A town as you would like it

James Brooks finds a town dedicated to great English playwright’s life, death and everything in-between

All the world’s a stage,” wrote William Shakespeare. But he played out much of his life in one small English market town: Stratford-upon-Avon. “It’s the home of one of the greatest writers who’s ever lived, whose works are translated into all the world languages . . . and it’s therefore a magnet to come to understand a little bit about what made William Shakespeare, what formed him, to find out about the history of his time, and to celebrate his ongoing legacy,” says Dr Paul Edmondson, head of research at Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.

Shakespeare was born here in 1564 in a halftimbered house in Henley St. The home has been restored to look as it would have when Shakespeare was 10. His father, John, who was appointed mayor of the town in 1568, had a glovemaking workshop that’s been recreated downstairs, while the room where Shakespeare was believed to have been born is upstairs.

“Childbirth is always difficult, but even worse 400 years ago and baby Shakespeare was lucky to survive, because there was plague in the town the year he was born and the parish register is rammed full with burials for that year,” says Edmondson.

About two million tourists visit the town each year but it’s not just Shakespeare’s Birthplace that they come to see. William Shakespeare was born in Henley St. popupglobe.co.nz

About 5.5km away, in the village of Wilmcote, visitors can experience the sights, sounds and smells of a 16th century Tudor farm. It was here that Shakespeare’s mother, Mary Arden, grew up. It’s thought Shakespeare would have spent some of his childhood helping with tasks around the farm. Literary experts believe Wilmcote makes an appearance as Wincot in Shakespeare’s comedy, The Taming of the Shrew.

“He was always in some way a country lad at heart. He loved this town, he perhaps hated this town a little bit, obviously forging his career in London with the professional theatres,” says Edmondson.

During the late 1580s and early 1590s, Shakespeare left Stratford to seek fame and fortune in London. In 1597, he gained enough success to purchase a new family home in Stratfordupon-Avon called New Place, where he’s believed to have written many of his plays. Records from Stratford-upon-Avon’s Holy Trinity Church, a parish church on the banks of the River Avon, show he was baptised there on April 26, 1564 and buried there on April 25, 1616, two days after his death.

The local vicar, Reverend Patrick Taylor, says visitors initially see “a beautiful medieval parish church . . . But once they’ve made their way up into the chancel, then they can see Shakespeare’s grave on the floor just in front of the high altar, then his bust up on the wall which was put in by his relatives, shortly after his burial.”

Above Shakespeare’s grave, a warning is inscribed on his gravestone: “Good friend, for Jesus’ sake forbear, To dig the dust enclosed here. Blessed be the man that spares these stones, And cursed be he that moves my bones.”

Shakespeare is buried flanked by his wife, Anne Hathaway, who died in 1623, and Thomas Nash, the first husband of his granddaughter, Elizabeth. “There’s a lot of interest in this place, the final resting place of Shakespeare,” Taylor says. “People seem to have a connection with this playwright who wrote about human emotions and human experiences that people over the world relate to.”