 |
|
Search Travel Services |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Search Special Travel |
|
|
|
|
| Search Destinations |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Odds n' Ends..! |
|
|
|
|
|
| Administration |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Warwick is definitely worth a visit for its castle, however, the biggest attraction in the county is
Stratford-upon-Avon - Shakespeare Country!!
Click on the headings to find out more:
Warwick Castle is one of Britain's finest medieval castles - it's the most visited stately
home in the country and considered next to Windsor Castle in grandeur. You can easily spend a whole
day here soaking it all in. Near Warwick is the town of Rugby, famous for its public school
(the setting in Tom Brown's Schooldays) and for the fact that a kid named William Webb
Ellis picked up a soccer ball a long time ago and ran with it, inventing the game of rugby.
The village of Church Stretton (the area around here was known by the Victorians as Little Switzerland) is a good base for people wanting
to walk some of the best hills in Shropshire (The Long Mynd). You won't find a castle at Bishop's Castle,
but the Three Tuns pub still brews its own beer. You will however find a fine old ruined castle at Clun
(6 miles south and a few miles east of Offa's Dyke).
Nearby Kenilworth has Kenilworth castle, a dramatic red brick ruin these days, thanks to the
days of Cromwell. It doesn't take much imagination to see its former glory and the fact that, if it had survived,
it would be one of the premier attractions of Britain today. Sir Walter Scott based his novel Kenilworth on the
castle and wrote the book while staying in the King's Arms in town.
And so, to Stratford-upon-Avon. There's some irony in the fact that William Shakespeare moved back to the market
town of Stratford for peace and quiet, not knowing that his doing so would one day make it one of the country's
biggest tourist attractions. Yes, it is full of tourists, but that's no reason to stay away. The main
attractions are...
The Holy Trinity Church where the bard was baptized and buried, both on April 23rd, some 52 years apart
(d.1616). Shakespeare wrote his own epitaph:
Good frend for Jesus sake forbeare
To digg the dust encloased heare!
Blest the man that spares these stones
And cursed be he that moves my bones
Shakespeare's birthplace is the biggest attraction, a timber and plaster home in Henley Street, which houses a
Shakespeare museum. The New Place was a fine home bought by the playwright while he was enjoying success in
London aged 33. He didn't settle there until his mid-40's. Only the foundations, cellar walls and two
wells remain because of a clergyman known as the 'Prince of Vandals'. He demolished it out of spite in
a dispute over land rates in 1759.
The adjacent Nash's House is where his granddaughter lived and now tells the town's history.
Shakespeare's daughter, Susanna, married a doctor, John Hall, and lived in the Elizabethan
Hall's Croft, next to the Holy Trinity Church. Susanna was the eldest; twins Hamnet and Judith were born
two years later. Hamnet died when he was eleven. In nearby Shottery (1 mile west) is Anne Hathaway's Cottage. It's the pretty, thatched cottage that appears in brochures and on postcards. It's possible that his
marriage to Anne was a 'shottery-gun wedding'. He was 18, she was 26 and 3 months
pregnant with Susanna at the time. Anne outlived him by seven years.
One of the best Shakespearean houses is Mary Arden's House, the home of Shakespeare's mother,
3 miles west of Stratford.
The Royal Shakespeare Theatre is one of the most ordinary buildings in town (don't expect The
Globe Theatre in London - Shakespeare's London Theatre!). It looks like any badly designed 1930's community hall but inside you will be oblivious to that if you
get to see a local production of Shakespeare's work.
Author's note: My personal Shakespearean favourites are the best known - King Lear, Romeo and Juliet,
Othello, Hamlet, Macbeth and Taming of the Shrew. I always hated Anthony and Cleopatra, having been
forced to read it (and see it) at school and university. On my first visit to Stratford, in 1978, guess what
was playing? Anyway, I begrudgingly parted with a few pounds and took my seat. Glenda Jackson gave an
amazing and riveting performance as Cleopatra and it was the most rewarding night of theatre I have ever
spent (and that includes meeting Alice Cooper after front row seats at a concert!). There are matinees and
evening performances and, whatever the play, this is highly recommended.)
|
|
|
