Rama Moondra

New Place

 Nash’s House

 It was dramatist’s final retirement home. He purchased the impressive building for £60 in 1597, whilst he was still spending most of his time working in London.

As Shakespeare’s fame spread in the 18th Century, New Place became a popular destination for tourists. One night in 1759, incensed by the constant stream of onlookers, the eccentric owner Reverend Francis Gastrell took his fury out on a Mulberry Tree in the garden, said to be planted by Shakespeare himself. By morning all that remained was a pile of logs and the infuriated Stratford inhabitants retaliated by smashing Gastrell’s windows. In a tragic final act of madness, this time annoyed at Land Tax demands, Gastrell razed New Place to the ground. Gastrell was driven out of Stratford by murderous Stratfordians, and anyone of the same name was banned from living in Stratford forever.

The foundations of New Place are accessed via Nash’s House, once home of Thomas Nash and Elizabeth Hall. Nash’s House is predominantly 16th-century in structure. New Place and Nash’s House are situated on Chapel Street, in the centre of Stratford-upon-Avon.

Hall’s Croft Hall’s Croft was home to Shakespeare’s daughter Susanna who in 1607 married a highly-respected local physician, Doctor John Hall (after whom the house is named).

The Tudor building is of remarkable interest in its own right as well as the connection it has with Shakespeare. The Croft houses a collection of 16th and 17th century paintings and furniture, typical of a middle class family such as that of John and Susanna Hall.

There is also an exhibition about Doctor John Hall and the gruesome medical practices of his time, plus a first edition of his medical notes published in 1657. This intriguing house is situated in the Old Town area of Stratford, a few footsteps away from Shakespeare’s burial place at Holy Trinity Church.

The magnificent, thatched and timber-framed, Tudor farmstead is childhood home of Mary Arden, mother of  William Shakespeare. The building is  constructed using Oak from the nearby Arden Forest and stone from Wilmcote itself. The interior is of  Tudor farming family.

The house has been continually inhabited by farmers, insuring that the fascinating outbuildings remain largely intact, and provide a home for an extensive museum illustrating rural life over the last 400 years. 

Mary Arden’s House is approximately three and half miles outside Stratford and still retaining its country setting in Wilmcote.Mary Arden, grew up here before marrying John Shakespeare & moving Henley Street. It is also home to the Shakespeare countryside museum, two historic farms, displays of farm implements, daily demonstrations by the Heart of England falconry, a blacksmith’s forge and a duck pond.  

 The feeling I had there was something very different.Can we ever think of making  Shantineketan ( Tagore’s Abode),  Lamhi( Munshi Premchand) or Lucknow for Jayshankar or Nirala even a little bit familiar to today’s generation?

Travel England

A picture of his last home is here.