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A family home and workshop
John Shakespeare, a glove maker and wool dealer, lived and worked in this 16th-century half-timbered house on Henley Street, which was divided in two so that he could run his business from it. His son William is believed to have been born here in 1564, the third of eight children, and to have spent his childhood here.
An inn and the Hart family
After Shakespeare’s death the main house was leased as an inn, the Maidenhead, later the Swan and Maidenhead, while his sister Joan Hart lived in the smaller part. Her descendants owned the property until 1806, when it was sold to Thomas Court, a butcher.
Saved for the nation
When the house came up for sale in 1846, a public campaign supported by Charles Dickens raised the money, and the Shakespeare Committee bought it at auction in 1847 for £3,000. The house was restored between 1857 and 1864, and the committee became the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in 1891.
