Stratford-upon-Avon - #4 Shakespeare's Birthplace

Hi there everyone

It was the second day of our mini-break to Stratford-upon-Avon, where we were exploring the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust properties. We had spent our first day visiting Anne Hathaway's Cottage and Hall's Croft and the morning of our second day at New Place.

Whilst our 'full story' ticket gave us entry to all five Shakespeare Birthplace Trust properties, we had decided that we would leave Mary Arden's Farm for another time, but we did want to visit his birthplace, which is very handily situated in the centre of town.

Having had a real good wander around the gardens of New Place we decided we needed a bit of a breather before looking at his birthplace and found a very nice spot in the High Street which fit the bill perfectly.

We were sat outside in the sunshine, pretty much opposite the birthplace ...

Once inside there is a bit of a film showing lots of different interpretations of Shakespeare's works and a colourful comic strip which summed up the plots of all of his plays ...

We were eager to head outside into the gardens at the back of the property ...

... where getting a photo without any other visitors in it was pretty tricky, as there was a very steady stream of student and school trips coming and going  ...

There was the occasional quiet and tranquil spot ...

We did look round the ground floor of the house, which was laid out as it would have been when Shakespeare was born ...

... but it was just so busy that we couldn't face queuing to climb the narrow stairs, so we ducked under the rope and we were soon back outside ...

We had a sit in the regulation deckchairs before being swarmed upon by a group of foreign students as they finished their tour of the house.

We managed to grab one fairly decent shot of the gardens and the house, apart from the Patisserie Valerie presence which kind of spoils the moment, before deciding that we'd had enough and moved on ...

Whilst I'm sure we would have enjoyed this property more if it hadn't been quite so busy it was most definitely the least favourite of all that we had seen and we were glad to leave and find a nice quiet spot on the terrace at the back of the RSC for a drink and go at the crossword.

Whilst it was still nice, the weather did seem to be taking a bit of a turn and it got a bit cooler and greyer overhead.

We managed a final wander around the canal basin, picking up a few Geocaches along the way, before heading back to the Premier Inn for a bit of a chill out before dinner.

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Stratford-upon-Avon - #3 Shakespeare's New Place

Hi there everyone 😀

After a glorious and very full weekend I did feel a bit for Martin this morning, as he got up at the crack of dawn for another week's work.

Whilst I have had a very busy morning, starting to try and get straight and on top of some householdy jobs, I am very grateful for the luxury of being able to take my time and just potter along at my own pace.

I still have plenty to tell you about our short break to Stratford a week or so ago and today we are on to New Place, the house that, sadly, is no longer there.  There is, however, the most fabulous of sculpture gardens.

We started off our morning with breakfast at a spot that has become a firm favourite ... The Four Teas. It's a really quirky 40s themed tea room, where we have stopped for lunch a couple of times on previous visits.

There is lots of 40s and war time memorabilia around and it always feels very chilled out, with the sounds of Vera Lynn and Glen Miller playing in the background.

After enjoying Monty's breakfast we were ready for another day of exploring ...

It was just a short walk to New Place, the home where Shakespeare lived for 19 years. Sadly the house itself was demolished over 250 years ago, by the new owner, who was tired of Shakespeare tourists and high taxes. We’d walked past here a number of times when visiting last year and had seen tantalising glimpses of the gardens and sculptures within ... both through the gate and the hedges that surround the garden.

It was another glorious day and we were really excited about finally getting to discover what lay behind the high yew hedges ... We were not disappointed.

From the minute we walked through the threshold, which is sited where Shakespeare's front door used to be, we were literally in awe at what we could see in all directions. There was so much to take in. 

Whilst it is recommended to start your visit with a talk at the 'talks table', where you can find out more about why the house is no longer here and some of the meaning behind the sculptures, we were far too excited to look around to wait for a talk, so just went our own way picking up bits and pieces from the information boards and listening to other peoples' conversations.

All of the sculptures have their own tale to tell and all are inspired by Shakespeare, his works and the times in which he lived.

The first thing that caught our eye was The King's Ship, representing a 16th century galleon tossed on the high seas of The Tempest ...

The house next door is a beautiful red brick building and was built around 1530. It is now home to exhibitions about the archaeology of the site and how the house would have looked back in the day. It also has a viewing platform with some good photo opportunities to be had.

Having been immediately drawn to The King's Ship, we retraced our steps a bit to have a look at the globe, which is based on a 1600 map, with the axis running straight through Stratford-upon-Avon ...

I was then really drawn to the play pennants and sonnet ribbons ...

... Especially this one, which brought back not so fond memories of 'O' Level English Lit ...

It's funny how some things stay with you. I will never forget the opening lines ...

"In sooth, I know not why I am so sad:
It wearies me; you say it wearies you ..."

We then wandered past The Armillary Sphere ...

