Owermoigne History

Smuggling in Owermoigne.
Owermoigne is renowned for its involvement in the Smuggling Trade that thrived from 1700 to the mid-1800’s. Contraband was brought ashore at nearby Ringstead Bay and stored in St Michael’s Church Tower. Further details are described on the display in the church or on the artwork linked here.

Thomas Hardy & Owermoigne
Many of Thomas Hardy’s forbears lived and worked in Owermoigne and births marriages and deaths of many Hardys are included in the Parish Records. More details are given on the display in St Michaels Church and on the artwork linked.

The Distracted Preacher.
Thomas Hardy wrote a short story – “The Distracted Preacher” about smuggling in “Nether Moynton” – a thinly disguised Owermoigne. Many of the scenes in the story relate to real places in the village while the smuggler in the story -Jim Owlett is based on villager James Hewlett who was up before the Dorst Assizes on smuggling charges in 1830 and 1840 before emigrating to Winsconsin. A summary of the story is depicted in St Michaels Church and on the artwork linked here.

Norrie Woodall

Norrie Woodhall, who lived in Owermoigne until her death aged 105, in 2011, was the last surviving person who know Thomas Hardy.  In 1924 Hardy cast Norrie, then just 18, as Tess Durbeyfield’s sister Liza Lu, in in a stage version of his masterpiece produced at Dorchester’s Corn Exchange