For our last few days across the pond, the Theatre in London group stayed in Stratford-Upon-Avon at two Bed and Breakfasts run by sisters!
I was in “The Hathaways,” pictured here. The other half of our group was next door. Every morning we would eat breakfast in our respective places and then leave all together to explore Stratford.
Saying goodbye to London was heartbreaking, but our visit to Stratford-Upon-Avon was so beautiful it almost made me forget we were nearing the end of our trip. The hustle and bustle of the big city of London was very different from the small, sleepy city of Stratford. Most days, the streets wouldn’t begin filling with people until close to 10 or 11 am, and a full street in Stratford was like a quiet morning in London. The streets were vacant again by about 6pm each night.
Most of what made Stratford attractive was its natural beauty paired with the fact that it is Shakespeare’s birth place and where he spent most of his early life. During our time here, we visited both Shakespeare’s childhood home as well as his wife Anne Hathaway’s. We also visited Trinity Church where they are both buried. I had been telling Shawn Irish the day before that I missed my running route at home that went past a graveyard so when I discovered a graveyard on my run the next morning I had to take a picture. Unbeknownst to me, I was passing through the Trinity Church’s graveyard on the morning before we were planning to visit!
Stratford-Upon-Avon is a small town that wakes up late and goes to bed early. This meant I was able to take pictures of Shakespeare’s home with nobody around! During our visiting time, it was a different story. We explored the house in all its glory and learned about how it had changed through the years. Much of the house was not part of the original when Shakespeare was born but was added on by his family when Shakespeare was much older.
We walked on the very same floor that Shakespeare and his family walked on hundreds of years ago. Can you believe it? Back then, the floors would have been mostly the dirt of the earth, but there was one room where they speculate the stone is the same that was there back in Shakespeare’s time. The walls were also made of a mixture of mud and horse hair and the covered in a lime plaster. There was a lot that had probably changed to help preserve the home and make it a museum, but it was still the same location and a lot of the original house where William Shakespeare lived. He slept, ate, played, and thought in this house. I think I am still in shock right now.
After we had gone through the house, we exited into the courtyard behind the building and were met with two actors performing several shakespearean scenes including the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet! During one scene, our very own Reece and Jack got to be a part of the show!
The next day, we trekked about a mile to see Anne Hathaway’s Cottage. Although we were there at a very busy time, I was able to snap the picture below with only a few people in it! It was super cool to walk around her cottage and learn about Anne and Shakespeare’s relationship, including all of the scandals! It turns out, Anne was almost three months pregnant when they were married! This was common at the time since many women would be betrothed for a long while before actually getting married, but they still had to marry quickly before Anne began to show.
During our short visit, I spent a lot of time just exploring Stratford-Upon-Avon. I got up early each morning to go for a run or walk along the River Avon, and one morning I took my camera with me. That morning, I was able to captured some of the beautiful Stratford (and its inhabitants). On our last day I spent nearly three hours taking more pictures!
– Hadley ❤
Theatre in London U of A 