Holy Trinity Church, Stratford upon Avon

This remarkable Church is known simply as Holy Trinity, or as “Shakespeare’s Church” because of its justifiable fame as the place of baptism and burial of William Shakespeare. It was old long before the writer’s birth in 1564. Indeed, the building dates from 1210, when it was first constructed on the site of a Saxon monastery.

Many remarkable historical features survive, and the building has a near-perfect acoustic for choral and orchestral concerts (of which the Festival is presenting two, on Saturday, 22 September, and Tuesday 25 September). It cannot be denied, however, that’s what makes this building resonate for visitors is the realisation that they are sharing a space in which walked William Shakespeare. He did so regularly, as a ‘lay rector’ of the Church, and particularly so after his acquisition of New Place.

The Church still owns the original Elizabethan register, in which details of Shakespeare’s baptism and burial are recorded, though it is now kept by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust for safekeeping. He is buried in the beautiful 15th-century chancel created by Thomas Balsall, Dean of the Collegiate Church (who was himself buried within it in 1491). Shakespeare’s funerary bust is fixed on a wall beside his burial place, over which sits a worn slab into which has been carved the following immortal words:

GOOD FRIEND FOR JESUS SAKE FOREBEAR,
TO DIGG THE DVST ENCLOSED HERE.
BLESTE BE YE MAN YT SPARES THESE STONES,
AND CURSED BE HE YT MOVES MY BONES.