My visit to Anne Hathaway's Cottage at Shottery

Anne Hathaway's Cottage

Anne Hathaway

   
           

Approach road to the cottage

Side view of the Cottage

Garden around the cottage

        

Anne Hathaway'a couch

Buttery

Parlour

 Just one mile away from Stratford-upon-Avon, located in the hamlet of Shottery,-- a picturesque spot with green woods and trees—is seen. That spot has become a tourist centre not just because of its natural beauty but because it was the native village of Anne Hathaway, the charming rustic lady, who made the famous bard fall in love with her and marry her, though he was younger than her by eight years. The marriage took place in a hurried manner as she was pregnant and the families on both sides wished to avoid getting bad name.

 We saw Anne Hathaway’s cottage—a farm house in Tudor style—built with walls of puddle mud, wattles and horse hair plaster with a thatched roof, having many jutting chimneys. The house has twelve rooms surrounded by beautiful gardens on both sides bordered with woods. The entrance hall served as a drawing room. Beside the fire place there was an elm-boarded settle (bench). It is said that Shakespeare used to sit here while courting his rustic mistress. On either side of the hall there is a kitchen and a room for buttery. There is a room for storing ale and provisions. The Elizabethans often drank ale instead of water as the water was not pure and they thought that it would make them sick. In the kitchen one can see a oven built into the brick wall with a wooden door in front. There are six bed rooms on upstairs. In one of the rooms there is a wooden bed with decorative carvings where Anne used to sleep. Next to Anne’s bed there is a plain-looking chair called “Shakespeare’s Chair.”

  Anne, the eldest of the eight children, though illiterate, learnt domestic work and other types of work. Her father, Richard Hathaway, a prosperous landlord and friend of Shakespeare’s father, had not lived to witness his daughter’s marriage with William Shakespeare. He died in September, 1581. Anne, already pregnant with a child, married in November, 1582 at Temple Grafton, a place just five miles from Stratford. This farm house called at that time as “New Land Farm” was later labeled as “Hathaway’s Cottage”. This spacious house was built in 1460s and was later extended till 1623. Nearly ninety-six acres of land were attached to this house. One can find the typical model of a country landlord’s house of Tudor times with simple furniture, farming tools and wooden beams supporting the roof. The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust acquired it in 1892. Many plants along with a sculpture garden make this place more attractive and fascinating to the visitors.
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     17th May, 2014                                                                  Somaseshu Gutala