BASE HEADER

No

ID sylw: 93416

Derbyniwyd: 02/03/2025

Ymatebydd: Professor Ewan Fernie

I write as a long-term resident of Wilmcote and in my professional capacity as Chair, Professor and Fellow of Shakespeare Studies at the Shakespeare Institute of the University of Birmingham. It is my duty in both respects to emphasise the irreparable damage which the enormous proposed housing development would do to the historic environment of what is, quite literally, Shakespeare’s motherland. Shakespeare’s mother, Mary Arden, lived in Wilmcote. That Shakespeare was especially proud of it is signalled by the fact that he mentions the village in one of his plays, The Taming of the Shrew, when he does not specifically mention Stratford-upon-Avon.
Wilmcote’s Shakespearean associations are a matter of pride to locals. Across the centuries, people from all over the world have come to Wilmcote in search of Shakespeare. The hero of one of his later plays is persuaded not to sack his home city by the argument that this would be to tread upon his mother’s womb. I feel sure Shakespeare would urge the Council not to tread on his mother’s womb and bulldoze and concrete over his motherland, destroying its rural character and environment forever. We must protect this crucial heritage of the world's most valued writer.