Residents of village that inspired Thomas Hardy fight back against expansion

Row breaks out in Marnhull, inspiration for novelist’s fictional Marlott, over plans to build 120 homes

Thomas Hardy described his fictional village of Marlott as being in an “engirdled and secluded region, for the most part untrodden as yet by tourist or landscape-painter, though within a four hours’ journey from London”.

But the Victorian realist would now barely recognise Marnhull, the real-life village in Dorset upon which Marlott was based, and would likely be surprised to know his name is repeatedly invoked in official submissions arguing against its ongoing expansion.