are mentioned in the poem ‘Before My Friend Arrived’ which commemorates the burial of Horace Moule, son of the vicar of Fordington “the eve-lit weir, Which gurgled with sobs and sighs”.  Another poem relating to this area is ‘Sitting on the Bridge’.

The Fennels' Cottage, Higher Crowstairs, Henry Macbeth-Raeburn's frontispiece for Wessex Tales, Vol XIII in the Complete Uniform Edition of the Wessex Novels, (1896)

Further along the river is Hatch Cottage, then Dairy Cottage, barns, farmhouse and buildings and the hamlet of Frome Whitfield with its parkland trees. The river Cerne comes in and joins the Frome from the north west and all give way to the gentle rise of fields towards Higher Waterston. Over this landscape are three ancient coppices, named Long, Square and Three Cornered and two copses, named Limekiln and Badgers.  Hardy’s ‘Higher Crowstairs’ is here and Fiddler’s / Fidler’s Greenwhere you find the site of ‘Shepherd Fennel’s cottage’ which features in the short story ‘The Three Strangers’.  

On reaching the Wessex Ridgeway consider the poem ‘The Revisitation’ which first appeared in print in 1904. The author recalls an early romance some 50 years before at a meeting here amongst the ancient barrows and stones. 

Across the landscape to the south and east are views over much of the action of ‘Far From the Madding Crowd’ one of Hardy’s best loved novels whilst to the south west the Elizabethan Wolfeton Manor becomes the home of ‘Lady Penelope’ in one of Hardy’s stories from a ‘Group of Noble Dames’.

Mellstock Hill – the landscape east of Grey’s Bridge

From Greys Bridge along the London Road to the Stinsford roundabout is ‘Mellstock Hill.’ Hardy often walked this way over the bridge to and from Dorchester, on his way to school and later to work at the office of John Hicks, an architect in South Street, next door to the school run by William Barnes, the Dorset poet and scholar. Many of his characters took the same route, including ‘Farmer Boldwood’, ‘Fanny Robin’, and ‘Sergeant Troy’ in ‘Far From the Madding Crowd’, and ‘Michael Henchard’ and ‘Farfrae’ in ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge’. The hill features in the poem ‘The Widow Betrothed’ as the author passes the ‘lodge’ and the ‘avenue’of trees leading to Stinsford House. It also features in the poem ‘On Stinsford Hill at Midnight’.

Lower Mellstock and the watermeadows – the river valley below Stinsford

Stinsford Parish holds the scenes in Hardy’s novel ‘Under the Greenwood Tree’ almost entirely. Characters ‘Old William Dewy’, ‘Reuben Dewy’, ‘Dick Dewy’ and ‘Michael Mail’ sit in places occupied by Hardy’s grandfather, his father, James Hardy and James Dart in the church gallery.

The stories of the ‘Mellstock Quire’ are many as Hardy recounts them in various poems and locations around the parish especially when ‘Going The Rounds’ carol singing at Christmas along the ‘embowered’ path by the ‘Froom’which runs from Church Lane to Lower Bockhampton bridge. It follows a course below Kingston Maurward House.

The poem ‘The Third Kissing Gate’ tells the story of one young couple’s romantic meeting at dusk. There were once five gates of this type, along the path from Grey’s Bridge to Lower Bockhampton, which allows people but not stock to pass through. The path is by “the Mead of Memories” of the “Quire” and through the water meadows. 

At this point you are on the route of the long-distance circular walk ‘The Hardy Way’ of about 213 miles as it nears its end at Stinsford ‘Mellstock’ Church.  The centre of ‘Mellstock’ can be considered to be Stinsford House and Church.  This area relates especially to numerous Hardy’s works.  Poems include ‘A Church Romance’ in which Hardy recalls the moment his mother first saw his father playing in the church string choir in the gallery.  ‘Afternoon Service at Mellstock’ recalls the author attending church as a youth.  The poem ‘The Noble Lady’s Tale’ is Hardy’s view on the real story of the Earl of Ilchester’s eldest daughter and her marriage to the actor William O’Brien.  They lived out their lives at Stinsford House and there is a memorial plaque in the church chancel together with a vault built by Hardy’s father for them.  The famous poems of 1912-13 feature greatly in this area.  These were written by Hardy following the death of his first wife Emma Lavinia Gifford, buried in the churchyard.  The author recounts his feelings and the past in poems such as ‘Rain on her Grave’ and ‘The Voice’.  After Hardy’s own death in 1928 the Hardy Memorial window by Douglas Strachan was installed within the church.  Hardy’s heart is buried alongside his two wives and the Hardy Family Graves.  His ashes lie in Poet’s Corner, Westminster Abbey.

