STRATFORD-ON-AVON

Stratford-On-Avon lies only about 20 miles from Birmingham, but we had to make a detour to get rid of Chloe. Well, she had organised to spend a few days with a friend of hers near Windsor, so it was just the three of us who went to explore 'Shakespeare Country'

Stratford is a very delightful town. The lady at the Tourist Info Centre told me the population is just over 20,000 but some 3,000,000 people visit every year to pay homage to a guy who we actually know very little about. Much of Shakespeare's life and times are based (mainly) on well-researched 'assumptions'.

Billy Shakespeare, or "The Bard" to his close friends, was born here, it is assumed, on 23 April 1564, which is quite convenient as it is St George's Day (the patron Saint of England). There is no record of his birth, although his baptism record shows 26 April 1564, so historians are more than happy to nail him down to St George's Day. We don't even know what he really looked like, as the few paintings that are believed to be of him differ quite considerably.

For trivia buffs, a 'bard' is a medievel term given to a member of a group of poets and scholars. Billy, naturally, is THE Bard, pretty much in the same way Don Bradman is THE batsman (sorry, terrible analogy).

It is known at 18 he married one Anne Hathaway (a lady some eight years his senior), it is believed, because he didn't use, should we say, protective measures whilst getting to know Ms Hathaway. Virtually nothing is known of the marriage, except that he wasn't there much as he spent most of his time in London, staging his plays. A clue as to his passion for Anne is found in his will, where he left her the marital bed. Considering when Bill passed on to that great playhouse in the sky, he had considerable wealth as well as a very healthy property portfolio, both in London and Stratford, leaving his beloved Anne a bed may provide an indicator of his feelings.

There are also several groups of historians who believe that Shakespeare did not actually write any of the plays he took the credit for. One of the more frequent names bandied around is that of Sir Francis Bacon (the Baconian Theory), who was a poet alive during the time of Shakespeare. Apparently, the 'Shakespeare Camp' say there has never been any evidence produced to substantiate this claim. More recent claims that British politician and author Jeffrey Archer is responsible for Shakespeare's work have been dismissed, mainly on account of the fact that he was born over 400 years after Shakespeare's plays had been performed in London.

However, Bill's legacy has left Stratford with a rich abundance of history and beautifully preserved buildings, and many establishments (in the absence of any contrary proof) claiming solid links to Shakespeare (although Woolworth's claim that he often used his American Express card in the store is, I believe, skating on thin ice). So without further ado, let's take a look.....

The River Avon flows gently through Stratford

We quickly established 'The Lamplighter' as a worthwhile venue for dinner, providing two meals for £4.95, a pretty good deal for England, let alone in a high-tourist area. Unfortunately it meant Chanelle didn't eat, although we did feed her a few chips through the window

Anne Hathaway's Cottage, one of five 'Shakespeare Homes' in Stratford, even though he never lived here. It was actually her parent's house


Hall's Croft, another Shakespeare Home, was where his daughter Susanna lived with her husband, John Croft

The gardens of New Place (the house no longer exists), which it was assumed was Shakespeare's final home before his death in 1616




The flagship of the Shakespeare Homes, Shakespeare's House, which was where his mother and father were living at the time of Bill's birth, and probably where he spent his formative years


Throughout the day, local actors give impromptu performances in the garden of Shakespeare's House, of acts from The Bards plays. Here is a scene from "The Two Gentlemen of Verona"


The back of Shakespeare's House



Karen and Chanelle have an ice cream outside a shop selling German Christmas decorations (well, there must be a market for them!). The reflection in the shop window is of Shakespeare's House


Many of Stratford's buildings date back to the 1500 and 1600's, although the businesses contained within may be a little more recent. For example, The Hathaway Tea Rooms were not necessarily frequented by Anne.

Although it must be said the tearooms were very cosy, inviting and amazingly reasonable in price

The Shakespeare Hostelrie seems to think that Shakespeare "would have" drunk at this establishment


The Garrick Inn, named after the actor David Garrick as indicated on the wall plaque

A very old part of the King Edward VI Grammar School, commonly referred to as 'Shakespeare's School' although there is no documented evidence of this, as a fire many years ago destroyed any relevant documents. However, as the only school in the area which taught Latin, and with Shakespeare's command of that language, this is probably a safe bet

This pub didn't claim to have any affiliation with Shakespeare, but it did sell beer, and that was good enough for me

We stayed near Alcester, about 20 mins out of Stratford, and this was our local

And so concluded our three days in Stratford. Before leaving I must pay thanks to the multitude of leaflets I picked up at the tourist info office, and also to Bill Bryson for his bestselling book 'Shakespeare' from which I gathered the valuable information passed on to you in this blog, and without which I would not have known that 'The Merchant Of Venice' contains 26,885 words, which is of course, 5108 more than 'Macbeth'. What isn't so well known is that Macbeth has 227 question marks against 211 for Merchant. This leads me to suspect that there were more inquisitive people in Scotland than in Italy. I digress. The UK leg of our trip was drawing to a close and we had to make a dash for the south coast to get a ferry across the English Channel to France. I made a mental note to go via London to pick up Chloe......