Anne Hathaway'S Cottage

Anne Hathaway's Cottage is a farmhouse, now a museum, dating back to the 15th century or earlier. It has undergone alterations in the 16th century, with a wing added to the left end around 1600 and another to the right end in the 17th century. The left wing suffered fire damage in 1969. The construction is timber-frame with brick and plaster infill, set upon a limestone plinth. The roof is thatched, being higher on the left wing, and features brick stacks.

The original layout consisted of a 2-unit plan with a through-passage, likely originally a hall and a 2-story wing. The facade presents a 2-window range to the left end and a narrower range to the right. There is a single storey with an attic. The plinth is coursed rubble, higher on the left end and to the height of the ground floor on the right end. Entrances are located at the through-passage and the left wing, both featuring plank doors. The windows are mostly restored 2-light leaded casements, with one canted oriel window with a hipped tile roof situated on the left wing. Four dormer windows are present, one being an eyebrow dormer. Rear stacks include a datestone reading IH/1697, and both have tapering caps. The rear elevation is similar to the front, with a wide-boarded door and a wooden pull handle at the through-passage entrance.

The interior reveals a full cruck truss system to the right of the hall and a partly exposed cruck truss to its left. The through-passage is behind the hall fireplace. The ground floor features chamfered beams, exposed joists, and wide-boarded doors. The hall contains a brick and rubble fireplace with a chamfered bressumer, two tinder holes, a bacon cupboard with a grille and splat balusters, and an inscription reading IH EH 1697. There is also some re-set 17th-century panelling and a fixed settle between the fireplace and the door. The kitchen features a wide fireplace with a bressumer and an inserted brick bread oven with an ash hole below. The first floor exhibits exposed trusses and wind braces, with wide floorboards except in the left wing, which has a tie beam cut for a doorway. A cruck truss over the hall displays spurs, trenched principals, a collar, and a yoke. The hall fireplace has a smoke hood of brick with some exposed wattle panels.

Historically, this was the birthplace of Anne Hathaway, 1556-1623, who married William Shakespeare in 1582, and was the home of the Hathaway family from the 15th century until 1892, when it was sold to the Trustees and Guardians of Shakespeare's Birthplace. It has been a place of significant literary and tourist interest since the mid-18th century and is believed to be the site of William and Anne's courtship, with the so-called "courting settle" in the hall being especially noted.