Shakespeare!! 6/4 to 6/6

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There is no way to describe everything I saw. It is so interesting and there is so much to see that it is impossible to give a good description. Also in most of the places I could not take pictures. I have added some of the pictures I do have. I did buy the guides to the houses and there are some pictures in them.

June 4th

Arrived in Stratford; stayed in Holiday Inn the first night b/c I had a migraine and the two mile walk to the youth hostel was out of the question. I did walk a little bit around the town centre after my migraine medicine kicked in. I had only intended on staying one night in Stratford but I decided to stay two nights because I did not get to do much on my first day there.

June 5th

Switched to a bed and breakfast (the youth hostel was full). Lovely little B&B though. Much more comfy than Holiday Inn and free wifi!! I spent an hour or so around the town centre, it is a large park with a canal in it. Then I bought a ticket for the sight seeing bus. The ticket included admission to the five Shakespeare houses. The guide was really funny and knew her stuff. She has actually written two books about the origins of a lot of sayings we have today. After a drive through town we went to Anne Hathaway’s (Shakespeare’s wife) childhood home. It is a beautiful cottage with an absolutely fantastic garden. The cottage has a lot of the original furniture and household items. The cottage was in the Hathaway family for 300 years. I have some pictures of the outside of the house and the garden. We couldn’t take pictures inside because of the damage flash photography does to paintings.

I learned a few interesting things from our tour of the Hathaway cottage. First of all when you see dining tables that are several hundred years old they are hardly ever scratched up and still look pretty shiny. The reason is they would actually flip the top of the table to eat on the underside. The underside is not polished and gives you splinters! The polished side is face up when it is not meal time. The polished table makes the family look more wealthy than they actually are. I also found out why people wore night caps that tied tightly under their chins. They did that to keep their mouth closed while they were asleep, because birds, rats and other animals would live in the thatched roofs and sometimes fell through the roof and into an open mouth. Finally someone had the great idea to string a sheet up and the four poster bed was born!

I hopped back on the bus and went to Mary Arden’s (Shakespeare’s mother) house. I decided not to get off because there was a rather large group of school children going into the house. So I went back to town and got lunch from the Baguette Barge (a long boat in the canal). You could walk right up and order a baguette from the boat. A lot of the long boats were moored in the canal and some of them are businesses (art gallery, ice cream shop, etc). After lunch I went the Shakespeare’s childhood home. They have an exhibition set up in part of the home- it displays a lot of his writings and will. Then you can tour the home- it has some of the original furnishings along with accurate replicas. The neatest thing about the Shakespeare home is the display of the original front windows of the home. People began scratching their names into the windows to prove they had been there. Even some literary giants such as Mark Twain have done it. The windows are now set up as a display and you can see some of the famous names scratched into the glass.
I then bought some handmade fudge (England has the BEST chocolate shops---you can even watch them make the chocolate!) and made my way over to Holy Trinity Church. Shakespeare was baptized there and is buried there. Shakespeare and his family are not buried in the graveyard but instead are buried right in front of the altar. Shakespeare paid for his grave to be located under the church because he didn’t want his bones dug up. His epitaph actually says (in more eloquent words of course) a curse will be put on anyone who digs up his bones. In his day most people’s bones were dug up after 20 or so years and burned (a bonefire hence the term bonfire!). He was afraid his bones would be stolen and sold. Holy Trinity Church is spectacular in itself. It is set on the river Avon and has dozen of really tall trees on the grounds.

After learning so much about Shakespeare you realize he was an absolute genius but a real jerk too. He all but abandoned his wife after they got married. He came back just enough times to make sure they had several kids but other than that he lived in London. None of his sons survived to adulthood, but two of his daughters did. He left several properties and most of his possessions to his smart daughter, his “second best bed” to his wife, and some of the plates and silverware to his other daughter.

I spent the afternoon at Mary Arden’s home. I think this was the most interesting of the Shakespeare house because it was more a depiction of the commoner’s way of life during Shakespeare’s time instead of about Shakespeare. Most of the staff was dressed in the appropriate dress for the time. The grounds included the barns, stables, cider house, and many other buildings! The rooms were fully furnished with a mix of original furniture and replicas. There was a falconer there and he was showing all the tricks one of the many birds could do. You could also hold the hawk, but considering my past history with pretty much any kind of animals (except cats) I decided against holding the hawk.