... to my favourite sculpture of them all. His Mind's Eye was just spectacular. It's made of bronze and every aspect of it has its own specific meaning. The hawthorn is bending under the weight of Shakespeare's imagination ...

From here we explored the Knot Garden, where we were really taken with the anemones, which were just beautiful ...

There isn't much else in flower in the Knot Garden at the moment but one of the gardeners told us that it looks pretty amazing at the height of summer when planted with summer bedding ... maybe we will need a return visit.

From the Knot Garden we could see a glimpse of the Great Garden through the gateway and made our way through ...

The Great Garden holds the Greg Wyatt Sculpture Trail, which is a series of sculptures inspired by some of Shakespeare's best known plays. All of the sculptures are very tactile and hold a mass of intricate features. The closer you look, the more you definitely see. We took loads of photos, from all angles. Here are a few of my favourites, though I must confess I didn't make a note of which plays they all represent ... I will leave that to your own imagination ...

You can get an idea of the scale of the sculptures in this picture and, yes, that is Martin taking photos, not just a random stranger ...

There are lots of places to sit, relax and take in the beauty of the garden, which really does wrap right around you. Even though you are in the midst of the town, with traffic and construction noise all around, the garden still felt surprisingly peaceful and it was easy to concentrate on the warmth of the sun and the singing of the birds ...

There was also a very charming outdoor refreshment option, should the need arise ...

As well as all of the sculptures this is a really lovely garden. Our visit was quite early in the season and, whilst there was plenty of colour to be seen, it's clear that there is so much to come. It will look even more amazing with the allium, peonies and lupins in full bloom ...

There is nothing for it, we are just going to have to make another visit. June and July are shaping up to be very busy re-visiting gardens 😁😁😁

There was just the exhibition rooms and the viewing platform left for us to look at to finish off our visit and it's very apt that you can see the RSC theatre across the gardens ...

So, that was it for New Place. We are so pleased that we got to visit and see what lie behind the tall yew hedges. It was a real treat. Time to find somewhere for lunch before heading to our next port of call, which was the place where it really did all begin  ... Shakespeare's birthplace, but I'll save that for my next post 😀

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Stratford-upon-Avon - #2 Hall's Croft

Hi there everyone 😀

It's the morning of Prince Harry's wedding to Meghan Markle. The sun is shining and the sky is blue and we will be wandering round to friends later, where I will be glued to the TV watching the wedding with Jackie, whilst Martin and Phil will be building a raised bed in the garden. We have Pimms and elderflower and lemon blondies to keep us going, it's shaping up to be another lovely day.

For now though, we are back in Stratford for the second of my posts following our short break last week.

We started off at Anne Hathaway's Cottage which you can read about here and from there we headed into the town centre, where we parked up on the other side of the river and had a walk up to the lock, where we watched the general coming and goings on the river whilst taking in the views.

We Walked back along the riverside ...

... where I found another natural treasure to add to my collection ...
Being by the river in Stratford always has a real holiday feeling about it for me. I don't quite know what it is and I’m sure the weather helped, it was perfect. It always feels so tranquil and chilled out and just makes you want to take everything just that little slower.

We didn't mind at all when the chain ferryman said he was stopping for lunch, we just sat on the nearest bench in the sunshine and watched the world go by, waiting until he was ready to get going again.
We didn't have to wait long and were soon on board ...
... and been wound across to the other side of the river ...

We were heading for Hall's Croft, the home of Shakespeare's daughter, Susanna, and her husband, physician John Hall. We wandered past pretty period cottages ...

The Other Place ...

... and Tai Chi in the park ...
... before turning a corner and being stopped dead by this sight ...
The sight and the scent literally took our breaths away, it was absolutely stunning, and we just had to spend a while trying to capture it ...

Hall's Croft was only a short walk along the street and it too was putting on a very good display ...

We decided that it was a good time for lunch and started our visit with a very pleasant half hour sat in the garden eating our Tudor Fayre, with this as our view ...

After lunch, we had a wander round the garden, which is quite small, but nicely laid out ...

I think it would be fair to say that the deck chairs gave as much colour as the planting, so if this was by design then 'Nice one!' ...
Again, we spent far longer in the garden than we did in the actual property itself, this does seem to be coming a bit of a theme for us at the moment.
From Hall's Croft we walked back past the glorious wisteria ...

... to Holy Trinity church, where we sat and pondered for a while, admiring the masses of tapestry kneelers made by some very talented local ladies, but not feeling inclined to pay to visit the Bard's final resting place.

We made our way back along the river walk to the chain ferry, where I managed to bump into an old work colleague who I haven’t seen since I finished work back in 2014. As he lives in a totally different part of the country I had to do a bit of a double take before believing it really was someone I knew ... who would have imagined it?

By now we were starting to flag so it was back across the chain ferry to the car for an early check in.

Looking back now at how much we did, it's hard to believe that we fit it all into a day but it had been the loveliest of days and were both looking forward to seeing what the morrow would bring 💜💜💜

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