“Alas, Poor Yorick”!

Friday July 29
Another great day, further exploring Stratford. It started with a great breakfast at our hotel, then our first destination was Shakespeare’s birthplace, the one place where you need a timed entrance. John Shakespeare, William’s father lived and worked in this building. He was a glove maker - quite a lucrative profession in those days. John married Mary Arden in about 1557, and William was born in 1564, the third of eight children. In 1568 John became Mayor of Stratford, and it was because of his status of mayor, that William was privileged enough to attend the local grammar school to begin his education. When William married, the young couple continued to live with his parents in this house, and it is where their own children Susanna, Judith and Hamnet were born. William inherited it from his father when he died. There were very informative volunteers before you went into the house, and then in each area of the house, so it was a very interesting tour. When we came out there was a couple dressed in period costume, and playing tunes on period instruments, all adding to the atmosphere. The lower left image of my collage shows part of the house from the garden. Our next destination was the site of Shakespeare’s New Place, which was his family’s home from 1597 until he died in the house in 1616. Unfortunately, the house was demolished in 1759, but a garden has been designed where the New Place once stood, with commissioned art work, by American artist Gregg Wyatt, to commemorate the importance of this site. At the time, the house was one of the largest houses in the borough of Stratford. The sculptures represent some of Shakespeare’s greatest plays which he wrote during the time he lived in this house, such as Midsummer Nights Dream, the Tempest, King Lear, Hamlet, Macbeth amongst others. The two top scenes show some of the gardens. The sculptures I have included however are from elsewhere, the statue of Shakespeare in the centre of town, and the sculpture of Hamlet holding the skull of Yorick is part of the Gower memorial which stands by the Canal basin, where the central elevated plinth bearing Shakespeare’s figure is cornered by four of Shakespeare’s characters, Lady Macbeth, Hamlet, Falstaff and Prince Hal. Having seen the major sites, we treated ourselves to an ice cream, before going for a walk along the river and canal.
We left about 4pm to head back to Appleton, which meant a slow time going through Birmingham, so it was getting on for 7pm before we got back, and once again resorted to fish and chips for dinner for the three of us.
Step count: 13,499