A couple of very interesting old houses with small but fascinating museums and spacious and relaxing gardens are two of the lesser sites on the Shakespeare trail, these are Hall's Croft and Nash's Place.
Hall's Croft was built in 1613 as a home for local physician John Hall and his wife Susanna, Billy's oldest daughter. The main rooms including the parlour and bedchamber have been furnished in the style of a wealthy professional of the period and pieces include an attractive draw-leaf table, an ornate children's high chair and a solid oak tester bed. John's professional life is represented by a room furnished as a doctor's consulting chamber and a large exhibition room stuffed with some of the nasty looking medical implements of the time as well as a copy of John's own posthumously published work "Select Observations on English Bodies" which curiously never achieved the same lasting appeal as some of his father-in-law's works. There is also a large garden planted with many of the herbs John used in his cures.
Nash's House was the property of Thomas Nash and his wife Elizabeth, the daughter of John and Susanna Hall and hence Billy's granddaughter. The downstairs entrance hall, parlour and kitchen are furnished in the manner of an affluent townhouse of the age and feature the curious cupboard of boxes, an ornately carved dinning table and locally produced Sheldon tapestries. Upstairs is a small museum that recounts Stratford's history from Roman settlement until today, of particular interest are the artefacts from Billy's time and the displays on David Garrick's 1769 Shakespeare festival, but my own personal favourites are the rustic carved angels recovered from the guildhall chapel.
Next-door to Nash's House is the site of New Place, Billy's retirement home and the place where he died in 1616, the building was sadly demolished in 1759 in a desperate attempt by the then owner to avoid paying rates. All that now remains are some of the brick foundations and an old well, and much of the site is taken up by an ornate Elizabethan knot garden. Outback is the Great Garden with its immense lawns, box-hedges and ancient mulberry bush grown from a cutting of the bush planted by Billy and cut down by the aforementioned tax dodging successor in an attempt to dissuade the tourists who were apparently already swarming the town by the 1750's.
Hall's Croft and Nash's House are hardly major tourist draws in themselves but make pleasant enough diversions for comparatively little extra cost, while the Great Garden at New Place can be accessed free of charge by anyone wishing to relax and escape the crowds for a little while.