The glover’s house
John Shakespeare made gloves and dealt in wool, and the house was divided in two so that he could work from it. He became Stratford’s high bailiff in 1568, when his son William was four.
Names on the windows
Visitors have long come to see where Shakespeare was born. Writers including Walter Scott and Thomas Carlyle signed their names on the walls and windows; the walls were later painted over, but many signatures remain on the window panes.
A public campaign
In 1846 there was talk of shipping the house to America, and a committee raised £3,000 with the help of donors including Charles Dickens. The restoration of 1857 to 1864 returned the outside of the house to its 16th-century look, guided partly by an engraving of 1769.
