This Olde House
When I saw the photos of this house in Stratford-Upon-Avon I was intrigued and wanted to rent it immediately. When the rest of the Bulls saw the photos they were convinced it was in imminent danger of collapsing. Not too many years before this had been a somewhat realistic possibility. This is the oldest house in Stratford, built in 1481 some 80 years before the birth of William Shakespeare in 1564. Masons Court as it is known is a 3 bedroom late medieval/early Tudor cottage with ancient posts and beams, badly bowed timbered panels, curved walls and many challenging quirks and foibles. The curved walls make it impossible to hang pictures in many rooms and the bed frames had to be sawed off at different heights to accommodate the sloping floors. However this was a unique, utterly charming and comfortable abode for our two night stay in Stratford.
Masons Court was purchased in 2018 by a local couple, Carl and Rachel, after having been owned by the town for several centuries. It had been put up for sale in 2016. What they encountered was a house with no heat, water running down the inside walls, shifting walls, carpets covered in mildew, blocked chimneys and 16th century wall paintings. How brave they were. Much of the restoration has been completed but additional structural work needs to be done so the rest of the Bulls can’t utter “I told you so”.
If it weren’t for Shakespeare Stratford would not be the major tourist draw that it is today. As we frequently like to do when arriving in a new destination we sighted up for a walking tour. This one was rather starchy: this is where Shakespeare was born, this is where he went to school, this is where he is buried, this is where his plays are performed. It lacked the spark that a good tour and an engaging tour guide can provide to bring their subjects to life. While we did learn that Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway when he was only 18 what we didn’t learn on the tour was that Anne was 26 and already three months pregnant when they wed. Poor Mia was so confused by all this Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway business as the only Anne Hathaway she knows is the Hollywood actress, who is in fact named after Shakespeare’s wife. William and Anne had 3 children including a son Hamnet ( perhaps a precursor to Hamlet) who died at age 11. HIs granddaughter Elizabeth died without children in 1670 thus ending his direct line of descendants. His sister Joan is the only member of the Shakespeare Family whose direct descendants continue to this present day, some of whom are now Canadians.
One of the fascinating things we did learn though was that in 1846 P T Barnum wanted to buy Shakespeare’s birthplace and ship it back to the U.S. “ brick by brick” . Who’s the sucker P T ? The house is constructed of wattle and daub, essentially a mixture of soil, sand, animal dung and straw. The good news is that the very next year efforts began, spearheaded by Charles Dickens, to preserve Shakespeare’s heritage by purchasing his birth home and establishing the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
Stratford is quite a handsome town with its half-timbered Tudor architecture, it’s tranquil River Avon with it’s 100 + swans and the Royal Shakespeare Company complex. Although we didn’t see a play at the theatre ( the only production on at the time was Pericles and it hadn’t received great reviews) we did go into the gift shop and up the viewing tower that is part of the complex. I was intrigued that after a fire destroyed the original theatre in 1926 the new structure was the first building of significance in England that was designed by a female architect, Elisabeth Scott. Her remains, along with a number of other Stratford theatre luminaries, are buried within the theatre. Shakespeare himself is buried in the Holy Trinity Church about 10 minutes along the Avon River where he penned a curse upon his gravestone to deter grave robbers. It seems to have worked.
While we didn’t see a play the gift shop had given us an idea for our own mini- Shakespeare festival back at out medieval cottage. Our task was to research Shakespearean insults and hurl them at each other. You pestiferous, eye-offending, horse-back breaker ( annoying, dangerous, painful to look at and fat) began Sophie. You gorbellied, pale-hearted coxcomb ( big-bellied, cowardly and vain) continued Mia. You greasy, pigeon-livered, cozener ( insincere, timid, cheater and imposter) chimed in Natalie. . You fusty, pukestocking idiot worshipper I added. After that bracing round of clearing the air we settled in to watch Shakespeare in Love and ended the evening with an episode of the BBC show Shakespeare and Hathaway. Not what you might think but rather a modern day detective series where the detectives are named, you guessed it. We had watched this because this particular episode had scenes filmed in the living room of the house and we were in that very living room watching the show happening in that living room. A little surreal and quite fun. We declined to light a fire with the logs in the living room fireplace. Even the remotest possibility of burning Stratford’s oldest house to the ground was something I was not ready to contemplate.
The next morning over breakfast Sophie and Natalie shared the same experience of having heard knocking inside the walls. The same knocks at the same time in the middle of the night. Could this be the ghost of William Shakespeare?
