So, you’ve crossed the river onto the west side and arrived in the Old Town of Stratford-upon-Avon. In front of you is the Holy Trinity Church, where William Shakespeare was baptised and where he now rests. The *first* mention of a church on this site is in the town charter of eight hundred and forty-five AD, which was signed by Beorhtwulf (Bertulf), Anglo Saxon King of Mercia. That was most likely a simple wooden structure, with today’s building being constructed in the early thirteenth century. If you approach the church from the front, you will walk along an avenue of lime trees; these are said to represent the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles. You may think that Shakespeare is buried here simply because he was so notable and famous. But this is not the case. After Henry the Eighth dissolved many religious institutions as part of the English Reformation, Holy Trinity Church lost the income from taxes that usually paid for employing a priest and maintaining the church. Step forward William Shakespeare, a successful playwright at this point, but nowhere near the legend he is regarded as today. In sixteen hundred and five, the now forty-one-year-old Shakespeare paid the expensive sum of four hundred and forty pounds to replace some of the church’s lost income. It is this act that earned him the right to be buried at the church, and not his subsequent fame. If you step inside and pay a small donation, you will be able to see Shakespeare’s grave. He famously wrote a curse to be put on his own grave, to stop anyone moving his remains in the future. The curse reads “Good friend for Jesus sake forbeare, To dig the dust enclosed here. Blessed be the man that spares these stones, And cursed be he that moves my bones”. The curse clearly did its job, as no one has ever dared to move The Bard’s remains. It is thought that Shakespeare’s twin children, Hamnet and Judith, are also buried here. The tragic tale of Hamnet was brought into prominence with the success of two thousand and twenty novel Hamnet, by Maggie O’Farrell. He died aged only eleven, and many scholars believe this tragedy influenced the Bard when writing one of his most famous works, Hamlet. After you’re done at Holy Trinity Church, step back outside, and we have a short walk now to Hall’s Croft, the house of Shakespeare’s other daughter, Susanna.