Egdon Heath is Thomas Hardy's fictitious name for what we now know as Studland Heath National Nature Reserve in the county of Dorset.  This  7,000 hectares of lowland heath is a very special place to the south of Poole Harbour.  Almost all of Hardy's novel The Return of the Native is located here. In the preface to the novel, he describes what the location means to him:

"It is pleasant to dream that some spot in the extensive tract whose south-western quarter is here described may be the heath of that traditional King of Wessex - Lear."

Egdon Heath is another powerful example of the landscape reflecting the mood and culture of people. In the novel, he says:

"Bees hummed around his ears with an intimate air, and tugged at the heath and furze-flowers at his side in such numbers as to weigh them down to the sod. The strange amber-coloured butterflies which Egdon produced, and which were never seen elsewhere, quivered in the breath of his lips, alighted upon his bowed back, and sported with the glittering point of his hook as he flourished it up and down. Tribes of emerald-green grasshoppers leaped over his feet, falling awkwardly on their backs, heads, or hips, like unskilful acrobats, as chance  might rule; or engaged themselves in noisy flirtations under the fern-fronds with silent ones of homely hue. Huge flies, ignorant of larders and wire-netting, and quite in a savage state, buzzed about him without knowing that he was a man.

Hardy’s friend, the photographer Herman Lea, provided this photograph of the fictional landscape as the frontispiece for the 1912
re-issue of The Return of the Native.

In and out of the fern-dells snakes glided in their most brilliant blue and yellow guise, it being the season immediately following the shedding of their old skins, whefsn their colours are brightest. Litters of young rabbits came out from their forms to sun themselves upon hillocks, the hot beams blazing through the delicate tissue of each thin-fleshed ear, and firing it to a blood-red transparency in which the veins could be seen."

In Hardy's own 19th century lifetime, concerns were rising about the future of the heath and he clearly considered civilisation to be its enemy:

"Though the date was comparatively recent, Egdon was much less fragmentary in character than now. The attempts -- successful and otherwise -- at cultivation on the lower slopes, which intrude and break up the original heath into small detached heaths, had not been carried far: Enclosure Acts had not taken, effect, and the banks and fences which now exclude the cattle of those villagers who formerly enjoyed rights of commonage thereon, and the carts of those who had turbary privileges which kept them in firing all the year round, were not erected."

In 1927 the composer Gustav Holst wrote a tone poem for orchestra entitled Egdon Heath, explicitly in homage to Hardy. He considered the restrained but brooding piece to be one of his best works.

Tomorrow's Heathland Heritage, led by English Nature and supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and a consortium of other partners, is making great strides towards the national Lowland Heathland Biodiversity Action Plan targets of restoring 58,000 hectares and re-creating a further 6,000 hectares. This in turn contributes to the overall UK Biodiversity Action Plan, which is geared to maintaining and creating a landscape that benefits people and wildlife.

Launched in October 2000 with a five-year programme, the Hardy's Egdon Heath Project's key objectives were to benefit the nationally important wildlife whilst enhancing public appreciation and enjoyment of the heathland, particularly for the local community, as an area of environmental, historical and cultural value.

The project aimed to clear some 1,000 hectares of mixed young woodland and scrub that had invaded 75 different heathland sites, and to clear some 200 hectares of plantation forestry where this had largely failed as a crop. Where appropriate traditional management by grazing has been reintroduced so scrub and trees have not been able to reinvade. In other areas heather and gorse have been cut which has encouraged new growth. The project also aimed to improve access and on-site interpretation.

With the recent finish of the project this list will soon be updated, but achievements noted so far include:

850 hectares scrub cleared, 48 hectares gorse coppiced, 204 hectares bracken cleared, 100 hectares pine plantation cleared to re-create heathland areas.

5 grazing projects achieved.

0.5 miles upgraded pathways, boardwalk construction, all-terrain wheelchair access.

Information including specific site information boards and leaflets, annual Project Information Sheets, 2 Project leaflets, heathland fairs, walks, talks and volunteer conservation tasks

Local contractors have carried out work to the value of over £1,600,000

Annual monitoring of 9 specific sites to chart the success of the heathland restoration works

To find out more about Hardy's Egdon Heath and other Tomorrow's Heathland Heritage projects click on the website link on the right.


Hardy's Egdon Heath Project Manager
Richard Elston
Tel: 01929 554970
Email: richard.elston@english-nature.org.uk

The RSPB's Dorset Heathland Project - The RSPB has been managing heathland in Dorset, on nature reserves such as Arne, for over thirty years.  In 1989, the RSPB Dorset Heathland Project was established to promote heathland conservation off reserves.

An experienced project team works with landowners to remove the invasive scrub species and bracken while managing and rejuvenating heather and gorse.  Two teams with specialised equipment are restoring heathland in the Avon Valley and Purbeck, primarily by the removal of invading scrub. This work is carried out during the winter months to avoid disturbance to nesting birds. Priority is given to those areas, which are worst affected by tree and scrub invasion, as these are most in danger of losing their heathland wildlife.

The Project also targets areas of former heathland, which, once cleared, re-establish links between larger blocks of heathland, allowing free movement of species between heaths.

The Dorset Heathland Project has already played an important role in reversing the alarming decline of Dorset's heaths, and will continue its work as part of the Hardy's Egdon Heath Project part of Tomorrow's Heathland Heritage, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. It is only through such management that the outstanding wildlife richness of Dorset's heathland, and its atmospheric open landscapes, will be enhanced and maintained for future generations to enjoy.

This project is part of the Wildlife Guardians Scheme supported by the SITA Environmental Trust through the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme,

Contact the RSPB Dorset Heathlands Project Office,
Ryan House,
Ryan Business Park,
Sandford Lane,
Wareham,
Dorset,
BH20 4DY.
Telephone: 01929 556651
E-mail: jenny.goy@rspb.org.uk