Stratford HOHO Pt 2
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Thu 28 Jun 2018 22:57
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Stratford Hop On Hop Off Bus – Part
Two
   Real jigsaw puzzle box
lid scenery.
   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.”
 Looking across a car park we saw The Bear Pit Theatre.
   More loveliness.
   Slightly out of town, we passed Anne Hathaway’s house (birthplace and later Shakespeare’s
wife).
 Now in countryside we saw many race horses at rest.
  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.
  Gorgeous old
houses.
  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.
 We went over a bridge and saw locks for longboats, then it was a bracing, windy and
faster ride back to town.
 Even this Chartered
Accountants was pretty.
 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 |