Shakespeare's birthplace

People have been visiting Shakespeare's Birthplace from all over the world for over 250 years now. This is a fine Tudor house where the dramatist's life began. This is a cozy two-stored house with attic. You can meet performers and Shakespeare's characters performing in the garden. It is an amazing feeling to see where this great person was born.

Shakespeare 400 anniversary

Can you imagine it’s been 400 years since William Shakespeare died?! If you don’t know, I’ll tell you that it was April 23, 1616 when he died, and his death is kind of a mystery, because no one really knows what happened. He wrote some days ago that he was in perfect health, and then, suddenly he died. There’s a John Ward’s writing in his notebook 50 years later, where he writes: "Shakespeare, Drayton and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting and, it seems, drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted". Well, something must’ve happened there, or else he would live many years more, I guess.

For this date, there have been planned many events in England and, especially, in Stratford-Upon-Avon regarding to Shakespeare’s life and creations.

They are even going to open a new Shakespeare place, where all his works will be much more appreciated by people. The new place is opening in the beginning of this summer.

Shakespeare’s house

As you know, the life of children growing up then was much more difficult then the life of children growing up now. There you can find things that William and his siblings played with, where they ate, where they slept, where they studied.

When you look at the building, you will see that all of it is made of wood, or at least most of it. When entering there’s this small metal gate, just like they are used for small gardens or something. And then there’s this wooden wall and when looking at it you feel the history as it has an old look, like centuries’ look.

Inside you can see this huge fireplace made with bricks and the ones on both sides of the fireplace are coloured in white. There’s a small wooden table in front of it with a small stool, and you will find some book and paper and feather and ink. There are some vases and jugs on the fireplace and the table, too. Beside the fireplace there is a bed, and, well, if one could afford a bed that could have been downstairs in a living room where the fireplace was, one would definitely be proud of it, because it showed that you could afford so much and you could afford beds upstairs for your family and a bed downstairs for your guests.

The rooms may have been pretty dark, though, as there was no electricity then and they were only lit during the day from those small windows, because the glass was not very cheap and many people didn’t have many windows on their houses, and from the evening the rooms were lit by fireplaces and candles.

If you look down, you will see a floor of stone and that’s the oldest thing in the house, so think about it _ you may be walking on the thing that Shakespeare once used to walk on!

Then, you enter the dining room. The working day would start early, as Shakespeare started his grammar school at 6 in the morning in summer days and 6:30 in winter days. Then he would return home at 11 o’clock for his meal, then go back to school and come back home at 5 p. m. And of course, he went to school 6 days a week and on Sunday he attended church. So, you will see things that people used to use while eating dinner and cooking. You will mostly see wooden bowls and spoons and mugs. People usually ate with spoons in those days as the forks were rare and they would carry their own knives.

From the dining room you go to the cross-passage and there’s a door on your right that leads to backyard and there’s a door on your left which was the main entrance for clients and people. William’s father was a glove-maker and as most of the people then, he worked from home, too. And the people used to bring horses with goods and stuff from that left door and then there was this room full of gloves and materials, where William’s father used to work. William worked for his father, too, making gloves and helping him.

There is boys’ bedroom on the second floor. William shared his bedroom and his bed with his two brothers. There you will see a fireplace and a bed. There you will also see a wooden cupboard and that was used to store food, perhaps for midnight snacks for boys. The girls resided in a room with no fireplace next to the boys’ room and it would’ve been cold there and it was on top of the workshop, so it must’ve smelled awfully there.

You go into William’s parents’ room from the boys’ room. There you will see a bed, of course, where William and his siblings were born. He was the third child and his first two sisters had died before. There is a small bed beside parents’ bed and that’s where William would have slept until he was five. In another corner you will see a couple of cupboards and a cradle. And then there are some jugs and bowls and stuff for people to wash themselves.

Then you go downstairs and see where Shakespeare used to hang out with his other poet friends, where they would sit and drink and stuff like that. From there you go out into the garden.

Mary Arden’s farm

You can also visit Mary Arden’s farm _ that is a re-display of Mary Arden’s House _ childhood home of Shakespeare’s mother. This is a place where you will see what she used to do in their farm and how the things were done. You will see how they prepared food over the fire in their kitchen and what the eating manners were at that time.

Anne Hathaway’s cottage and gardens

Hearing the name Anne Hathaway, you will probably be reminded of this American actress Anne Jacqueline Hathaway, who is gorgeous by the way. But no! Anne Hathaway of the 16-17-th centuries was William Shakespeare’s wife and her cottage contains many original items of family furniture, including the Hathaway bed.

Hathaway cottage is in the hamlet of Shottery that is just about 2 kilometres from the town center. And the garden is just splendid!

Hall’s Croft

This is a house of Susanna Shakespeare _ William’s daughter and her husband. She married a wealthy physician Dr. John Hall and they lived in that building. You can see many luxurious stuff in there from the 17th century of England. You can see how the interior was decorated then and in the backyard there’s this beautiful garden, of course, that you should definitely see.

Tickets and pricing

You can book tickets online or you can buy them there. The prices range from 6 pounds to 70, which depends on the amount of people and their age. Generally, an adult needs something like 15 pounds to enter all the buildings or most of them. And children under 3 go free of charge.

Getting there

• By car: there’s a 2-hour drive from London to Stratford-Upon-Avon and less than that from Cambridge. So it’s really easy to get to Stratford by car, if you ask me.
• By coach: coaches bring visitors and then wait for them at the Stratford Leisure Centre coach park until they finish their visit. That’s what we did. We went there by bus and the bus stopped at the Windsor Street coach park and then we went to the Birthplace Visitor’s Centre and then went into the town.
• By train: there are regular direct trains from London to Stratford-Upon-Avon. They go from London Marylebone station, so you can just go there and take tickets and go to Stratford!