Bere Regis

Most visitors to the church at Bere Regis are attracted by its associations with Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles. They come to see the crumbling tombs of the once-powerful Turberville family whose name Hardy adapted for his novel. It was outside the church, beneath the Turberville window, that Hardy had the homeless Tess and her family set up their 4-poster bed. A poignant fictional scene, but the church is also well worth visiting for its unique and magnificent carved and painted wooden roof. Large figures of the 12 Apostles (all in Tudor dress) jut out horizontally from the wall and there are a number of humorous carvings depicting men suffering the discomforts of toothache and over-indulgence. There’s also a carving of Cardinal Morton who had this splendid roof installed in 1497. The church’s history goes back much farther than that. In Saxon times, Queen Elfrida came here to spend the remainder of her days in penitence for her part in the murder of young King Edward at Corfe Castle in AD 979. Further evidence of the church’s great age is the fact that around 1190 King John paid for the pillars of the nave to be ‘restored’.