18 July 2016 - Chapel Lane Caravan Club site, Wythall near Birmingham

Summer has at last arrived in the United Kingdom! Clear skies and temperatures up to 26 degrees here in Wythall today although I suspect they were a little higher further south where we were today. It was just the loveliest day to head down to Stratford-upon-Avon, a distance of about thirty miles from where we are camped.

The River Avon

The town is world renowned, all because of the famous William Shakespeare, and although it is a pretty little town, I suspect it would be little more than a historical market town if it were not for this great wordsmith. These days the economy appears to rely entirely on the crowds that come as a kind of pilgrimage to The Man, to be watered and fed in the many charming cafes and pubs, to be entertained in the many theatres about the town and to be educated of the intricacies of his life, and that of his family, friends, classmates and fellow townspeople. And they do it so well!

We parked up at the Park and Ride and bussed into the town for the sum of £4 (£1 for parking and £3 for our combined “group” fare); now how can you complain about that! We found our way down to the Information Centre across the River Avon where we were encouraged to buy a ticket to the attractions of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. 

There are five locations about the town which come under this umbrella as well as a temporary one which I shall explain soon. One can purchase a pass to either three or all five of the places; we elected to settle for three and paid £15.50 each for the privilege. (I mentioned the OAP price yesterday; this is the “Old Age Pensioner” concession price which we are eligible for, both being aged over sixty years, even though I receive no pension. We are however not eligible to receive discount on many of the transport facilities which offer a concession only for those with an official council OAP card).

The river and canal basin was both busy and beautiful this morning, the flower gardens a mass of flowers, and the narrow boats quaint and appealing. Swans, geese and ducks were keen to feed on any offerings made by the tourists and little snack bars sold fillers for those unable to wait for their lunch. Coachloads of tourists filed up the streets, past the even quainter old buildings and all the while, the sun shone on the recently exposed skin of the tourists. We had both ventured into shorts and short sleeved shirts, sandals and sunhats, but were more modestly dressed than most of the young people, who were more interested to catch the sun than any sense of modesty.

After wandering about the gardens in the canal basin, we started our day’s touring at the Birthplace Centre which is not only the house where young Will was born and raised with his siblings by his parents John and Ann, but acts as an excellent exhibition centre, where for today and for a couple of weeks Will’s actual three page Last Testament & Will can be viewed. This has been a newsworthy event here hence has drawn the crowds, perhaps more so than usual.  Peering through the glass, it looked little more legible than a few pages from say, the Koran; rows of scrawl that are so foreign to today’s readers who are more comfortable with Times New Roman Font, than medieval hand-scrawl.

William inherited the family home on his father’s death in 1601, then rented the property out to an innkeeper, Lewis Hiccox who named his establishment the “Swan and Maidenhead”.

We were entertained by stories and history by period dressed guides; a wench at the door to greet us and a glove-making journeyman, employee of John Shakespeare, who had a talent for quoting sonnets in both English and Dutch.

The Birthplace

After the building left Shakespeare ownership, having several different lives through the centuries, it was reclaimed as a place of special significance in 1847, when a group of like-minded people, including Charles Dickens, purchased the property for £3,000 by public subscription in a campaign to save the building, raising money through performances of Shakespeare’s plays.  It has remained as a national treasure since then through a variety of ownership arrangements.

The Bard's resting place

After lunching in the sunshine once more down by the river, we walked along the river bank to the Holy Trinity Church where Shakespeare’s body lies. We entered the Church to see that it was indeed a fine parish church and today proudly exhibited an exhibition by painter Jonathan Waller titled “The Seven Stages of Man”. While celebrating the concept made famous by The Bard in his play, “As You Like It”, the accompanying brochure cunningly invited the visitor to embrace the Christian faith. Well, why not? That is the business of a Christian Church. And speaking of business, a Church official guarded the entry to the front of the Church, inviting all comers who wished to pay their respects to The Bard himself, or his resting place, for a fee (or donation) of £4 each. We did not go forward, but exited leaving others to make their offerings.

Our next port of call was Hall’s Croft, the residence of his daughter Susanna and her husband, Dr John Hall. This was the second most grand house in the town at that time, and it is indeed impressive. It was there I discovered I had mislaid my ticket for the three visits, and we had to plead our negligence; after a lengthy and complicated bureaucratic process there was resolution, however I was most embarrassed to say the least.

Hall's Croft

The last place was a filler, because it should have been Shakespeare’s New Place, the site of the house he purchased with money earned from his endeavours in London, the grandest house of the town in its day. It was demolished some years ago but is being redeveloped more as a garden than a museum, and because of bad weather over the past couple of months, is luckily still some weeks away.  I say “luckily” because the alternative is another Tudor House, the Harvard House, more or less opposite the site. 

There is a connection to Shakespeare, albeit rather tentative; the house in Shakespeare’s time was owned by a butcher and businessman, Thomas Rogers, who had a daughter, Katherine, who was probably introduced to her future husband, Robert Harvard, by William Shakespeare. (There are several good reasons to suggest that this most likely happened.) Their son, John, a Cambridge educated clergyman, married an Ann Sadler, and they together with John’s brother headed off to America. Both the brothers died, but that and a combination of inheritances along the way, meant that Ann was indeed a very wealthy woman. In his death throes, John had time to agree with his wife that half his wealth be left to a fund for the founding of a college in Massachusetts, along with his library of twenty three books. The £750 left, today equivalent to about £3 million, was impressive enough to the founders to prompt them to name the college, later a university, after this generous benefactor, John Harvard. 

Harvard House

This explains the rather obscure Shakespeare connection, and also the American, although not quite. It was not until early last century that a successful American authoress, Marie Corelli, purchased the property in about 1905 and organised restoration. Four years later she gifted it to the Harvard University. Since 1990 the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust has administered the property.

Today we were greeted by a most enthusiastic volunteer, who recounted the story of the house in far more detail than I have recorded here. He was quite devastated that the house would soon be closed to the public once the New Place was opened. He felt it should have a permanent place in the Shakespeare Story that pilgrims come for, and I was inclined to agree with him.

 After walking on along High Street past a row of charming old alms houses, and pubs and houses all which add to the flavour of this wonderful town, we picked up ice cream sundaes using the warm afternoon as an excuse for such indulgences, then caught the bus back to our vehicle, and made our way home.