Shottery

Shottery
Warwickshire
Anne Hathaways Cottage, Shottery
Location
Grid reference:	SP182548
Location:	52°11’30"N, 1°44’5"W
Data
Post town:	Startford-upon-Avon
Postcode:	CV37
Local Government
Council:	Stratford on Avon

Shottery is a small village a mile west of Stratford-Upon-Avon and notwithstanding that on the map it appears as no more than the edge of the latter town, the maps belie it and Shottery retains its position as an distinct village.

The village was the childhood home of Anne Hathaway, William Shakespeare's wife, and here stands yet her house, known as Anne Hathaway's Cottage, which is a very popular tourist destination. Beside it stands another house of the same age, the two maintained by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.

About the village

The village has a village hall, one secondary school and one small primary school, Shottery St Andrew's CofE Primary School, that has been open since the mid-19th century. The school has been threatened with closure numerous times due to local spending cuts, however locals have always managed to raise the funds required to keep the school open.

There is one pub, The Bell Inn. The restaurant which once opposite The Bell has closed but stood here for many generations and in Victorian times was a temperance movement soup kitchen. There was a Shottery Village Stores and Post Office, but it closed in the early 1990s and is now a private home.

The local park, Shottery Fields, contains two football pitches and a children's play area. The Fields retain distinctive "ditch and furrow" undulations, marking mediæval field systems, and these can be seen when the sun is low across the Fields. The Fields also contain a footpath to the town centre.

Anne Hathaway’s Cottage

Anne Hathaway's Cottage is a twelve-roomed farmhouse where the wife of William Shakespeare lived as a child. Spacious, and with several bedrooms, it is now set in extensive gardens beautifully maintained.

The earliest part of the house was built before the 15th century. The cottage was known as Newlands Farm in Shakespeare's day and had more than 90 acres of land attached to it. As in many houses of the period, it has multiple chimneys to spread the heat evenly throughout the house during winter. The largest chimney was used for cooking. It also has visible timber framing, typical of vernacular Tudor style architecture.

After the death of Hathaway's father, the cottage was owned by her brother Bartholomew, and was passed down the Hathaway family until 1846, when financial problems forced them to sell it. However, it was still occupied by them as tenants when it was acquired in 1892 by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, which removed later additions and alterations. In 1969 the cottage was badly damaged in a fire, but was restored by the Trust. It is now open to public visitors as a museum.

Replicas

Full size replicas of Anne Hathaway's cottage have been built around the world:

• Bedfordale, Western Australia
• English Inn, Victoria, British Columbia
• United States:
  • Odessa College, Texas
  • Staunton, Virginia

Sculpture Trail

• 
  History Play
  by Jane Lawrence
• 
  Titania and Bottom
  by Gemma Smith
• 
  King Lear
  by Eve Pomerantz
• 
  Falstaff, What is Honour
  by Niels Helvig Thorsen
• 
  Hamlet: What Wilt Thou Do For Her
  by Michele Firpo-Cappiello
• 
  Brutus
  by Isaac Graham

Sport

• Rugby: Shottery RFC, which is now based at Stratford's Rugby ground, Pearcecroft, on the Loxley Road, south Stratford. The club was founded by the Reverend David Capron, Vicar of St Andrew's church in the 1984. The Club has an excellent reputation both on and off the field of play.

The local park, Shottery Fields, contains two football pitches and a children's play area.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Shottery)

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Anne Hathaway's Cottage)

• History of Shottery