Shakespeare's Birthplace

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Today we visited Stratford upon Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. Although there were many tourists in town (3.5 million people a year visit) it didn't seem overly crowded. The streets are narrow, but there are many park areas and big pedestrian zones in the shopping areas. The park along the river Avon is most pleasant. One can feed the flocks of swans and Canada geese or rent a boat and row up the river. The name "Avon" actually means river. While I'm at it I'll tell you that "Strat" means street and "ford" is the place to cross the river.

The day was sunny and warm so we got on a tour bus and sat in the open upper deck, taking in the rays while touring the town and the surrounding fields. We saw the house where Shakespeare was born. We couldn't see the house where Shakespeare and his wife, Anne Hathaway, died because a subsequent owner of the land, Reverend Francis Gastrell, became so enraged by the hordes of tourists that one night he went out and chopped down a mulberry tree that Shakespeare was said to have planted. Stratford residents got revenge on Gastrell by throwing rocks through his glass windows. Gastrell retaliated by razing Shakespeare's house to the ground. There is sign by the foundation of the house. A lovely Elizabethan garden has been planted on the grounds around the foundation.

We stopped at other buildings related to Shakespeare, such as the Holy Trinity Church, where the bard was baptized and buried. The inscription on his gravestone reads:

Good frend for Jesus sake forebeare,
to digg the dust encloased heare,
Bleste be ye man yt spares thes stones,
And curst be he yt moves my bones

It was custom in England (and still is in parts of Europe) to dig up graves after 30 or so years to make room for new bodies. The old bones would be burned (except for the skulls), hence the term "bonfire." See what you can learn in visiting the birthplace of the greatest writer of the English language? Certainly Shakespeare was hoping his corpse would remain undisturbed.

The tour bus took us to Anne Hathaway's cottage, where the weeping willow branches bow so low that they comb though your hair. Amazingly, this does not hurt. From the cottage the bus rocked and swayed through the narrow roads out of town. Suddenly we were soaring by open fields of new mown hay on the way to Mary Arden's (Shakespeare's mother) house. There ought to be a perfume called. "New Mown Hay." The smell is as glorious as any flower. The fields were golden. There was a glider soaring above us. Actually this was my favorite part of the whole trip. After so many visits to crowded tourist spots, being in the country raised my spirits.

There is a brass rubbing center in a Roman rotunda style building on the Avon River. I've seen the beautiful gold wax rubbings framed and hung in homes and thought it would be a lovely souvenir of England. They are inexpensive if you make them yourself. After studying the various sizes and subjects of the brass plates, Jay and I selected one of the knight, Sir Robert de Bures, from Suffolk. The original brass plate is from the Church of all Saints in Acton, Suffolk (see photos). The centre employee taped a black sheet of paper around the plate and gave us a bag of different colored pieces of wax. She showed us how to rub the wax on the plate. It turned out to be a lot of patient work, as you can see from our expressions of concentration. I rubbed the plate with the small piece of gold wax, taking turns with both hands. I got tired and asked Jay if he wanted to work on it. He actually enjoyed it and even finished the edges neatly.
That evening we both had sore hands from rubbing the wax, but it was well worth it.

After the rubbing (does this sound a little like the title of an Engelbert Humperdinck song?) we had an ice cream cone by the water's edge and I took photos of the monument to Shakespeare. The really interesting part of the monument are the characters of Prince Hal, Falstaff, Lady Macbeth (see photo) and Hamlet. I found out during the tour that Shakespeare had a son named Hamlet who died at age 11. A few years after his son's death, Shakespeare wrote the eponymous play.

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Photos

Shakespeare birthplace
there is a museum inside and a lovely garden beside the building

Wetherspoon Free House
Most of the buildings in the old town are of this half timber construction (real or faux). Jay liked this style and took several photos

Harvard House
The building was given to Harvard University in 1909

Leisa rubbing brass
We were instructed to rub silver wax on for the underlayer and place all stokes in the same direction

Jay rubbing brass
Jay was great at finishing the edges and pressing another layer of wax

Sir Robert de Bures
this rubbing looks very much like ours. I forgot to take a photo of it before it was carefully wrapped.

Rowboat on Avon
This is the river just outside the Brass Rubbing Centre

Lady Macbeth
this is one of the sculptures on Shakespeare's monument

Swans on Avon
I've been taking photos of swans everywhere we go. I'm hoping to catch one flying. They had enormous wingspans and loud wingbeats.

Comments

[carl]

Great Comments
Dear Two, Thanks for the guided tour -- I really felt like having been there myself! See you mid-September + Kindest, Carl

[judy]

never been there...
thanks for the tour... !

[Samir Farha]

Sir Robert de Bures
It seems your picture looks better I wish mine had the name of the maker on the back . I like it any how and I am happy I kept all these years .