Thomas Hardy’s novels featured many fictional towns, villages and cities which often had clearly identifiable real-life equivalents. One such example was Evershead, which in real life is Evershot. The Sow and Acorn inn in Evershead, which featured in a number of Hardy's stories, was inspired by the Acorn Inn, a 16th century Grade II-listed pub in the village which was frequented by Hardy himself.
In Tess Of The D’Urbervilles, there is a scene in which Tess stops for breakfast in the village at a cottage near the Sow and Acorn inn; she avoids the inn itself, not being the pub-going type. The inn is also mentioned in Interlopers at the Knap, in which Philip Hall collects Sally’s dress from the Sow and Acorn, and in The First Countess of Wessex, with Tupcombe indulging in a spot of eavesdropping from the inglenook.
Evershot, The Acorn Inn - geograph.org.uk - 3107193. Photo by Mr Eugene Birchall, via Wikimedia Commons.
The present-day inn offers accommodation in rooms named
after places and characters from Hardy’s novels. The interior has changed somewhat since his
time, being more open-plan now. The village
of Evershot is located just off the A37 midway between Yeovil and Dorchester,
and around 30 minutes’ drive from the Jurassic Coast. It is the second highest village in the
county of Dorset.
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