Stratford-upon-Avon; Saturday, 15 July, 2023

I had a relatively early breakfast before heading out of the hotel and wandering down to the bridges by the river, the point where the open-top tour buses depart from to pick up one of the first tours of the morning.

I did two full circuits of the route, taking in the sights from both sides of the bus, before hopping off in the centre of town and wandering up to the house where Shakespeare was born.

I’d booked a ticket online earlier in the morning, and I was glad that I had as the queues for the ticket office were spectacular – both for groups and for individuals, though it did mean that once I’d skipped that queue it was still pretty busy inside the museum and getting into the house itself.

After looking round the house I had a bit of a wander around the town centre and grabbed a quick coffee before deciding on taking a chronological approach to visiting the Shakespeare sights – having done his birthplace the next stop would be out on the open-top bus to Anne Hathaway’s Cottage located about a mile away. The cottage actually belonged to Anne’s parents when William wooed her before a speedy wedding – their first daughter being born just six months after the marriage…

Much like the Birthplace the cottage isn’t quite in the shape that it would have been when William was around here – given both had extensions added in the years after William’s time, but the general look and layout of the cottage would be familiar to the bard and his wife if they suddenly turned up today.

From the cottage I hopped back on the bus and caught it back round into town and to the site of New Place, at one time the largest and most important house in the town and, once he’d made his fortune, the home that William purchased for his family when he moved back from London. In fact, it was this house that William would live in until his death on his 52nd Birthday. Unfortunately, 150 years after The Bards death the house had passed into the ownership of a curmudgeonly vicar who didn’t like his plays and got fed up with fans turning up so requested to not have to pay taxes on the building as he wasn’t able to enjoy it. When the council refused, he just tore down the building leaving just an empty lot. Today the area has been turned into a pleasant garden with the layout of the house marked on the ground. Thankfully, the next-door building was owned by his Grandson-in-Law, which has survived and now the two plots have been merged into a museum and garden.

So from birthplace to death place, it was only fitting that the next stop on my tour was the parish church of Holy Trinity, home to Williams Grave. I’ve visited here a couple of times before on other day trips to Stratford so wasn’t so fussed about actually getting up to the grave again when I found out there’s now a £4 charge! On the way back from the Church I passed by Hall’s Croft which was the house that his eldest daughter Susanna lived in with her husband John Hall.

I headed back into town to grab an early dinner, back to the hotel to freshen up, and then down to the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Theatre to take in an evening performance of As You Like It.

By the time the show ended it was already well gone 10pm so I headed back to the hotel, grabbed a quick nightcap in the bar before turning in for the night.