Anne Hathaway’s cottage in Warwickshire is one of the most well known houses in England. It is much photographed due to its thatched roof and pretty garden and of course the Shakespeare connection. You can see pictures of it on many things - chocolate boxes, tea towels and souvenirs of Shakespeare’s county. Click here for a photo of the house and garden.

If you are interested in Shakespeare and going to Stratford do visit the garden because although it has a lot of visitors it is still worth seeing. The cottage itself is just outside Stratford and it is where Anne spent much of her childhood, before becoming the wife of William Shakespeare in 1582. The cottage dates from the fifteenth century inside you will find lots of old period furniture and large wooden beams.

It is actually quite a large house, it was once a farmhouse, but is very picturesque and has a wonderful English cottage flower garden filled with old fashioned scented flowers. Find out more about how you can grow these - easy to grow English Cottage Garden plants here Shakespeare mentions many plants in his plays and most of them can be found in this garden. There are seasonal traditional plantings of tulips, delphiniums, hollyhocks , lupins, achemilla mollis and verbascums to name but a few.

You will find arches and pergolas that are covered with climbing scented roses .Remember that Honeysuckle is another traditional scented English climbing plant that can be grown over arches and bowers.

There are clipped box hedges and interestingly shaped topiary, plus an orchard filled with wild flowers.

A herb garden was always part of an English garden and sometimes was separate plot but often in an English cottage garden, the herbs were planted side by side with the flowers. In the small vegetable garden you will find vegetables growing that were available in Shakespeare’s day. During the last few years a tree garden has been planted – with all the trees that Shakespeare mentions in his plays.

Enjoy your garden