It's always wonderful to revisit some of our favourite local nostalgia books.

One of them is The Book of Stinsford – Thomas Hardy’s Mellstock by Kay Kearsey and we thought this would be a good chance to share some of the images from this book, which show a parish with a bucolic way of life that has now been lost.

The parish of Stinsford was immortalised as ‘Mellstock’ by its most famous resident Thomas Hardy, whose cottage in Higher Bockhampton is still visited by thousands each year.

The parish consists of hamlets and settlements at Higher and Lower Bockhampton, Stinsford, Bhompston, Higher Kingston, Kingston Maurward, Coker’s Frome, Frome Whitfield and Waterston Ridge.

Author Kay, who grew up in Dorchester, moved to Bristol after school where she remained for 20 years. She returned to the area in 1995 and her friends and neighbours in the parish began to share their stories of village life.

She said: “I particularly talked a lot to our two neighbours who had lived here their whole lives and they had masses of stories from since they were born – and they were born in 1919. That set me going, word got round and I started collecting things. I thought, ‘When these people go it will all be lost.’ ”

Following a popular exhibition of her findings, Kay said: “It went on growing and people said, ‘You should bring it together in a book.’ We formed a small group of eight or 10 of us in 2004 – the Stinsford and Bockhampton Village History Group – and Mike Cosgrove worked with me on the book and looked after all the images. There are over 350.”

Through preparation for one exhibition at the Elizabethan Old Manor House, Kay came across the late Norrie Woodhall whose grandfather, Thomas Way, used to live there.

“He was a dairyman for the people who owned Kingston Maurward,” explained Kay. “At that time, the people who owned Kingston Maurward owned everything.”

The parish has five large country houses including the Old Manor House and Kingston Maurward and its history, Kay says, has been shaped by these. Other highlights of the book include memories of Second World War evacuees and the discovery of a map of the area, from 1774, in the archives of Exeter Cathedral.