Sunday had us heading to the Bard's hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon. Lizzy had purchased a few corsets and pants on her shopping trip the day before, so she wore them today in honour of our trip. We boarded our bus, and I resumed listening to my book.
Our first stop was Ann Hathaway's home. It was built in 1463 and had originally only three rooms, two of which survive today - the kitchen and the parlour. The first Hathaway to live in the cottage was Anne’s grandfather John Hathaway, who was a tenant sheep farmer. Anne was born in the cottage in 1556.
The Hathaway family were successful sheep farmers. Anne’s father died in 1581, and Anne’s brother Bartholomew inherited the tenancy. Later, he bought and added on to the cottage around 1624.
In 1838, the cottage itself was sold off for debts, but the Hathaway family continued to live in the cottage as tenants. One of the last Hathaways to live in the cottage was Mary Baker. When the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust purchased the cottage in 1892. Their duties were to share family stories and to care for the cottage. Her son, William Baker, occupied part of the cottage until 1911.
Mary was quite the storyteller. She often made things up to tell the visitors. She was the first one to realize she could cash in on her famous relative. She invited people into her home and fed them tea and stories. She entertained many famous people, including Mark Twain. I would have liked to be there for that visit.
As usual, we split into two groups, so our group wandered the garden and grounds. They have an apple orchard, which they encourage visitors to pick when in season. Unfortunately, they were not in season while we were visiting.
The iconic Moon Seat sculpture was created in 2013 by Tom Hare. Lizzy was pretty iconic as well.
I'm rather less so; the seat was hard to sit in, and I didn't know how to sit.
Upon entering the house proper, I was enchanted by the windows and general shape of the home.
This bench is one of the few survivors from Ann's time.
This docent was very friendly and caught me alone at the end of the tour. She really wanted to talk, not about the house so much; she just wanted to talk. I wish I had more time to give her. She was so sweet. She actually asked if I knew someone she knew in America. Which I found hilarious.
They had quite a few bee houses.
There were sculptures and statuary throughout the grounds. They used to have 4 gardeners, but since Covid, they are down to one, so it's kind of overgrown.
We boarded the bus to ride into Stratford-upon-Avon. We had some free time to explore until our tour of William's home. The other day, a group had gone to a high tea. It was around 40 pounds, so I demurred and went to the museum instead. I did encourage Lizzy to go if she wanted, but she decided not to. Our group was Shelia, Ren, Lizzy, and me. We spotted a cute patisserie that was serving tea for a respectable 15 pounds. So we decided to luncheon there. It was called Hobsons, and it was perfect.
You could get cream tea, without the sandwiches, or full tea. Lizzy opted for the cream tea as she wanted to try their chicken wrap as well. The rest of us did a full tea. We all picked a different slice of cake from their plentiful selection to share. The service came with a slice of Victoria sponge, a tuna, ham-and-butter, and egg salad sandwiches, as well as a scone and a tiny jar of jam. We each picked our tea of choice; I went with mint, as it's my favorite, and we got our own pot. I picked the Devonshire cream cheese cake. It was so light and airy.
Lizzy didn't like her salad as it had a vinaigrette, so I ate it. Everything was wonderful. The Victoria sponge was a bit dry, but it went well with the tea. We spent our hour there just enjoying. Then it was time to meet up for our tour of Shakespeare's boyhood home.
His father was a glover and had his shop attached to the house. There was a school group that was touring at the same time, and one girl saw the birds hanging in the larder and started crying, poor thing.
One of the actors was reciting through the upstairs window.
Will and I again.
After our tour, the kids had another acting class in a church. I was a little late getting out of the gift shop, so we had to run to the bus. It was a short ride to the church that was hosting our class. The church was directly across the street from the church, and the actual resting place of Hamnet and Will Shakespeare. The tomb is visible only during certain hours; the adults had planned to see the tomb while the kids did their class, unfortunately, we got the times wrong. I didn't get the message about the mix-up, so I left the class in hopes of seeing the tomb, only to get locked out of the church. It was a nice day, and Shelia and I walked the church grounds and listened to the choir practice.
There is a theater here now, it's pretty nice, but we didn't have time for a show.
Back on the bus!
We had dinner at Wagamama's. It is a chain and quite good. Lizzy had a cherry blossom lemonade.
Then back to the tube before heading in for the night.
