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Stratford-upon-avon
Despite its worldwide fame,
STRATFORD-UPON-AVON is, at heart, an unassuming market
town with an unexceptional pedigree. A charter for Stratford's
weekly market was granted in the twelfth century, a tradition
continued to this day, and the town later became an important
stopping-off point for stagecoaches between London, Oxford and the north. Like all such places,
Stratford had its clearly defined class system and within this
typical milieu John and Mary Shakespeare occupied the middle
rank, and would have been forgotten long ago had their first
son, William , not turned out to be one of the greatest writers
ever to use the English language. A consequence of their good
fortune is that this ordinary little place is nowadays all but
smothered by package-tourist hype and its central streets groan
under the weight of thousands of tourists. Don't let that deter
you: dodging the multitudes is possible by avoiding the busiest
attractions - principally the Birthplace Museum - and the Royal Shakespeare
Company offers
superb theatre. Moreover, Stratford still has the ability to
surprise and delight, whether in the excellence of some of its
restaurants or by the gentle river views beside the lovely Holy
Trinity Church
.
Spreading back from the
River Avon, Stratford's town centre is fairly flat and compact,
its mostly modern buildings filling out a simple gridiron just
two blocks deep and four blocks long. Running along the northern
edge of the centre is Bridge Street , the main thoroughfare lined
with shops and chock-a-block with local buses. At its west end,
Bridge Street divides into Henley Street, home of the Birthplace
Museum , and Wood Street, which leads up to the market place.
It also intersects with High Street. This, and its continuation
Chapel and Church streets, cuts south to pass most of the old
buildings that the town still possesses, most notably Nash's
House and, on neighbouring Old Town Street, Hall's Croft . From
here, it's a short hop to the charming Holy Trinity Church ,
where Shakespeare lies buried, and then only a few minutes back
along the river past the theatres to the foot of Bridge Street.
In itself, this circular walk only takes about fifteen minutes,
but it takes all day if you potter around the attractions. In
addition, there are two outlying Shakespearean properties, Anne
Hathaway's Cottage in Shottery and Mary Arden's House in Wilmcote
- though you have to be a really serious sightseer to want to
see them all.
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