SHAKESPEARE EXPERIENCE

SHAKESPEARE'S BIRTHPLACE

Opening hours: November-March 10:00-16:00, April-October

Tickets: 11,5 GBP/adult, 7,5 GBP/child

Getting there: walking from the train station

Shakespeare's boyhood home furnished as it may have appeared in the 1570s and an exhibition illustrating his life with many Tudor artefacts, books and featuring the First Folio edition of his plays.

As originally built, its plan was a simple rectangle, divided into, from north-west to south-east, a parlour with fireplace, an adjoining hall with a massive open hearth, and, beyond a cross passage, an unheated chamber which probably served as John Shakespeare's workshop (he was a glovemaker and wool dealer). This arrangement was matched on the first floor by three chambers reached by a staircase from the hall, probably where the present stairs are sited. By tradition, the chamber over the parlour is the birthroom. Later, a separate single-bay house, now known as Joan Hart's Cottage, was built onto the north-west end of the house, and the present kitchen, with chamber over, added at the rear.

ANNE HATHAWAY'S COTTAGE

Opening hours: November-March 10:00-16:00, April-October

Tickets: 7 GBP/adult, 4 GBP/child

Getting there: walking from the train station

Anne Hathaway's Cottage is in Shottery, a hamlet within the parish of Stratford but just a few miles from the town centre. The cottage was the childhood home of Shakespeare's wife, Anne, the daughter of a yeoman farmer, Richard Hathaway. The lower part, adjoining the road, has been conclusively dated to the early 1460s and consisted of a cross passage, where the visitor enters today, with a hall to the left and kitchen to the right. The hall, when originally built, would probably have been open to the roof. On the first floor, above the cross passage is a space of matching size where the early construction of this part of the house is clearly visible.

MARY ARDEN'S FARM

Opening hours: March-October 10:00-17:00, November-February closed

Tickets: 8 GBP/adult, 5 GBP/child

Getting there: walking from the train station

This was the childhood home of Shakespeare's mother Mary Arden. This countryside site includes displays of local and Tudor rural life, early breeds of farm animals, falconry, country walks and the 16th-century Palmer's Farm. At the rear of the property is a complex of farm buildings, including, in one range, a dovecote, an open-fronted cowshed and small barn with cider press, together with a stable and large barn now housing a display of farming equipment.

HALL'S CROFT

Opening hours: November-March 11:00-16:00, April-October

Tickets: 11,5 GBP/adult, 7,5 GBP/child

Getting there: walking from the train station

Hall's Croft is a fine timber-framed house, in Old Town, the street which leads from the town-centre streets to the parish church. Believed to be the house of Shakespeare's daughter and son-in-law, Dr John Hall, c. 1613-1616. It includes displays on Elizabethan medicine, fine early 17th-century furniture and painting.

NASH'S HOUSE AND NEW PLACE

Opening hours: November-March 11:00-16:00, April-October

Tickets: 11,5 GBP/adult, 7,5 GBP/child

Getting there: walking from the train station

The house known as New Place was Shakespeare's family home from 1597, where he lived when not in London and where he died in 1616. Today the site of New Place and the Knott Garden is reached through the neighbouring property to the north. This is known as Nash's House, after Thomas Nash, the first husband of Shakespeare's grand-daughter, Elizabeth, who owned it. On the ground floor, the house is furnished as it would have been in Nash's day whilst upstairs is a display illustrating the history of Stratford.