The land under threat carries deep literary resonance. Hardy drew on it repeatedly, weaving real topography into his fictional Wessex.
In Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1891), Beaminster appears 17 times as “Emminster.” Hardy described it as “the basin in which Emminster and its vicarage lay” and later as “his father’s hill-surrounded little town, the Tudor church-tower of red stone, the clump of trees near the vicarage.”
Hardy’s first published short story, Destiny and a Blue Cloak (1874), also situated itself here. The narrative follows the ancient bridleway linking Beaminster to Netherbury and Norton, today still used by walkers. Hardy’s precise details of mills, streams and distances show he knew the path intimately. The proposed estate would obliterate Millground Meadow, block this centuries-old trackway, and cut off a living strand of Hardy’s cultural geography.
Finally, the official Hardy Trail, established by Dorset Council in 2006, begins in Beaminster. From there it arcs south through Netherbury and on to Bridport and West Bay, before looping back north to Evershot.
The proposed housing development would sever its very starting point, replacing gravel tracks and meadowland with tarmac roads, cul-de-sacs and a new bridge over the River Brit.