Welcometh till stratford-upon-Avon,
located some 100 miles northwest of
London, this is a beautiful birthplace of
William Shakespeare. So, to see or what
not to see, that is the question. So in
the words of William Shakespeare, pray,
follow, and I'll show you!
Stratford-upon-Avon was founded in the
7th century AD by the Saxons when they
invaded what is now Warwickshire the
town's name might look and sound a
little bit unusual with all its hyphens
but it's actually a mixture of Celtic
and Saxon words so 'Strat' means Street, 
'Ford' is a lower part of a riverbed and
'Avon' was a Celtic word for river so
literally Stratford-upon-Avon means the
street that leads to the ford to cross
the river.
 
Welcome to the birthplace of William
Shakespeare born on the 23rd of April
1564, William Shakespeare was born
here on the top floor next to a little
fire. It's lucky that William
Shakespeare survived because his two
siblings that were born before him
actually passed away before they reached
the age of 1 the reason why is because
there was an outbreak of the plague and
it is believed that the only reason why
Shakespeare survived was because his
mother took him out into the countryside
to protect him from the outbreak. Inside
the building you can see where
Shakespeare grew up, where he had his
meals, where he slept, where he played
with his siblings, and also this
beautiful garden where he could play.
There are two interesting things that
I've learned while being here and that
is the origins of two idiomatic
expressions that we use every day that
you may not know the origins of and they
both relate to sleeping. Have you ever
said to 'sleep tight' or to 'hit the hay'?
Well, 'sleep tight' actually comes from the
mattresses that we used at this time
back in the 16th century that were made
up of hay and straw and any sort of
other stuffing that was soft so this is
the mattress that people would sleep on
and during the night obviously
the contents would move and shift so
before going to bed you would have to
'hit the hay' to distribute evenly the
contents of the mattress so you wouldn't
have all these lumps and bumps. Sleep tight' relates to what was supporting the
mattress which were ropes, and the ropes
would were bound throughout the woodwork
on the bed to protect the mattress from
falling through and you needed to keep it tight so
in order to 'sleep tight' you would need to
tighten these ropes so you wouldn't have
a uncomfortable sleep.
This is Shakespeare's a New Place, this
is where Shakespeare lived from 1597
until the day he died in 1616. This isn't
the house that he lived in but this is
the area where it was his house was
destroyed two hundred and fifty years
ago unfortunately the inside there is an
exhibition on what they think the house
looks like the grounds here are very
beautiful to walk around they've got a
whole bunch of commissioned pieces by
the American artist Greg Wyatt and each
of the statues represent either a
character or a passage from one of
Shakespeare's works and within the
statues all the sculptures they're like
these hidden faces so there's a lot of
hidden symbolism in each to them so yeah
I encourage you to take your time and
wonder around and have it look at each
of them really beautiful
at the entrance to the garden there is a
sculpture that is inspired by the
epilogue from The Tempest where the main
character is giving up his powers now
Shakespeare wrote this play in 1616
which is about three years before he
passed away and I sort of considered
like his final words and his sign up
saying this is it I'm done for 19 years
Sheikh's be lived at new place and it
was the only building that he actually
bought for his wife and his family he
lived here with his wife and two
children Judith and Susannah
unfortunately his son Hamnett died a
year before he actually bought this
buildings about said Shakespeare paid
120 pounds for new place which is an
obscene amount of money for the time
considered that a schoolmaster salary
was only 20 pounds a year and
Shakespeare paid 120 pounds just for
this area now this was the most
expensive and the largest property in
stratford-upon-avon at the time and it
was located just opposite his school
which he attended so we're going to head
there now thanks to the success of
William Shakespeare's father John
Shakespeare who is a glove maker he was
able to send Shakespeare to this
schoolroom here behind me adjoined by
the Guildhall he attended the school
between the ages of 7 and 14 between
1571 and 1572 school is still in use up
until 11 a.m. every day and the top
student every year is chosen to replace
the quill in the hand of Shakespeare's
Monument at his grave
and the best I'm about our vows it's a
memory game isn't it is how much you
remember I remember memory is not seated
up here memory is seated just here
later parties yes because we say you
learn things by heart so we're inside
Shakespeare's classroom where there is
still a class happening I'll be teaching
a bit of Latin and a bit about the
curriculum that Shakespeare would have
learned when he attended this school now
it's interesting because in the next
room is where Shakespeare would have say
this room here is fairly recent but the
when Shakespeare sat next door he would
sit on what record forms not benches so
that's how we get the origins of being
in first form second form third form so
it's important to note that at this
stage there were no girls in class it
was just boys it's so inspirational to
