In which we visit five Shakespeare sites in one day : Holy Trinity Church

It's very touching to see that people are still leaving flowers beside decades-old memorials.

Holy Trinity Church is the church that Shakespeare knew as a young man and upon his retirement and return from London. Stratford's oldest building, it was begun in 1210, presumably on the site of an earlier Norman church, which in turn probably replaced a wooden structure as a church is known to have been here on the banks of the Avon as early as 845. In Shakespeare's time, the spire was made of wood; the present spire dates from 1763.  Shakespeare is of course buried here in the chancel, along with his wife, their daughter Susanna, and Susanna's husband John Hall.

One of the church's many interesting features are the twenty-six 15th-century misericord seats in the chancel, carved with religious, secular, and mythical figures.  A misericord is a small ledge projecting from a hinged seat that gives support when standing,  for the early priests were required to stand through all eight daily offices or services as well as one or two daily masses, quite a long time even for the younger priests, let alone the older or infirm ones! -- the name is derived from the Latin miserere, "mercy".