16th century: Shakespeare's Birthplace

 

    Shakespeare’s birthplace was built on Henley Street in the sixteenth century. Shakespeare’s father had owned the land since at least 1552. The home was built using local materials: oak from the Forest of Arden for the timber frame and stone from a quarry at Wilmcote for the foundation, chimneys, and some floors. Much of the original structure remains to this day, despite alterations and restorations made over the years.  Its layout included a parlor, a hall, and a workshop on the ground floor. In 1601, after John Shakespeare’s death, the eastern part of the house was turned into an inn called the Maidenhead (later the Swan and Maidenhead), and the western part became a butcher’s shop. An extension was made to the house about 20 years after it was built, adding an adjoining living space in which Shakespeare may have lived with his wife Anne when they first got married. The two-room cottage was then lived in by Shakespeare’s sister Joan Hart and her husband. In Shakepeare’s will, he left the property for his daughter Susanna Hall and allowed his sister Joan to live in the cottage for the rest of her life for the price of one shilling a year. The property remained the ownership of Shakespeare’s direct line of decedents until the death of his granddaughter, Elizabeth Barnard. Because she had no children, it became property of Joan’s descendants, the Harts, who would live on the property until the late eighteenth century. It was sold to a butcher named Thomas Court and his wife Anne Court in 1806, and after her death, the Birthplacee was put up for sale. The Shakespeare Birthplace Committee (later the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust), whose members included Charles Dickens, raised £3,000 and were able to buy the Birthplace. They have owned the building ever since. The building was restored in the 1860s to make it look how it looked in a sketch of the building made in 1762 by Richard Greene. In Shakespeare’s days the garden out back would have likely been used for practical purposes for John Shakespeare’s glove making business, as well as housing a stone outhouse Mary and Anne would have used for cooking. They have kept animals like pigs, hens, and a horse, as well as growing herbs and vegetables used for cooking and medicine. They probably also had outbuildings for the storage of animal skins for John’s glove making business so the skins could dry out back there. Today the garden is full of flowers and plants mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays.  

The birthplace garden

 

The house itself is set up as accurate as it would have been for the time period, with gloves in the workshop, a meal set on a table in the hall, as well as authentic things like the bed Shakespeare would have slept on with his brothers. It became tradition for visitors of the birthplace to etch their names onto the birthroom’s window’s glass which led to its eventual removal. The earliest recorded date on the window is 1806 and it includes famous people like Walter Scott. 

The birthroom window

 

    Shakespeare was born in the home in 1564. He was baptized on April 26, though the exact date of his birth is uncertain. He was born to John Shakespeare and Mary Arden, the third of eight children, and the first to survive past infancy. John Shakespeare was a craftsman who worked as a successful glove maker. He worked out of the house in the workshop on the ground floor. The entire family would have helped out with the business, with Shakespeare himself helping his dad at the market in Stratford or with making the gloves and Mary hosting social events to network and discuss trade. The guests at these events included local officials and tradesmen.  Shakespeare lived in the home with his parents until he got married to Anne Hathaway in 1582 when he was 18. It is believed that they lived next door in the aforementioned cottage attached to the birthplace or the house next door, also owned by John Shakespeare. Their children, Susanna (born in 1583) and twins Judith and Hamnet (born in 1585) would also live in the house they lived in on Henley Street.