June 6th

A woman from Mississippi and her granddaughter were staying at the B&B and I had breakfast with them and a guy from Detroit. The woman and her granddaughter complained about everything! They didn’t like historical stuff and were so bored with Shakespeare. Also they were mad because they went to see McBeth and of course it was done in Shakespearian language. (I was really upset at this---I couldn’t get tickets to go and I would have enjoyed it!) I didn’t really understand why they came to England. The guy from Detroit was in his late 20’s and is a freelance journalist. He was very interesting and extremely well educated.
I only had the morning to explore so I went to Hall’s Croft (Shakespeare’s son-in-law was Dr. Hall). The house had many examples of medical tools used by Dr. Hall. One look at the may types of forceps used back then would make anyone say I will never have children!!! I think
the medical equipment may be partially the cause of the childbirth deaths. I think for the most part women are built to have children naturally—we don’t need metal implements to pull the baby out! Also women were confined to a bed in the birthing room for two weeks prior to the estimated delivery date and two weeks after the delivery. They were confined for an additional two weeks in the room (they could get out of bed but not leave the room). Also doctors believed fresh air and sunlight was bad for your health so the room would be boarded up for the entire 6 weeks. There were also many medical books of the time on display.

I left in the afternoon for Shrewsbury. The bus went to Birmingham and then I need to catch a connection to Shrewsbury. I had it stuck in my head that I had to get on the bus to Shrewsbury but I actually needed to get on the bus to Hereford (which is close to Leominster, where the hostel is located) so I missed my connection and the only other bus to Shrewsbury was full. So I had to take a city bus to the train station. This was interesting because the bus station is not in a nice part of town (think of where Greyhound stations are usually located!) and it was 5:00. The bus driver was less than helpful but I did find a girl on the bus who was getting off where I need to. She also gave me directions to the train. I actually managed to get on the right train (I have to take my victories when I can!).

Leominster is an extremely small town--- the “train station” is actually just a wooden platform on both sides of the train tracks. The walk to the hostel was supposed to be about a mile, but in my usual fashion I managed to get lost and the walk was more like three miles. Yes I did walk the ENTIRE town! The hostel was nice though and there were some really friendly people there.

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Photos

Anne Hathaway
The thatch work has a wire mesh (looks like chicken wire) on it to keep the birds and rats from burrowing in the straw.

Anne Hathaway
They are adding a layer to the roof. A layer has to be added about every 25 to 30 years.

Oldest Thatch house in Stratford-Upon-Avon
Thatch roofs are outlawed now because of the obvious fire hazard!

Potato and feathers
This is a potato with feathers stuck in it like a windmill. The potato is strung between two sticks and spins in the wind. It is used to keep animals away from the garden plants.

Hut at Hathaway Cottage
This little hut is a "living" hut. It is made out of live plants that are shaped and entwined to grow into each other. There is actually a bench to sit on inside the hut.

Corn and straw drier
This circle is used to lay corn stalks and straw on right after harvest time. After the stalks or straw has dried they are used. The stones are mushroom shaped so animals cannot crawl up and eat the corn or straw.

Cider Stone at Mary Arden's
They used to put apples in the trough and then have a horse pull the stone in a circle. The stone would crush the apples and then they would press all of the juice out of the apples to make cider.

Mary Arden's kitchen garden
Garden with typical garden plants from the period. Also traditional fence for that time.

Holy Trinity Church Altar
View of the altar. Shakespeare's grave is on the left under the black plaque. His epitaph reads:
Good friend for Jesus sake forbear
To dig the dust enclosed here!
Blest be the man that spares these stones,
And curst be he that moves my bones.

Holy Trinity Church Organ Pipes
Probably not that interesting to most people but I think they are amazing to see. They are so big and usually painted in different patterns.

Comments

[Dian]

Kirsten, I would have loved to have seen all the cottages. Anne Hathaway's is so quaint and beautiful. Enjoyed the pictures. You are absolutely getting a walking tour of your brave journeys! Any chance of your bringing some of the wonderful chocolate at the end of your trip? LOL ~ ~ ~

[law angel]

I have every intention of buying chocolate to bring with me. The question is will they make it through the journey??? ; )

[Mom]

Tour Guides Name?
Everything sounds fun and interesting. I hope the trip exceeds your expectations. What is the tour guides name, or the title of her book? I would love to read it. Love Mom, I never thought you would want to hike so much.

[law angel]

Her name is Gwen Zanzottera. The book is called By Hook or By Crook. I bought a copy so you can borrow it when I get home. Love Kirsten