Stratford-upon-Avon

Anne Hathaway's house. She was William Shakespeare's wife. The above picture was taken from the internet. It's spring there now, but not that green yet. I grabbed it because it shows the roof complete. The floors were really uneven and creaky here. I guess you would be too if you were 500 years old (or more). Mom fell down the stairs here. I waited and fell down the stairs on the tubes.

As you can see here they are doing some restoration work on the thatching on the roof. Thatch is REALLY expensive to replace. One source says that thatch only lasts for 20 to 25 years and needs maintenance ongoing. They said that it can cost upwards of $30,000.00 to replace the whole roof, but you might not need to do the whole thing at once.

I thought it was really great that we got to see the process.

Thatch is made with a special variety of wheat that is grown just for the thatch properties. Instead of short shafts and large grain heads, thatch is grown from a variety that gives long shafts and short grain heads. The guide here said that a good thatch job can last about 40 years. This house is reputed to be Anne Hathaway's and she was born in 1556.

William Shakespeare's family home.

I got some great pictures of period pottery here. Some are probably replicas. I took
this picture and was yelled at. No one had said we couldn't take pictures.

Down in this room, there was a person in uniform and I asked if she worked there, she said, no, she was just a college student doing research. She was having people fill out questionnaires. I said, "So you won't throw me out if I take some pictures?" Because there were these other great pots here. She laughed and said , "No, picture away." So I did.

The glazes on these pots would all be lead based.