Day 11: The Aldertons are in the pub! Alderton and other fun things

Enid chose to have a quieter day today and to mooch around Stratford while Chris and Martina and Liz headed off on a local quest to find the village of Alderton in Tewksbury. We drove through some lovely Cotswold country side through lanes and villages with yellow stone houses before finding the small town. It is a pretty place and it has a beautiful old thatched pub: The Gardeners Arms. And the hospitality was so genuine. We told the young publican why we were there and he told us that he had never met Aldertons before and so the tonic water and non alcoholic gin was on the house. It is also a dog friendly pub and we were taken by the doggy breakfast menu advertised at the door. And very soon a huge (read horse sized) pure white Alsatian popped out for a visit. He was very friendly. Turns out that the village of Alderton appears in the Doomsday book as Aldritone and that it has had a church that dates back to Norman times, the record of the first rector dating back to 1283. The town has a clay substrata which made the area ideal for well sinking and we saw evidence of a very old well, glassed over in the pub floor. Now we have no idea whether this is the Alderton where our Aldertons came from, but we had a lovely visit and felt a bit like royalty. Unfortunately Alderton does not have one of those pretty country town signs so we had to settle for the one with the speed sign and the admonishment to drive safely. It was a lovely visit. 

Our next stop was a drive through at the pretty village of Broadway just for a quick photo before our big stop at the Hidcote Manor and gardens. Hidcote is a great name because you would have no idea it was there, nestled up in a series of winding lanes, well hidden from view. The gardens were developed by American Lawrence Johnson who developed a gardening obsession and traveled the world collecting plant species and planted a number of garden rooms, just over 100 years ago. It is nothing short of breathtaking. Manicured lawns and little garden rooms with wildflower beds and hedgerows, formal spaces and those that are wild... and the bees! There might be a world wide bee crisis, but not at Hidcote and there was some wicked joy to be had watching visitors playing bee dodgeball.

It was time for a quick snack before returning to Stratford to meet up with Enid. The girls were keen for a browse on the Main Street so Chris stayed behind and we mooched around the shops, took the obligatory photo outside the house that has been celebrated as Shakespeare’s birthplace and generally had a hoot of a time, good coffee included. We also had a fabulous chat to a woman in the RSC store who was responsible for all of the merchandising for Matilda the Musical which got its start in Stratford.

But there was time needed for a rest before the big event of the evening: the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of As you Like it. We dined at Carluccio’s, an Italian down by the waterfront and unfortunately had misread the start time for the production, arriving just after it had started. The theatre staff were beautiful and ushered us quickly to our seats, only to find that some elderly woman was seated in the seat and wouldn’t move, nor produce her ticket. Enid and Martina had to spend until intermission in seats that did not have such a good view. But, the staff again were fabulous and we were reunited at Intermission.... and what an amazing performance. The theatre is like an indoor version of the Globe, except that it has comfy seats. The play made good use of the space, had fantastic audience participation, great comic notes and an interesting use of music. The final use of Hymen, the god of marriage, was an incredible puppet, reminiscent of the technology of war horse. It was such a good show, but a late night with the big departure tomorrow.