The darling buds of May mark the start of the Grand Readjustment
The Man Who Pays His Way: Try to believe that Warwickshire is ‘more lovely and more temperate’ than Tuscany or Wyoming
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Built in 1514, abandoned in 2020: that is the sad story of one of the locations on the William Shakespeare tourism circuit.
Mary Arden’s Farm was the childhood home of the Bard’s mother and her seven sisters. Somebody had to occupy last place on the league table of almost 300 members of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (Alva), and it turned out to be the farm that Robert Arden painstakingly built for his family in the early 16th century.
As the dismal figures published by Alva on Wednesday revealed, only 597 people showed up last year to “experience the sights, sounds and smells of a working Tudor farm on a fantastic family day out” – a 99 per cent slump in visitors.
Alva’s spreadsheet of doom shows the magnitude of the problem facing Britain’s tourism industry.
On paper the prospects look good: this Easter, mainland Scotland lifts its “stay at home” rule, while residents of Wales are able to take actual holidays like we used to do (though not across the border until 12 April).
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England’s museums are due to reopen on 17 May – the same day that foreign holidays from the UK might resume in (I fear) a very limited way.
Already many travellers have written off abroad this year. What I call the Grand Readjustment is beginning already, with many overseas adventures replaced by less exotic domestic journeys. Surely, you might conclude, this spring and summer should bring a bonanza to UK tourism.
But as Shakespeare prophetically observed: “Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.”
The twin troubles: we British are averse to bad weather and useless at replicating the habits of overseas visitors. If it’s pouring, we will not diligently trudge around the sacred sites of Shakespeare, nor fill the well-furnished rooms waiting in nearby Stratford-upon-Avon.
Unlike well-heeled North American, Middle Eastern and Asian visitors, we shudder at the prospect of paying £500 per night at a fancy Mayfair hotel in London, or a similar figure in a Scottish stately home-turned-luxury-lodge.
Should you happen to own a lovely self-contained cottage in the countryside, or a beachfront house in one of the warmer parts of the kingdom, do plan to spend the next six months simply watching the cash roll in. The premium on privacy has never been higher.
For travellers and the tourism industry, spring and summer will be messy. To extract the best value from your hard-earned and much-deserved UK holiday this year, opt for summer in the city. While everyone else is crowding the beaches of Cornwall and the fells of Cumbria, you can help repopulate the metropoles – with access to cut-price hotels, cheerfully competitive restaurants and under-visited attractions.
You can also hop on a train for a day’s escape beyond the city: from Manchester into the Peak District, from Newcastle to the Northumberland coast or from Birmingham to Shakespeare country – specifically Wilmcote in Warwickshire.
Walk west for three minutes from the platform and you find yourself at Mary Arden’s Farm. It might not be an agriturismo property in Tuscany nor a dude ranch in Wyoming, but try to believe, in the words of Shakespeare’s sonnet: “Thou art more lovely and more temperate.”
And if that doesn’t work, just think of the cash you are saving for future adventures: a day return from Birmingham costs only £7.70.
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