Friday 12 August 2022

William Shakespeare day

We are still at Stratford upon Avon, and it is full of tourists all keen to discover more about William Shakespeare.

His name appears everywhere, along with shops, bars and restaurants that are named after his plays or characters. On the main street is a lovely statue.


We paid for a ticket that gave us entry to three different attractions.

First up was Shakespeare's birthplace. It is right in the centre of town and is a good sized cottage, as his dad earned a good living as a glove maker. Shakespeare was born in 1564 and records show that his family had 11 large wall coverings to brighten up the rooms. They were surprisingly over the top and it gave the whole place a lively look.


People at that time slept sitting upright in bed as they were very superstitious and believed that if they were lying down then devils would take them away to die, or something very similar to that.

Just imagine - it would be like trying to sleep every night in an aeroplane seat.

The building was exactly as you would imagine a 500 year old cottage to be. Low ceilings, lots of beams, tiny windows, thatched roof and large walk in fireplace.


The next destination was about five minutes walk away and is called New Place. Shakespeare moved here with his wife Anne Hathaway in 1597 and lived there until his death in 1616.

I have to say that this was disappointing as the building was destroyed over 300 years ago. So basically we were looking at a garden with metal lines on the ground to show where the building used to be.

Some nice sculptures though, and a lady at the bottom of the garden telling stories about fairies and hobgoblins that Shakespeare would have known, and maybe used in his plays.

Finally we walked over a mile to Anne Hathaway's cottage. She was eight years older than Shakespeare and this is where she lived until they got married.

Fortunately this one still stood.


It was my favourite of the three places, although in Anne's time her cottage was only a small section in the middle and it has been extended hugely since then.

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