William Shakespeare

William’s ancestors were gamekeepers in Wroxall which is the next hamlet, across the fields, from these cottages. The hamlet is located within the Forest of Arden ie. A wooded area of countryside; which is now not quite so extensive as it was. His parents both came from property-owning yeomen farmers. His father John came from the parish of Snitterfield-5 miles away-towards Stratford. In Stratford upon Avon John was a Glover by trade also selling skins of reindeer, sheep and goats. John was also the bailiff of Stratford upon Avon.His mother- Mary Arden- came from Wilmcote. William was their third child of eight and eldest son, being born in April 1564.

He was educated at the Grammer School where he entered free because of his father’s status in the town. He started at 6 o’clock in the morning and was seen to be

The descendents of the Sly family who are mentioned in one of his lighter plays are still living here in the parish of Rowington! That play-As You Like It- is reputedly to have been written in the porch of Shakespeare Hall. The hall is half timbered and restored being just across the fields from my cottages. On his way to see his sister Joanne he reputedly stopped at my farmhouse, Whitley Elm, to drink his ale.

Joanne Shakespeare was the abbess at Wroxall Abbey until she was pensioned off by King Henry VIII, upon dissolution of the monasteries.

William went on buy New Place which had been built by Hugh Clopton who also built the still-standing Clopton Bridge. This house was bought by William Shakespeare in 1597 being the finest house in Stratford upon Avon. He lived there, occasionally, in the beginning and then more continuously until he died there in 1616.