Hall’s Croft, the 17th-century home once occupied by Shakespeare’s daughter Susanna and her husband John Hall, has been added to Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register after a vehicle accidentally reversed into the building last October and damaged several timbers. The hit exposed the oldest parts of the interior to the elements, even though no one was hurt.
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, which looks after the property, is now carrying out an initial programme of conservation work to stabilise the building and is removing temporary steel supports installed in 2012. The stabilisation phase is due to finish in October 2026 and is being largely funded by a £1 million donation from Ken Ludwig, while the wider repair bill could rise to as much as £10 million.
That larger programme would go far beyond emergency fixes. It would include work on the façades, a replacement roof and major intervention inside the house, but the trust says it will only be possible with substantial outside funding from institutional funders, philanthropists and partners. Hall’s Croft has already been in difficult condition for years: it was on the verge of collapse when it was taken into custodianship in the late 1940s, and it has remained closed since 2020 for conservation work to its lower floors.
The listing is a public warning as much as a planning step. Rachael North, speaking for the trust, said the house is of exceptional historical importance and needs a serious, sustained response, adding that the register gives the organisation a way to be transparent about the problems and to build the partnerships needed to secure the building’s future. Historic England’s regional director for the Midlands, Deborah Williams, called Hall’s Croft internationally significant and said the listing is a positive first step toward bringing it back into use. She said the trust understands the responsibilities of being custodians of shared history and that the register is the first step on the journey to being removed from it.
The answer to the question raised by the new listing is clear: Hall’s Croft is not being written off, but it also is not close to reopening. The house can only move off the risk register if the current stabilisation work succeeds and the trust secures the money for a far more expensive second phase of repairs.
