Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, in the village of Shottery, Warwickshire, England, about 1 mile or 1.6 km west of Stratford-upon-Avon.
Like the two previous Thursday postcards, this card also has a tinted black & white photograph and blurb at the upper left on the reverse. It has a divided back but no identifying letters or numbers or credit to a photographer. All three cards appear to have been published or printed by the same company. The blurb on this card: “Ann Hathaway’s Cottage, Stratford, England.—The house of Shakespeare. This is a very beautiful photograph reproduction of the celebrated spot and it contains many relics of Shakespeare, and is visited by all lovers of Shakespeare who ever get within a day’s ride of this celebrated place.”
The oldest portion of the house is dated 1463. Originally it was a three-roomed building on one floor. Known as Hewlands Farm during the time of Shakespeare it had more than 90 acres or 36 hectares of land associated with it making it much larger than the term cottage implies. Ann’s grandfather, John Hathaway was the first Hathaway to live there in 1542.
After Ann’s father, Richard, died in 1581, her brother, Bartholomew, took over the ownership and began to expand the building beginning in 1610. Eventually it ended up as a 12-room farmhouse. Notice the multiple chimneys on the card. The largest one was used for cooking, the others help spread heat evenly through the house during the winter.
The house was passed down in the family until 1846 when financial difficulties forced them to sell it. It was occupied by tenants until it was acquired by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in 1892. The Trust removed later additions and alterations. There was a fire in 1969 but the Trust was able to restore the building which is now open to the public as museum.
The cottage gardens were redone in 1920 by the horticulturist Ellen Willmott. Many of the plants found in the garden were mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays. Three flower beds near the cottage entrance are named Miss Willmott’s garden.
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