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Nash's House/New Place - Shakespeare's Home

William Shakespeare's final retirement home was here at Nash's House/New Place in Chapel Street, one of the main streets in Stratford. He purchased the building in 1597 for £60. At this time Shakespeare was at the height of his career and, although he mainly worked in London, he gradually started to establish himself as a townsman of Stratford. He finally settled at New Place in 1610 - next door to Nash's House, spending the last years of his life there until his death in 1616. Built by Hugh Clopton, New Place was the second largest building in Stratford and was the only house made from brick. It is difficult to imagine the grandeur of New Place now that it has been reduced to its foundations and the remnants of a well. However, drawings show that it was was an impressive building with a courtyard at the front, and barns, spacious gardens and orchards at the rear.

Left: The first known illustration of Shakespeare's birthplace, published in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1769, from a drawing by Richard Greene

In 1616, Shakespeare's prolific life came to an end, when he was taken ill, allegedly after an evening entertaining Ben Jonson and Michael Drayton. The house was then left to his daughter Susanna Hall, who entertained Charles I's Queen at New Place. Susanna Hall left the house to her daughter Elizabeth Hall, who married Thomas Nash, owner of Nash's House next door. It is believed that Shakespeare's wife Anne probably saw out her last days at New Place until she died in 1623. After Elizabeth Hall's death the house returned to the Clopton family. Sir John Clopton made considerable alterations to the house and followed the aristocratic tradition of opening grand houses to the public, encouraging many tourists.

Unfortunately New Place's next owner, the eccentric Reverend Francis Gastrell was not quite so obliging. One night in 1759, incensed by the constant stream of onlookers, Gastrell took his fury out on a mulberry tree in the garden, said to be planted by Shakespeare himself. By morning all that remained was a pile of logs and the infuriated Stratford inhabitants retaliated by smashing Gastrell's windows. In a tragic final act of madness, this time annoyed at Land Tax demands, Gastrell razed New Place to the ground. Gastrell was driven out of Stratford by murderous Stratfordians, and anyone of the same name was banned from living in Stratford forever.

Today, visitors can visit the site where the foundations of New Place are still evident before continuing into the intricate Elizabethan-style knott garden and then on to Shakespeare’s Great Garden with its mulberry tree (said to be grown from a cutting of the original). Visitors can walk around the extensive grounds admiring the colourful flower beds and resting, as the Bard would have done, in this peaceful setting.

The foundations of New Place are accessed via Nash's House, once home to Thomas Nash. Nash's House is predominantly 16th century in structure. The half-timbered front is a replica of the original replaced by a facade of brick and stucco in the 1700s. Inside much of the timberwork is original. The building is now home to Stratford's local history museum, housing many pieces of fine Jacobean and Tudor furniture. The museum traces Stratford's history from the earliest settlers in the Avon Valley, through the Roman and Anglo Saxon era, to the time when Shakespeare was alive.

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