To Stratford - Day One

We travelled to Stratford along the Fosse Way.  Having collected our friends in Nottingham we drove out towards the East Midlands Airport and then picked up the Fosse Way which we followed nearly all the way to our destination.  We passed through some lovely countryside and pretty villages before we stopped for a short time to view the place where the Roman roads of the Fosse Way and Watling Street meet and cross at a place called High Cross, on the Leicestershire/ Warwickshire borders known, in the days of Roman Britain as Venonius.

Down Bumble Bee Lane is a monument placed here in 1712.  The Latin inscription on this monument has been translated as 'If traveller, you seek for the footsteps of ancient Romans, here you may behold them, for here their most celebrated ways, crossing each other, extend to the utmost bourne'.    The monument appears to be in some one's back garden but it has been left open so you can walk around it.  After our short visit here we diverted again from the Fosse Way and stopped for a sandwich at Ryton Gardens.

After our wonderful night at the theatre - I've written a review in the post below - we were up early the next morning for a pre-breakfast walk along the River.

 We mingled with joggers, dog walkers and school children in uniform down Swan's Nest Lane and onto the river path opposite the theatre....

 and Holy Trinity Church - burial place William Shakespeare.

 It was very peaceful at that time of the day!

 Then it was back over Clopton bridge towards our hotel - breakfast beckoned!

After breakfast we had a wander around the town and visited a few shops.  By now the town had become quite busy. Below are a few photos I took as we walked around.

A view along Chapel Street towards Church Street

Statue of a Jester by James Butler at the top of Henley Street

Shakespeare's Birthplace - from the front.......

and from the back - I peered through the gates to take this photo as we didn't go inside.

It was time to move on as we were going to visit Baddesley Clinton before we began our journey home, I'll be back with photos from there later this week.

At Stratford

It was quite early on a Saturday morning in Stratford so there weren't many people around when I took these photos. A couple of hours later and the place was heaving with shoppers, visitors  and parties of tourists with their guides. We parked up and walked into the town looking for breakfast - stopping to take a few photos of the riverside and the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

The theatre has been closed for almost four years now whilst building work to update and modernise it has been taking place.

There is a new 'look-out' which we had seen on our local TV news (Stratford, like us is in the West Midlands region) being lowered by crane on top of the tower; it is 118 feet high.

The theatre is due to open later this year with a few preview events;  the main programme of plays is due to start in February next year and the theatre will be formally re-opened in April.

There is still a lot of work to be done as you can see from the photo below

The road layout in front of the theatre was being changed too

The entrance to what used to be the gift shop and Swan Theatre

We walked past the 'Dirty Duck' to the Courtyard Theatre where the RSC have been based whilst the main theatre is being refurbished.

We then walked towards the town centre passing Halls Croft

The home of William Shakespeare's daughter Susanna and her husband Dr John Hall

Round the corner and past the Almshouses -  at the end near the church the grammar school which Shakespeare is said to have attended.

On the corner is New Place the house Shakespeare owned in later life - it is thought that this is where he died.  There was a 'Dig for Shakespeare' archaeological excavation going on in the garden.

Shakespeare's birthplace museum and visitor centre.  

Opposite it was The Christmas shop - selling all things for the festive season. 

Next door to the birthplace was the inevitable souvenir shop which from the back has lovely views across the birthplace's garden.  We could see and hear an actor reading out a sonnet to a group of  entranced  tourists.

All aboard for a Shakespearean tour - hold very tight please, ding! ding!