Complex sentence: Thomas Hardy was born in 1840 in Higher Bockhampton (Upper Bockhampton in his day), a hamlet in the parish of Stinsford to the east of Dorchester in Dorset, England, where his father Thomas (d.1892) worked as a stonemason and local builder.
Split into simpler sentences: Thomas Hardy was born in 1840 in Higher Bockhampton (Upper Bockhampton in his day). A hamlet in the parish of Stinsford to the east of Dorchester in Dorset, England, where his father Thomas (d.1892) worked as a stonemason and local builder.