MAN OF PROPERTY
The town itself is best explored on foot, but you can hop on a tour bus so you can also visit the houses of Shakespeare’s wife, Anne Hathaway, and his mother, Mary Arden, which are a few miles out of town.
The thatched, oak-timbered house on Henley Street known as Shakespeare’s birthplace is said to have belonged to John Shakespeare who lived there with his family until he died in 1601, when William, his eldest son, inherited it. The young Bard was supposedly born in the master bedchamber in 1564. There’s a tiny replica bed – not because Elizabethans were small, but because they slept sitting upright to scare the devil from stealing their souls at night.
Elizabethans weren’t renowned for their diligent record keeping, and little is known about the early life of Shakespeare.
But despite the uncertainty surrounding his birthplace, the house has been a shrine to the Bard for the last 250 years, with visitors including Keats and Dickens paying their homage. These days the house is fully restored with 16th-century furniture, and you can see the workshop where Shakespeare’s father made gloves.
After earning some dosh from his success in London, Shakespeare then purchased the New Place in 1597 aged 33 and lived there for 16 years with his wife until he died at age 52.
The house next door belonged to Thomas Nash, who married Shakespeare’s granddaughter Elizabeth Hall in 1626. Here it’s worth seeing The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare where copies of the massive volumes date from 1623 to the present day in their various edited forms.
Hall’s Croft, another Shakespeare residence on the Stratford trail, is where the Bard’s daughter Susanna lived with her husband John Hall, a respected physician.
GRAVE MISUNDERSTANDING?
Sitting beside the River Avon is the beautiful 13th-century Holy Trinity Church, where Shakespeare worshipped, was baptised and buried. The words on his grave are surprisingly un-poetic: ‘Bleste be Ye man Yt spares thes stones, And curst be he Yt moves my bones’. This was probably to deter the church from removing the remains to make space.
A bust on the wall inside the church was erected shortly after his death and is one of two portraits that exist of the Bard of Avon. It’s believed it was initially of a man leaning on a sack of wool or grain, but was later changed to a man holding a quill pen and sheet of paper leaning on a pillow, which fuels the argument that the person buried there was in fact a dull merchant, not the famous playwright at all.
Ponder this while overlooking the Avon as swans swim by. You can hire a rowing boat or take a cruise up the river on a barge.
THE PLAY’S THE THING
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) stages traditional and modern versions of the Bard’s plays at the Courtyard Theatre: Ian McKellen of Lord Of The Rings fame recently performed King Lear here. You can also see the RSC at The Swan Theatre by the river, built in 1986 and based on the design of Elizabethan playhouses. The Royal Shakespeare Theatre is under construction, and will be home to the RSC from 2010.
If you’re a fair-weather thespian then brush up on the plays at the Shakespearience. Each show runs for an hour as holographic actors guide you through nine of Shakespeare’s plays – and even the Old Bard himself has a few wise words to bestow.
If you’re feeling Shakespeare overload take some time out at The Falstaffs Experience.
By day it’s an eerie museum in the 16th-century Shrieves House Barn laden with deathly memorabilia of the plague and witchery. Certified as one of the most haunted properties in Britain, it once hosted the TV show Haunted because of its paranormal activity, including the ghost of rapist and murderer John Davies. By night you can join a ghost tour if you dare. With a little luck you could bump into Shakespeare and finally get to the bottom of who the Old Bard really was.
• Jo Cackett travelled to Stratford-upon-Avon with Chiltern Railways.
