For this outing – we’d made a walk to the train station (rather than face the costs of Stratford Upon Avon’s car parking) – passing the town’s ‘Colour Palette’ that attempts to brighten up the pedestrian underpass; I forgot when the station was reached, had written a page and a half by the time the train was boarded; and it was 11:43 AM when the train moved.

It wasn’t long before the train crossed the River Avon (I saw the artwork termed ‘The Warwick Colour Palette’) when stopping at Warwick), a nervous looking bloke in an official fleece was going down the carriage zapping peoples ticket QR codes, a man in his early 30s poking his phone appeared to be wearing his slippers and didn’t have any socks on, Hatton was stopped at at almost precisely 12:00 PM, and I noticed an advert for Disney World Florida on the wall behind Mum’s head. At Bearley (which looked like a little village), Google Maps thought Edstone Aqueduct wasn’t far away; a genuine human said over the train’s loudspeaker the usual Mind the Gap motto at Wilmcote – where notices said it was the home of Mary Arden’s farm; there were fields of solar panels passed before the Stratford upon Avon Parkway; and it was 12:20 PM when we disembarked.

The gusts felt chilly out there, a car with an unbelievably loud exhaust pipe was on Alcester Road, there were tiled blobs on the street telling people about the history of the Stratford…

…and we popped out on Greenhill St, which had a mural all along a wall…

…followed by Market Square and Wood Street – where a Rural Crime Team police car and multiple officers were by a stopped lorry (and Mum asked an officer what had happened and was told the lorry had hit a person). We followed a couple of very very fluffy Retrievers through there, a dispensing chemist was on Henley street, as well as a cigar merchants, a dachshund was being walked, a lady was carrying a luxury Hungarian goose down duvet; then a statue of something I forgot was somewhere I forgot – and I forgot it because we got to Shakespeare’s Birthplace, and due to confusion over tickets we stood by the desk for a while.

The room after that was a very very dark one – with a screen and a voice that said a lot of stuff about Shakespeare that I forgot; and a voice was speaking in the next one as well (which was green) and said stuff I forgot. A wooden weasel was among things behind glass, and an inkhorn, a hornbook, and A Short Introduction Of Grammar by William Lily (in 1732) were in the next bit (behind glass)…

…followed by another really dark room with bean bags all over the floor where Shakespearean phrases were being recited by loud voices coming out of the ceiling. There was a Cubborde Of Boxes (containing legal documents about Shakespearean Stratford), practical items of metal and pottery, an odd wooden cheese mould, and a rather gory painting of a woman overlooking lots of dead animals (and it said ‘I have choice for my kitchen’ in the corner); and an object handling table included a big white feather/quill just before a garden sort of area where there were school kids and more people speaking foreign languages. Then a wooden beamed stone floored room with a pipkin came next; the parlour had bed in it; a room that may’ve been a dining room smelt weird, and a man called Phil started explaining posy trenchers, a big pie was on the table, and I heard dog noises.

He started saying stuff about John Shakespeare, (William Shakespeare’s father) being a glove maker, he sold them in the market, and that a pair would cost about one month wages for a joiner; said some more stuff that I forgot; and in the next room another bloke said stuff about thresholds and how thresholds got their names.

We continued to be followed by the school trip group; a room they overtook us in contained the bathroom window (and I noticed uniformed teenagers playing table tennis on the street outside) – which had names all over it; the size of some of the people made me wonder how the floorboards cope; and after one more bedroom with a little wooden cot in it, a little wooden ‘extension’ was before a staircase. I noticed the extension had a very modern fire extinguisher in it; and after some creaky stairs a big metal cooker was in the last room before a garden with a couple of dog bowls; another school trip party had turned up (which seemed to be all girls), and we took a pathway to a gift shop: with lots of books, folio cards, The Shakespeare Game, quills, biscuits, dressing up kits and bottles of mead.

We came out of there on to Henley Street where Scots & Clans were selling tweed dog coats, there was another school trip group, and a fluffy dog was being pushed around in a pram; the United Reformed Church had the Bear Pit Theatre next to it; the ‘First Church of Christ, Scientist’ had automatic doors; The Shop for Dogs had a notice about a table tennis club on its door; and Chaucer Head Book Shop was next to Shakespeare’s New Place. In there, a small crate contained a scroll, several maps on boards were showing the history of the house, and there was a big metal boat, a big metal ball/globe, and a very realistic looking keeling over fake tree had another big ball next to it; we went under a hedge/ring of trees with nothing below head level, and a big lawned area had flowers round it.

A statue that looked a bit gory to me was labelled as ‘The Tempest’; I sat down on a bench and consumed the bit of tiffin I had in my bag, a lady on a mobility scooter drove it past, teenage-ish boys were audible, as well as couple of different languages being spoken while we were sat there. We moved at around 3:30PM (and I got distracted by butterflies), a very very wrinkly lady was on a bench trying to read a book titled A Winter’s Tale, a big sculptured bit of wall was at the end of a short avenue (and it said there that it was an ‘alto relievo’ – a sculptural technique where figures or elements project significantly from a flat background, protruding by at least half their depth)…

…followed by a potting shed and more statues with scripture on the back, and the Knot Garden; and when we left (onto Chapel Street), one of the staff remarked on my note-taking – and I explained myself.

Barry The Butchers was on a street I forgot the name of; the Bell Court shopping area had a statue of Puck in it; and Rother Street, Greenhill Street (which had several vape shops on it)(and then a big tractor went past) and Alcester Road led back to the station at 4.08pm.