Church Lane leads down to the ‘embowered’ wooded path below Kingston Maurward House and eastward on to Lower Bockhampton.  On reaching the bridge the view to the east looks towards “the Vale of Great Dairies” of ‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles’ where Angel Clare and Tess spent their happiest times.  

Northward along Bockhampton Lane there is a track and footpath to the right which leads to Bhompston, and Hardy’s ‘Blooms- End’ the home of the ‘Yeobrights’ in the novel ‘The Return of The Native’. This route passesthrough cottages and farm buildings to reach lush meadows with good views over the River Frome.  Looking across from here to the right is considered to be where ‘Angel Clare’ carried the milkmaids including ‘Tess’over the floods on their way to church.

Continuing up Bockhampton Lane the old Post Office is reached on the right and just off the Lane to the left the School which Hardy attended as a boy aged eight.  It is the School of ‘Under the Greenwood Tree’, where ‘Fancy Day’ was school mistress, and the bell can still be seen above the door.  Today both are a private residence.

Mellstock Cross, Upper Mellstock and on to Egdon Heath – around Higher Bockhampton

Bockhampton Lane runs to the north to Bockhampton Cross which intersects the Stinsford to Tincleton road running east below ‘Egdon Heath’. This is ‘Mellstock Cross’. Further North isCuckoo Laneleading toHigher Bockhampton ‘Upper Mellstock’.

A turning at the top of this lane to the right goes down to the magnificent Thorncombe Woods and to Hardy’s Cottage, today owned by the National Trust, where the novelist and poet was born and where the Hardy family lived for over a century. This area is considered to be the setting for the poem ‘The Oxen’ ‘In the lonely barton by yonder coombe Our childhood used to know’. The cottage itself is bordered at the back by heathland and the poem ‘Childhood Among the Ferns’ recounts the time before trees were grown here. Whilst living at the cottage Hardy wrote ‘Far From the Madding Crowd ‘and ‘Under the Greenwood Tree’.  In the latter, the cottage becomes the fictional Tranter’s house. Several characters in this novel relate to the real residents living here along this lane as well as in the parish at the time.  The poem ‘Domicilium’ describes the cottage as it was told by his grandmother ‘when first we settled here’. From the mixed woodland close by the cottage and Thorncombe Woods, paths lead up to Rushy Pond and the route of the Roman Road. Also to three Rainbarrows the most prominent of which is the ‘Rainbarrow’ that features in ‘The Return of the Native’. ‘It formed the pole and axis of this heathery world’.Standing here there are good views of furse, heather and water courses and the characteristics of the heath which was open in Hardy’s day with no afforested areas.

Knapwater House ‘on a hill beside a lake’ – through the Kingston Maurward Estate

The footpaths and bridleways which Hardy trod on his way to Dorchester, Kingston Maurward or other surrounding parts could take several routes. Just off the top of Cuckoo Lane one path leads down across the ‘Eweleaze’ which offers views of the Kingston Maurward Estate. It continues down to join another part of the course of the Roman road which runs to the side of Hollow Hill, along the Tincleton road.  A permissive footpath runs through the estate. Hardy as a boy often visited Julia Martin the wife of the then owner of Kingston Maurward House and also attended the Harvest Suppers which were held in a barn situated nearby the Old Elizabethan Manor.  The poem ‘The Harvest Supper’ tells of one such occasion.

Kingston House features as ‘Knapwater House’ in ‘Desperate Remedies’ Hardy’s first published novel. To the south of the house ‘the broad, graceful slope’, runs down from the terrace.  ‘The Fane’, a summerhouse, built in the form of a Grecian temple, still exists overlooking the lake as does the ‘weir’ to the east.  Both the House and Old Manor match Hardy’s descriptions in the novel.

When on the estate you are in the territory of two of Hardy’s early works ‘Desperate Remedies’ and ‘Under the Greenwood Tree’ and in this novel the House is referred to as ‘the Manor’.  In 1921 Thomas Hardy was asked to become Godfather to the then owner’s daughter Caroline Fox Hanbury and on doing so presented her with a poem in a silver box To C.F.H. ‘On Her Christening- Day’.

Returning to the top of ‘Mellstock Hill’ and taking the second turning off the roundabout towards ‘Casterbridge’. A turning immediately to the right brings you along a narrow road overlooking Exhibition Field which takes its name from when the Bath and West and Southern Counties Show was held here during Hardy’s lifetime recorded as 1872, 1887, 1908 and 1928.  The views over the meadows, river, town to include the spire of All Saints and the towers of St Peter’s and St George’s and the Victorian brick-built prison and surrounding countryside of Hardy’s Wessex are outstanding. 

Acknowledgements:

A Hardy Companion, FB Pinion
The Hardy Way, Margaret Marande.
The Thomas Hardy Society

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