The Visited Orchard

The Visited Orchard was developed and delivered by Francesca Millican-Slater, commissioned by Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, working onsite at Anne Hathaway's Cottage.

Francesca was commissioned to create an artwork that encouraged visitors to spend time in the gardens surrounding Anne Hathaway's cottage in Stratford-Upon-Avon.

With visitors past and present as a starting point Francesca spent time in the Shakespeare archives (visitors log books & cleaning rota's), being a guide in the cottage talking to current visitors, staff and volunteers, gathering stories. This led to the installation of unusual objects to be found about the ground. Visitors were given a guide with clues to find words to complete a sentence that gave them their own wooden apple to tell their own story on in an ever growing installation throughout the summer. This project culminated in a live performance of the stories in a harvesting of the apples at the end of summer.