Stratford-upon-Avon

A timber-framed house on Henley Street, with his father John's glove-making workshop set up on one side. Old window glass in the birth room keeps signatures scratched by early visitors, Walter Scott among them. In the garden actors play scenes on request.

The thatched farmhouse in Shottery village where Shakespeare's wife Anne Hathaway grew up, and despite the name it is a big house of more than ten rooms. A wooden bed the family used survives. From town a footpath between fields takes about 30 minutes.

The riverside church where Shakespeare was baptised and buried, his grave set in the floor before the altar. The stone is cut with the line cursed be he that moves my bones. A radar survey in 2016 suggested the skull may be missing, which made headlines.

The main house of the Royal Shakespeare Company, rebuilt in 2010 around a thrust stage reaching out into the audience. Seats wrap the stage on three sides, so even the back rows are close to the actors. Popular productions sell out months before.

The site of the house where Shakespeare spent his last years and died; in 1759 an owner tired of visitors pulled it down. It opened in 2016 as a garden marking the outline with bronze sculptures. Nash's House next door tells the story of the house.

The house of Shakespeare's elder daughter Susanna and her husband, the physician John Hall. A room of 17th-century remedies and medical tools gives a glimpse of treatment back then. Herbs grow in the rear garden, and a tearoom adjoins it.

The Tudor farm in Wilmcote village where Shakespeare's mother grew up, run as a working farm the way it was then. You can see old livestock breeds and falconry displays. It opens only for set seasons, so check the dates.

A small ferry built in 1937, wound across the river by a ferryman cranking a handle along a chain laid on the riverbed. Few ferries of this kind remain in Britain. It links the gardens by the theatre with the far bank, and the crossing takes under a minute.

A stone bridge laid in the late 15th century by Hugh Clopton, a local who became Lord Mayor of London, and it still carries traffic. He was also the man who first built New Place. From the bank at the east end, the arches reflect into rings on the water.

William the Conqueror first raised a castle on an earth mound here in 1068, and the towers and walls standing now date from around the 14th century. A giant trebuchet is fired in demonstrations. Tickets bought online in advance cost less than at the gate.

Riverside gardens by the basin where the Stratford Canal joins the Avon, narrowboats always moored. A seated Shakespeare is ringed by Hamlet, Lady Macbeth, Falstaff and Prince Hal, the 1888 work of Lord Ronald Gower. Theatregoers rest here before curtain.

The Tudor house of the Lucy family on the Avon east of town, in National Trust care. Fallow deer roam the big deer park, and legend says young Shakespeare was caught poaching one here. The herd wanders near visitors, yet giving them food is not allowed.

A vast red sandstone ruin where in 1575 Robert Dudley entertained Elizabeth I with weeks of festivities. The Elizabethan garden from that visit has been recreated from records. Stairs and viewing decks on the broken walls look down over the whole site.

A wool town on the Cotswolds' northern rim, honey-stone houses lining its curving High Street. An open-sided Market Hall of 1627 stands mid-street. Walkers set off on the Cotswold Way from here; Stratford lies some 30 minutes off by car.

A folly tower raised on a Cotswold hilltop in the late 1700s at a countess's wish. On clear days the roof takes in farmland spread over several counties. Walking up from Broadway village below is a long, breathless climb.