Shakespeare's birthplace

Great Shakes - Will.He.Was

16th-century Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of playwright and poet William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was a medieval market town in County Warwickshire in England’s West Midlands. 

The name Stratford-upon-Avon is an amalgam of strǣt (Old English for street), ford (a shallow part of a river) and avon (Celtic for river). 

Archeologists have found 3 Roman settlements in the area that date back to circa 43-410 AD. A charter granted to Stratford in 1196 by King Richard I allowed a weekly market to be held in the town, giving it the status of a market town. Soon it became a place of work for tradesmen and merchants.

One such skilled tradesman was John Shakespeare, a renowned glove-maker and whittawer (leather worker), the father of William Shakespeare. He was also a wool tradesman who accumulated enough wealth to buy a house on Henley Street in 1556 where he and his wife brought up five children (three more died in infancy). 

Later in 1576 he bought two adjacent houses and combined all three into a grand family home, that remained in the ownership of William Shakespeare's direct descendants until 1670, when his granddaughter, Elizabeth Barnard, died leaving no heirs.

House today

The tour of the museum starts with a potpourri of Shakespeare memorabilia including some old preserved works as well as some modern interpretations like a Star Wars Shakespeare. As a teenager,  I recall reading  Twisted Tales from Shakespeare by the American humorist Richard Armour but I didn't see any reference to that.

Among his many works Hamlet remains my favorite and is apparently among his most quoted work. I learned that Shakespeare's son Hamnet died at age 11.

To be, or not to be: if that is the question, then a wall of bronze castings depicting scenes from each of his plays is proof enough that the world is a far better place thanks to the 38 plays and over 150 short and long sonnets he wrote

Writing desk

Goodnight, sweet prince, And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest! ~ Horatio, act 5 scene 2 in Hamlet

All in all a very memorable visit on a sunny day that we will cherish for a long long time.