Shakespears Birthplace, Harvard House and Hall's Croft

It rained pretty much all night but by the time we had breakfast it had stopped and was starting to brighten up.

We drove into Stratford and parked at the Marina. We walked from there to Shakespeare’s birthplace on Henley Street. The visitor centre pokes into every corner of Shakespeare’s life and times, making the most of what little hard evidence there is. His will is interesting in so far as he passed all sorts of goodies to his daughters and chums, but precious little to his wife.

Next door, the half-timbered birthplace dwelling is actually two buildings knocked into one. The northern, much smaller and later part was the house of Joan, Shakespeare’s sister, and it adjoins the main family home, bought by John Shakespeare in 1556 and now returned to something like its original appearance. It includes a glover’s workshop, where Shakespeare’s father beavered away, though some argue that he was a wool merchant or a butcher. Neither is it certain that Shakespeare was born in this building nor that he was born on April 23, 1564 – it’s just known that he was baptized on April 26, and it’s an irresistible temptation to place the birth of the national poet three days earlier, on St George’s Day. Despite these uncertainties, the house has been attracting visitors for centuries and upstairs one of the old mullioned windows, now displayed in a glass cabinet, bears the scratch-mark signatures of some of them, including those of Thomas Carlyle and Walter Scott.

We then walked about half a mile up Birmingham Road for a buffet lunch at Pizza Hut.

After lunch we walked back to Harvard House. Once known as the Ancient House, It was built in 1596 by Thomas Rogers, grandfather of the benefactor of Harvard University, John Harvard. The House has been cared for by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, on behalf of Harvard University, since 1990.

A little further down the road is Nash’s House and New Place. Once the property of Thomas Nash, first husband of Shakespeare’s granddaughter, Elizabeth Hall. The adjacent gardens contain the foundations of New Place, Shakespeare’s last residence, which was demolished by the Reverend Gastrell, who was in bitter dispute with the town council over taxation. The foundations have prompted all sorts of speculation, queries and questions that may be resolved by the archaeological dig that is currently burrowing into the site, and why the house is currently closed.

Just around the corner was Hall’s Croft, Stratford’s most impressive medieval house, Hall’s Croft. The former home of Shakespeare’s elder daughter, Susanna, and her doctor husband John Hall, the immaculately maintained Croft, with its beamed ceilings and rickety rooms, holds a good-looking medley of period furniture. Hall established something of a reputation for his medical know-how and after his death some of his case notes were published in a volume entitled Select Observations on English Bodies. The best view of the building itself is at the back, in the neat walled garden.

We then Headed back to the caravan for a couple of hours chill, before heading down to the Riverside Complex for the excellent  fireworks display accompanied by a couple of pints of cider.