I am recreating the 120-mile journey made  by William Shakespeare who, around 1585 when aged just 21, left his young family at Stratford for a new life in the London playhouses. 

It is very likely that Shakespeare’s journey would have taken him through Tudor Amersham where I now live. Through my walk I am raising funds for Amersham’s brilliant museum (www.amershammuseum.org) which saw its income badly hit by Covid-enforced closures. 

My walk is to mark the 400^th anniversary of  the First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays  printed in 1623 - one of the most important books published in English. 

It begins at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre at Stratford and ends on the stage of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre  on the South Bank of the Thames at Southwark. 

No one knows for sure why when or how Shakespeare left Stratford - or his exact route. But using evidence from old charts and documents of the time I have gradually pieced together his most likely journey.  

Roads in Tudor England were in an appalling state. The route from Stratford to London was gruelling and dangerous - old packhorse tracks churned up by cattle hooves and flooded in Winter,  rock hard ruts in Summer, highwaymen and robbers lurking in the dense woodland which lined much of the way. 

Setting out from Stratford, the route will take  me over the Cotswolds escarpment at Edge Hill, along old tracks between Wroxton and Bodicote, and  on through Aynho.

Following the medieval "London Way" I will walk through Grendon Underwood where Shakespeare is known to have stayed overnight at the Ship Inn. On through Wendover and Amersham, then into the City of London along  the old Uxbridge Road - once the great highway from The West. 

I will be passing places where Shakespeare lodged during his years in the capital. My walk will end at The Globe Theatre on Bankside, watching a new  production of Shakespeare's poetic masterpiece , "A Midsummer Night's Dream". 

I will be walking alone, camping along the way. 

Shakespeare may have traveled with carrier William Greenaway who made weekly journeys between Stratford and London with his horse drawn cart taking  goods and letters.  But with cart wheels easily becoming stuck in the boggy ground it was as easy  to walk - a journey of around five days. 

The  First Folio, published seven years after Shakespeare’s death in 1616, contained 36 plays - 18 of which had never been printed before including the masterpieces Macbeth, Anthony and Cleopatra and The Tempest . Without that book they may all have been lost forever.

I will be posting pictures and updates along the way so do please follow my progress.   

Thank you for your support!

Nick