Stratford HOHO Pt 2

Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Thu 28 Jun 2018 22:57
Stratford Hop On Hop Off Bus – Part Two
 
 
 
 
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Real jigsaw puzzle box lid scenery.
 
 
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During the The Black Death this road was known as Burial Road as all the bodies came along here to go on a bone fire (now the modern word is bonfire), changed after to Shottery Road, bed and breakfast establishments as far as the eye could see. Shakespeare knew that when space became limited in the church, his bones would be disturbed and he would end up on the bone fire hence, his grave in the church has no name but a curse......“Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear, to dig the dust enclosed here. Blessed be the man that spares these stones, And cursed be he that moves my bones.”
 
 
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Looking across a car park we saw The Bear Pit Theatre.
 
 
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More loveliness.
 
 
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Slightly out of town, we passed Anne Hathaway’s house (birthplace and later Shakespeare’s wife).
 
 
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Now in countryside we saw many race horses at rest.
 
 
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A churchyard and a pub called The Mary Arden. It was going along this part of the tour that we listened about June Brides. In Elizabethan times people bathed once a year in June. Families started with the oldest and worked through to the youngest, no soap, just a mix of charcoal and ash. Everyone carried fleas so the last in the water had every chance of coming out dirtier than when they went in, midst a scum of dead fleas and grime. Once out of the bath the children were sewn into their clothes and they had to last throughout the following twelve months. June Brides became common as this was the time of the year they would likely smell the sweetest. Queen Elizabeth was a rarity, she bathed every month. Henry VIII had one at birth and not again until he died. 
 
 
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Gorgeous old houses.
 
 
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Both sides of the road used to be covered in the Forest of Arden now used as farmland. During Henry VIII’s time the trees were cleared to head south where his fleet was built. Each of the five to seven deck ships took between two and three thousand trees. New Forest was planted to replace this loss of trees.
 
 
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We went over a bridge and saw locks for longboats, then it was a bracing, windy and faster ride back to town.
 
 
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Even this Chartered Accountants was pretty.
 
 
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Passing The Bard, we left the HOHO bus back where we began. On the morrow we are going to visit some of the Shakespeare houses.
 
 
 
 
ALL IN ALL A LOVELY RIDE IN THE SUN
                     EXTREMELY INFORMATIVE