Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
historian Dr. Nat Alcock discovered in 2000 that the actual childhood home of Arden
was the less-romantic red-brick farmhouse, Glebe Farm, next door, built around 1514.
Glebe Farm has now been properly renamed, and what was known for years as “Mary
Arden's House” has been dubbed Palmer's Farm. The outhouses of both properties have
been converted into a working farm. Visitors can tour the property and see firsthand
how a farming household functioned in the 1570s—yes, cows to be milked, bread to
be baked, and vegetables cultivated in an authentic 16th-century manner. In the barns,
stable, cowshed, and farmyard is an extensive collection of farming implements illus-
trating life and work in the local countryside from Shakespeare's time to the present.
Station Rd., Wilmcote (take the A3400 (Birmingham) for 3
1
⁄
2
miles).
&
01789/293455.
www.
shakespeare.org.uk. Admission £9.50 adults, £8.50 students and seniors, £5.50 children 5-15 and 16-17
in full-time education, £23 family ticket. Combination tickets available (see above). Nov-Mar daily
10am-4pm; Apr-Oct daily 10am-5pm. Closed Dec 23-26.
Nash's House & New Place
HISTORIC HOME Shakespeare retired to New
Place in 1610 (a prosperous man by the standards of his day) and died here 6 years later.
Regrettably, the house was torn down, so only the garden remains. A mulberry tree
planted by the Bard was so popular with latter-day visitors to Stratford that the garden's
owner chopped it down. It is said that the mulberry tree that grows here today was
planted from a cutting of the original tree. You enter the gardens through Nash's House
(Thomas Nash married Elizabeth Hall, a granddaughter of the poet). Nash's House has
16th-century period rooms and an exhibition illustrating the history of Stratford.
Chapel St.
&
01789/292325.
www.shakespeare.org.uk. Admission includes Shakespeare's Birthplace
and Hall's Croft; £13 adults, £12 seniors and students, £8 children 5-15 and 16-17 in full-time education,
£34 family ticket. Combination tickets available (see above). Nov-Mar daily 11am-4pm; Apr-June and
Sept-Oct daily 10am-5pm; July-Aug daily 10am-6pm. Closed Dec 23-26. Walk west down High St.;
Chapel St. is a continuation of High St.
Shakespeare's Birthplace Museum
MUSEUM The son of a glover and
whittawer (leather worker), Will Shakespeare was born in this house in 1564. Filled
with Shakespeare memorabilia, including a portrait and furnishings of the writer's
time, this Trust property is a half-timbered structure, dating from the early 16th
century. The house was bought by public donors in 1847 and has been preserved as
a national shrine ever since. You can visit the living room, the bedroom where Shake-
speare was probably born, a fully equipped kitchen of the period (look for the “baby-
minder”), and a Shakespeare museum, illustrating his life and times.
Built next door to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Bard's birth, the
modern
Shakespeare Centre
serves both as the administrative headquarters of the
Birthplace Trust and as a library and study center. An extension houses the birthplace
visitor center.
Henley St. (in the town center near the post office, close to Union St.).
&
01789/204016.
www.
shakespeare.org.uk. Admission includes free entry to Hall's Croft and Nash's House & New Place; £13
adults, £12 seniors and students, £8 children 5-15 and 16-17 in full-time education, £34 family ticket.
Combination tickets available (see above). Nov-Mar daily 10am-4pm; Apr-Jun and Sept-Oct daily
10am-5pm; July-Aug daily 9am-6pm. Closed Dec 23-26.
Where to Eat
MODERATE
Lambs
CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH Near the Royal Shakespeare Theatre,
this stylish cafe/bistro is housed in a building dating from 1547. It's ideal for a quick
light meal or pre-theatre dinner. The menu changes monthly, but expect finely executed
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