be here in the classroom where William
Shakespeare learned about all the
classics the Romans the Greeks all the
literature that inspired him and he's
worked throughout his 20 year career
but Lake had a directly below the
schoolroom which is above me right now
this is the guild hall and this is where
William Shakespeare's dad was the
bailiff or the town mayor
so when Shakespeare was five years old
he saw his dad in office he was the
mayor for just one year in 1568
this is halls Croft this is where
Susannah Shakespeare's daughter lived in
1607 when she married dr. John Hall they
in Shakespeare's will er he left a new
place to Susanna so when he passed away
she moved in with her husband
behind me is Anne Hathaway's cottage
which is about 500 years old and located
just 20 minute walk outside
stratford-upon-avon and Hathaway lived
here before she married William
Shakespeare and the two got married when
the William Shakespeare was 18 and Anne
Hathaway was 26 and she was already
pregnant so they had a bit of a hasty
wedding you can visit the cottage and go
inside to see its original furnishings
as well as the romantic garden outside
located three and a half miles or five
point five kilometers outside of
stratford-upon-avon is mary arden's
farmhouse Mary Arden was William
Shakespeare's mother and she lived here
until she married John Shakespeare room
Shakespeare's father
they got married in 1557 there are two
buildings on the site here and the
building behind me is called the Palmers
farmhouse because up until mm they
thought that this was where Mary either
lived with her family but it was
actually the building next door while
the building behind me has maintained
its traditional Tudor look the house
that Mary grew up in which was built by
her father Robert in 1514 doesn't look
quite as traditional it's gone through a
few different changes over the years but
let's go have a look inside
this year is mary arden's house so let's
go take a look inside just behind me is
a really low doorway and the reason why
it's so low is because in the 1600 it
was very expensive to cut through any
structural beams otherwise it would have
had to pay extra to implement new beams
so this way they cut halfway into it
without compromising the structure of
the building mary arden's foam is a
working Tudor foam so it's very much a
great spot to bring families and spend
the day it covers 20 acres and there's a
lots of farm animals you can interact
with they work horses cows donkeys
rabbits birds chickens everything it's a
great place to hang out for the
afternoon or just for a few hours behind
me is the Holy Trinity Church where
William Shakespeare was baptized and
buried he died on the 23rd of April 1666
and was buried two days later on the
25th he was only 52 years old and he
died as the result of alcohol poisoning
of all things and you can go inside and
you can see where he was buried along
with his family members
this is Gala Memorial which celebrates
Shakespeare's work and it was dedicated
to the city of stratford-upon-avon by
Lord Ronald Goya in 1888 he commissioned
this memorial and it took him 10 years
to sculpt it and to find it most of it
from his personal finances placed around
the memorial are four statues from
Shakespeare's plays
you got a foul staff Lady Macbeth Hamlet
and behind me is Prince hull what better
place to watch a Shakespeare play then
in stratford-upon-avon the Royal
Shakespeare Company has three theaters
here in Stratford and the one behind me
is the Royal Shakespeare Theatre this is
the main one and you can head to the top
floor for a pre-show dinner where you
get beautiful views over the River Avon
what better way to learn about
stratford-upon-avon than joining the
multi award-winning Stratford town walk
it goes for two hours and an adult
ticket will only set you back six pounds
so let's go and join one
so I've just signed up for the town walk
and they give you five batches that you
can use at any one of the places on this
list so I highly recommend doing the
tour at the start of your trip to make
the most of these batches
a fun and unique thing to do in
stratford-upon-avon is to go street
lamppost hunting so this one behind me
was donated from the state of israel
they're about 50 different lampposts
here and the reason why they're here is
because a man who worked in the town
council of stratford on Aven the artist
peter they would donate the street lamp
is a way representing the different
people that need to take the town
destructed upon Aven so if you don't
want to walk all the way around the
river then you can catch Britain's last
chain ferry which will set you back just
50p
but it's dinner time and I'm heading to
the old patch tavern which dates back to
1470 and it is the only building in the
city that has a thatched roof located
behind me in the center of town is the
Garak in now between this one and the
old patch tavern both claim to be the
oldest pubs in stratford-upon-avon but
what makes this one special is that it's
haunted and it's also where they believe
about a plague broke out in 1564 which
is the same year that Shakespeare was
born
time to get a swans eye view of
Stratford on this river cruise that goes
for 40 minutes and costs just seven
pounds for an adult ticket
well that's it for me I hope you enjoyed
this video about what to do in
stratford-upon-avon if you have leave a
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until next time I bid you farewell bye
