Shakespeare beyond Stratford

Stratford-upon-Avon is where Shakespeare's story begins and ends - but the Warwickshire that shaped his imagination extends well beyond the town. The Forest of Arden through which he walked to school, the deer parks and river meadows he knew as a young man, the literary circle that gathered at a priory in the north of the county, the castle entertainments that may have seeded his most magical play - all of it is still here, and most of it is within 30 minutes of Stratford. This page traces the wider Warwickshire connections that serious Shakespeare visitors find as rewarding as the Birthplace itself.

The Forest of Arden

The ancient Forest of Arden that covered north Warwickshire gave Shakespeare one of his most enduring settings. As You Like It unfolds in a forest explicitly named Arden - his own mother's maiden name - and the wildwood landscape of the play, with its outlaws, lovers, philosophers and fools finding freedom beyond the court, draws directly on the Warwickshire countryside Shakespeare knew from childhood. By his time the forest had largely given way to enclosed and open farmland, with patches of woodland and common land - but the landscape still carries its character in the quiet lanes, the ancient hedgerows and the place names.

Look at our list of country parks and our dog friendly Warwickshire article for places where you can find parts of the Forest of Arden still standing.

Charlecote Park

Charlecote, Warwick, CV35 9ER

Just a few miles from Stratford, on the banks of the River Avon, Charlecote Park carries the most tenacious Shakespeare legend in the county. The tale goes that the young Shakespeare was caught poaching deer here, brought before Sir Thomas Lucy in the Great Hall, and later took his revenge by ridiculing Lucy as fussy Justice Shallow in The Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry IV Part II. The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust is clear that there is no contemporary record of the story and it is widely discredited — but it has survived four centuries, which tells you something about how persistent some stories can be. Capability Brown's deer park, with Jacob sheep and fallow deer still roaming it, makes a beautiful visit regardless of whether you believe the legend. The Elizabethan Revival house, the Victorian kitchen and the riverside walk are all exceptional.

Kenilworth Castle and the 1575 Entertainments

Castle Road, Kenilworth, CV8 1NG

In July 1575, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, staged nineteen days of extraordinary entertainment for Queen Elizabeth I at Kenilworth Castle - waterborne pageants, fireworks, theatrical spectacle and mythological pageantry on a scale that had never been seen in England. An eleven-year-old William Shakespeare was living just twelve miles away in Stratford. Scholars have argued that this event left a mark on A Midsummer Night's Dream - in the fairy queen, in Oberon's speech about a mermaid on a dolphin's back, in the whole atmosphere of enchanted woodland spectacle. The Elizabethan Garden at Kenilworth, painstakingly recreated by English Heritage from a 1575 eyewitness account, is worth visiting for that connection alone.

The Polesworth Circle

Welford-on-Avon and the Bell Inn

Welford-on-Avon, CV37 8EB

A few miles south-west of Stratford, the village of Welford-on-Avon carries its own Shakespeare story. According to Visit Warwickshire, Shakespeare supped with fellow playwright-poets Michael Drayton and Ben Jonson at the Bell Inn here - a flagstoned pub that is still serving today. The village itself is one of the most photogenic in Warwickshire: thatched black-and-white cottages, a maypole on the green and the River Avon running alongside. An easy and rewarding addition to a day around Stratford.

Bidford-on-Avon

Bidford-on-Avon, B50 4BN

The tradition at Bidford-on-Avon is less dignified but no less entertaining. According to local legend, Shakespeare imbibed so enthusiastically at a drinking competition in the village that he fell asleep under a crab-apple tree on his way home. The man who gave us the word "madcap" evidently knew something about the condition. The village sits on the River Avon with wide grassy riverbanks that are perfect for a picnic - a more relaxed end to the day than Shakespeare's evening appears to have been.

Warwick Castle and Fulke Greville

Warwick, CV34 6AU

Warwick Castle has its own Shakespearean thread. Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick - the Kingmaker - is memorably dramatised in Henry VI Part III as "thou setter-up and plucker-down of kings." The castle at the time of Shakespeare was granted to Sir Fulke Greville, a dramatist, prolific sonneteer and biographer of Elizabethan court favourite Sir Philip Sidney - one of the most significant literary figures of the age, occupying the same castle that Shakespeare had dramatised on stage. Greville's tomb is in the Beauchamp Chapel of St Mary's Church in Warwick.

Folklore of Warwickshire

Shakespeare didn't invent his fairies from nothing. For centuries scholars have located the supernatural folk tradition of A Midsummer Night's Dream in the Warwickshire countryside - in the woodland sprites and Will o' the Wisps of the Forest of Arden, in the local dialect word "Mab-led" meaning being led astray by a ghost light, in the figure of Robin Goodfellow whose alternative name Puck was the familiar woodland spirit of English folklore. When Shakespeare set his fairy court in a forest, he was drawing on a tradition his Warwickshire audience already knew. Our Folklore and Legend itinerary explores that tradition in depth - from the Forest of Arden to the standing stones on the Oxfordshire border and the witchcraft country of the south.

In the north of the county, lies one of the most significant literary connections in Warwickshire - and one of the least visited. In the 1500’s, Sir Henry Goodere, who owned the manor at Polesworth, established the Polesworth Circle - the largest literary gathering outside London at the time. Michael Drayton, Ben Jonson and quite possibly Shakespeare himself were among those who gathered here. The medieval abbey and its grounds are worth the journey on their own terms, and for anyone interested in the Elizabethan literary world that surrounded and influenced Shakespeare, Polesworth is an essential stop. Follow the poetry trail (leaflets available in Polesworth Library).