Miss Elaineous: MISS ELAINEOUS VISITS SHAKESPEARE'S BIRTHPLACE...

Shakespeare's Birthplace is a restored 16th century house in Stratford-upon-Avon. It is half-timbered, which means parts of the load-bearing structure are visible from the outside, which creates a rather decorative effect.

The best way to visit Shakespeare's Birthplace is by a four-way-ticket, which gains you access to this attraction as well as Anne Hathaway's Cottage, Shakespeare's Schoolroom and Guildhall, and Shakespeare's New Place. This type of ticket costs £40 per adult (children's tickets, concessions and family rates are also available), whereas otherwise it's £27 to enter Shakespeare's Birthplace alone (£25 if booked online in advance), which is a bit of an ouch to the pocket for just one attraction!

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is regarded as Britain's finest ever playwright and poet, and here's a statue of him, standing sentinel outside his birthplace.

You enter via the Shakespeare Centre next door, which is a multi-functional study/ exhibition/ office space.

You learn about life in general during Shakespeare's day, and this cabinet instructs you about storytelling, music and play...

The Shakespeare Centre opened in 1964, and this current exhibition is called "Becoming Shakespeare." It delves into the sparks of creativity occurring around Stratford-upon-Avon at the time, and this cabinet features a class of what looks like future architects studying their craft...

Audio-visual storytelling, and the exhibition is filled with Shakespeare's words and quotes...

Paintings of Stratford-upon-Avon, and Shakespeare would have been influenced by what was going on around the town...

There are some genuine artefacts in here, although Shakespeare's Birthplace next door contains no original furnishings- just items produced contemporaneously or modern reproductions.

This is a medieval church font...

A storage cupboard known as a "Cubborde of boxes."

It dates from 1594, and this photo shows you how it unfolds to reveal hidden spaces...

John Shakespeare- William's father- was a leatherworker and glovemaker...

This is the 1431 High Cross base, and it is under that market cross that John Shakespeare would have sold his gloves (as well as from his house).

John was also elected to several municipal offices including, in 1568, mayor of Stratford.

Into the garden of Shakespeare's Birthplace, which features many plants mentioned in Shakespeare's plays...

The garden as we see it nowadays dates from the mid 19th century...

In John Shakespeare's day the garden would have served practical purposes; such as the growing of vegetables and medicinal plants. It also would have contained outbuildings pertaining to his glovemaking business...

Beautiful flowers, but back in Tudor times there would also have been a stable for a horse, and they probably would have kept pigs and hens.

This statue represents Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), who wrote a poem commemorating the 300th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, entitled In Honour of William Shakespeare.

The house was most likely built in the mid 16th century.

As John Shakespeare first rented the property for 10 years before buying it in 1564, it's pretty certain that William was born and brought up here.

In we go, and the building we see today was restored in the 1860s. But many original features- such as the hearths and rear window positions- remain intact.

The Parlour, and John Shakespeare was affluent- at the time this house was one of the more significant properties down Henley Street.

The Parlour was the "best room" on the ground floor, and used for receiving visitors...

It would have been the warmest room, and so guests would have slept in the "best bed," which was luxurious and displayed the family's wealth and status. John Shakespeare was considered to be middle class; although he was comforatably off, he was not overtly wealthy.

John Shakespeare married Mary Arden around 1557, and she would have played an important part in supporting him throughout his social climbing, as described here next to what looks like a bowl of rising dough.

The Hall table is set for a family meal...

William Shakespeare is widely thought to have been born on 23rd April 1564. He was definitely christened on 26th April, and back then babies were generally christened before they were a week old.

The Glover's Workshop, and this room tells us about glove making. We learnt that as well as lime, alum and egg, urine and dog faeces were used to process the the deer, lamb and dog(!) skins used to make fine leather.

Up the stairs and into one of the children's bedrooms, there being two- this one for boys and another for girls- with the children sharing the same bed in each. It was common practise for people to sleep sitting up, propped up by pillows!

At the time, in the house there would have been two adult Shakespeares- John and Mary- and five children (two had died in infancy before William was born, and one was yet to be born).

This room had a fire, so would have been warmer than the Birthroom.

There would also have been servants and possibly an apprentice living in the house as well, so it would have been a busy dwelling!

The are fitting artefacts up here, and the house was retained in family ownership until the late 18th century...

...But by the middle of the 19th century it had fallen into decay. The Shakespeare Birthplace Committee (later the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust) bought the house for the nation in 1847.

The Birthroom Window was formerly in the birthroom at Shakespeare's Birthplace. Pilgrims etched their names onto the walls and windows to signify their visit, with the earliest recorded date being 1806. Famous figures such as Charles Dickens, Walter Scott and John Keats visited here.

The walls were cleared of graffiti in the mid 20th century, but etchings on the glass panes exist here for you to see...

The room where William Shakespeare was born has been decorated to what it might have looked like in 1575; when he was 11.

This was his parents bedroom and, at that time, it was common for children to sleep with their parents until they were five; first swaddled in the cradle, then on a pull-out truckle bed stored under the main bed.

Looking over the garden, and in Shakespeare's time there would only have been shutters, as glass wasn't put into the windows until the 1670s.

Charles Dickens was a prominent member of the Shakespeare Birthplace Committee, and he organised amateur performances featuring noted performers in an attempt to fund the purchase of the house.

The house was restored in the 1860s; its appearance influenced by a 1762 Richard Greene sketch, as well as surviving architectural evidence.

The Window, and John Shakespeare's home was also his place of business- as well as making the gloves here, he sold them through the window to the right...