As I mentioned in my last post, we had a little trip away back in November. I last visited Stratford-upon-Avon when I was at school, so it was over forty years since my last visit. I'd been wanting to go back, though I have to say that I could remember hardly a thing from my school trip.
We stayed in a lovely hotel right in the centre of town. A very nice cooked breakfast was included, and we ate in the restaurant on our first night too. There was a good choice on the menu, we opted for fish and chips, beer battered haddock with triple-cooked chips.
Stratford-upon-Avon is the birthplace of William Shakespeare and the town attracts tourists because of this. There's many places associated with Shakespeare which you can visit, and there's different statues dotted around the town too.
We arrived during the morning so we had plenty of time on our hands on our first day. We decided we'd visit Shakespeare's Birthplace on Henley Street, which was just a five minute walk from our hotel.
Shakespeare's exact date of birth is not known, but he was born sometime during April 1564. He was born and grew up in this house, and spent the first five years of his marriage to Anne Hathaway here too.
John Shakespeare, William's father, lived and worked as a glovemaker in the house for fifty years. It was the largest house on Henley Street.
There are some beautiful buildings in Stratford-upon-Avon. This is Shakespeare's Schoolroom & Guildhall. This is where Shakespeare went to school in the 1570s. We didn't go inside, but what an amazing building. It was very cold on that first day but it was nice to just wander around the town, the architecture is fantastic, so many structures from the Tudor period still standing.
On our second day, we visited Anne Hathaway's Cottage. It wasn't quite as cold as the day before, though there was still frost on the ground.
Anne was Shakespeare's wife and she was born here in 1556. The house was built in 1463 and thirteen generations of the Hathaway family have lived here.
After visiting Anne Hathaway's Cottage, we made our way down to the waterside. The Stratford-upon-Avon Canal runs for twenty five miles to Birmingham. It shows thirty miles to Birmingham on the signpost because it's connected to the Grand Union Canal at Kingswood Junction.
As its name suggests, the town is situated on the River Avon and it connects with the canal in the centre of town. There were no boats for hire, or cruises, on this chilly day but we did take a walk along the river.
The Royal Shakespeare Theatre is situated alongside the River Avon. Our trip was a last minute thing so we didn't have theatre tickets. I went to see Hamlet the last time I was in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Also around this area is the Gower Memorial. The statue, sculpted by Lord Ronald Gower, was given to the town in 1888. There are four figures around the base depicting Shakespearian characters. Here we see Falstaff, there's also Hamlet, Lady Macbeth and Prince Hal.
If you look back at the photo of the river, you can see the steeple of Holy Trinity Church. This is where Shakespeare was baptised, worshipped and is buried. Unfortunately, we didn't realise but the church is only open on a weekend so we couldn't look inside. The walkway looked so poignant though, the tree trunks adorned in poppies for Remembrance Day.
The following day dawned wet and grey, the rain hitting the window had woken us in the night and it was still raining on and off. It was the day we were leaving for home, I'm glad we'd booked the dates we had, it may have been chilly but at least it had been dry. There was a market right outside the hotel so we had a wander around that, and then had a little mooch around the shops in the town before deciding to go back to the church as it was a Saturday and therefore, we would be able to go inside. It was a lovely church but we didn't bother paying the £10 it would have cost for us both to see William Shakespeare's grave. I don't think we'd have seen very much anyway, can you see the huge crowd in the chancel. Perhaps it's just me but I think it's in bad taste to charge to look at a grave.
We had a very enjoyable time. There's so much to see and do in Stratford-upon-Avon, I'm sure it's even nicer during the summertime. Perhaps I won't leave it forty years until I return again.