TO SEE OR NOT TO SEE?
Shakespeare’s stomping grounds have something for everyone
Non-literary types might find touristy Stratford-upon-Avon to be much ado about nothing, but Shakespeare’s hometown is blanketed with opportunities for Bardolatry. It’s an easy day trip from London, but an overnight stay is best to take in a performance of the world’s best Shakespeare ensemble.
Within Stratford’s compact old town, you can walk easily to most sights. The River Avon, which flows right through town, has an idyllic yet playful feel, with rowboats, swans, and an old, one-man, crank-powered ferry just beyond the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. If you will ever enjoy a Shakespeare performance, it will be here, even if you flunked English literature.
The prime sight in town is Shakespeare’s Birthplace, a halftimbered Elizabethan building where William grew up. This is also the house where Shakespeare and his bride, Anne Hathaway, began their married life together. I have to admit that I find the birthplace itself a bit underwhelming; it’s as if millions of visitors have rubbed it clean of anything authentic. Still, the house makes for a good introduction to the Bard, largely thanks to its entertaining modern exhibit (which you see at the start of your visit) and the helpful, well-versed, and often costumed docents. With some imagination, you might get the sense that Shakespeare’s ghost still haunts these halls.
To get a sense of the playwright’s early education, visit the Shakespeare’s Schoolroom and Guildhall sight. You can test a quill pen and play Tudor games in his classroom from the 1570s, and explore a guild headquarters and chapel to learn about social infrastructure in Shakespeare’s day.
Shakespeare spent most of his career in London, where he taught the play-going public about human nature with plots that entertained both the highest and the lowest classes. His tool was an unrivalled mastery of the English language. He retired — rich and famous — back in Stratford. Nothing remains of the house the Bard built when he made it big (it was demolished in the 18th century). But the atmospheric mansion grounds, now adorned with modern sculptures and traditional gardens, form another tourist sight: Shakespeare’s New Place. It’s fun to contemplate him writing the Tempest in the place he called home for nearly 20 years.
Next door, the house of Shakespeare’s granddaughter (and her husband) hosts exhibits, including a large-scale model of Shakespeare’s house, domestic artifacts and period clothing.
Hall’s Croft, the old Jacobean home of Shakespeare’s daughter, is the fanciest of the Shakespeare-related houses. Since Susanna married a doctor, the exhibits here are focused on 17th-century medicine. There’s little here about Susanna’s dad, but the docents can help bring the plague, and some of the bizarre remedies of the time, to life.
Along with Shakespeare’s birthplace, my favourite of the five main sights is Mary Arden’s Farm, the girlhood home of William’s mom. The farm is in Wilmcote, about three miles from Stratford, just two train stops from Stratford’s station and a five-minute walk from Wilmcote’s station.
Built around two historic farmhouses, this attraction is an openair folk museum depicting 16thcentury farm life, which happens to have ties to Shakespeare. It’s an active, hands-on place with period interpreters in Tudor costumes going through the day’s chores, such as milking the sheep and cutting wood to do repairs on the house.
Anne Hathaway’s Cottage is the 12-room farmhouse where the bard’s wife grew up. It’s a mile out of town in Shottery — a 30-minute walk from central Stratford, a stop on the hop-on, hop-off tour bus, or a quick taxi ride from town. William courted Anne here — she was 26, he was only 18 — and his tactics proved successful (maybe a little too successful, as she was several months’ pregnant at their wedding). The Hathaway family lived here for 400 years, until 1911, and much of the family’s 92-acre farm remains part of the sight.
The picturesque thatched cottage looks cute enough to eat, with tranquil gardens including a charming sculpture garden. It’s fun to imagine the writer of some of the world’s greatest romances wooing his favourite girl right here during his formative years.
Shakespeare’s grave is in the riverside Holy Trinity Church, back in town, where he had been serving as a rector in his last years. While the church is surrounded by an evocative graveyard, the Bard is instead entombed in a place of honour, inside the church and right in front of the altar.
Shakespeare’s hometown is seventh heaven for English majors and actors, but Stratford-upon-Avon’s half-timbered charm, with colourful canal boats and punts plying the river, make Stratford a fun stop for anyone. You might even come home with a new appreciation for the enduring impact made by history ’s most remarkable playwright.
Shakespeare spent most of his career in London, where he taught the play-going public about human nature with plots that entertained both the highest and the lowest classes. His tool was an unrivalled mastery of the English language. Rick Steves, travel writer