NEWS FEED
Visitors can step back in time, every Friday morning (11am-2pm) through July and August, as the National Trust team at Hardy’s Cottage take on the challenge of cooking the recipes that Thomas Hardy’s mother cooked him.
Hardy’s Cottage was the childhood home of the author and poet Thomas Hardy.
His family were builders and stonemasons, meaning that they ate the basic staples of the Victorian diet – bread and cheese – as well as less familiar dishes, like kettle broth and furmity.
Visitors will be able to discover and taste these unusual and, in some cases, unrecognisable recipes from the past.
Making cheese at Hardy’s Cottage © National Trust/ Chris Collins
Harriet Still, Visitor Experience Officer for Hardy’s Cottage says, the ‘Jemima’s Cookbook’ cooking demonstrations are part of a wider programme, looking at how a family in rural Victorian Dorset would have fed themselves.
Visitors are also invited to get involved by potting up vegetable seeds to take home and grow, or attending talks on beekeeping by our gardener Caps Browning-Smith.
On 8 & 21 July and 19 August, between 1pm and 4pm, there are also performances of traditional music and storytelling by local performer Tim Laycock.
Hardy’s Cottage is open five days a week during 2016 – Wednesdays to Sundays, 11am-5pm (with last admissions at 4.15pm).
All above activities are free. Normal admission charges apply, and National Trust members go free.
More details are available online at www.nationaltrust.org.uk/hardys-cottage or on Facebook.
