A DISPLAY of costumes from the soon-to-be-released Far From the Madding Crowd film is on show at Dorset County Museum.

The adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s novel, which was shot in Dorset and stars Carey Mulligan, is due to be released on May 1.

And the museum is marking the occasion with a collection of three striking costumes worn by the movie's leading lady to add to its existing Thomas Hardy Gallery.

They have been loaned to the museum by Fox Searchlight Pictures and Cosprop costumiers and will be on show until June 8, with the companies agreeing to extend the loan from the end of May so the dressed with remain in the town for the annual Hardy birthday weekend celebrations, which this year take place on Saturday, June 6 and Sunday, June 7.

Textile volunteer Helen Francis said that one of the remarkable things about the costumes used for the film was how authentic they were.

She said: "The dresses are all made in the traditional way with corsets and everything underneath.

"They even use traditional methods for sewing."

Curator of the Hardy archive at the museum Helen Gibson added: "A lot of thought goes into it."

Costume curator Lucy Johnston said that the costumes looked great in the film alongside the Dorset landscape.

She said: "Something really successful about the film is how well the costumes worked with the landscape."

Also on display is a section of the novel written in Thomas Hardy's original hand, illustrations from the original publication and a first edition of the novel as well as reproductions of scenes of rural Wessex by Henry Joseph Moule, Hardy’s friend and watercolourist, and the first curator of the Dorset County Museum.

Staff at the museum said that the linking the exhibition with the film had helped get younger visitors interested and may encourage them to learn more about Hardy and his works.

Far From the Madding Crowd was widely seen as Hardy’s first major success.

It was his fourth novel and when it first appeared in serial form in The Cornhill magazine with illustrations by Helen Allingham in 1874 it became so popular Hardy was able to give up his day job as an architect and become a full-time writer as well as marry his first wife Emma.

The story of Bathsheba Everdene first got the cinematic treatment 100 years ago when it was released in 1915 as a silent film.

In 1967 an adaptation starring Julie Christie proved a great success and the museum is hoping the latest version, which was filmed on several locations around the county including Mapperton House at Beaminster, Sherborne and along the Jurassic Coast, will also help to further reignite interest in Hardy and his novels.