Shakespeare Family Homes

Shakespeare's Family Homes are a group of historic houses in and around Stratford-upon-Avon cared for by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. For garden lovers, the best of them is Anne Hathaway's Cottage at Shottery, just west of the town centre, where the farmhouse in which Anne Hathaway is thought to have grown up is set in extensive gardens. In town, Shakespeare's Birthplace on Henley Street and New Place, the site of his final home, have gardens of their own.

Anne Hathaway's Cottage is a good lesson in how a traditional English cottage garden looks around an old timber-framed house. Despite the name, it is a spacious twelve-roomed farmhouse with visible timber framing and several chimneys, once known as Hewlands Farm, and its cottage-style garden is a useful place for ideas on mixing flowers, herbs and paths close to a house. At New Place, the knot garden shows the clipped, geometric style associated with Elizabethan gardens, and makes a neat contrast with the softer planting at Shottery.

A visit works best if you treat it as a walk between sites. The town houses are close together, while Shottery is a short trip west of the centre. Allow time at each, as the houses and their exhibitions take longer than the gardens alone. Stratford is busy in peak season, so going early in the day is sensible, and the Trust's own website is the place to check which houses are open and how tickets work.