Thomas Hardy's Cottage, in Higher Bockhampton, Dorset, is a small cob and thatch building that is the birthplace of the English author Thomas Hardy.

He was born there in 1840 and lived in the cottage until he was aged 34—during which time he wrote the novels Under the Greenwood Tree (1872) and Far from the Madding Crowd (1874)[1]—when he left home to be married to Emma Gifford.

[2] The property has a typical cottage garden, and the interior displays furniture which, although not from the Hardy family, is original to the period.

[1][4] It is only three miles from Max Gate,[5] the house that Hardy designed and lived in with Emma Gifford from 1885 until his death in 1928.

[7] The project, which secured £525,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund, was a joint partnership between Dorset County Council and the National Trust.