Work exposes timber floor 'stood on by Shakespeare'

A theatre where William Shakespeare is thought to have performed has had an area of historic timber floor "larger than a tennis court" exposed.

The flooring, believed to have been once trodden on by the playwright and actor, was discovered at St George's Guildhall in King's Lynn, Norfolk, in 2023.

A conservation project has worked on exposing the wooden floorboards and other areas of the venue.

Tim FitzHigham, creative director of the theatre, said: "The information that's coming out of that floor is kind of like the dry equivalent of the Mary Rose; that's how important this discovery is."

The theatre's first recorded performances took place in 1445, long before Shakespeare's birth in 1564.

During 1592-1593 London's theatres were closed because of an outbreak of plague and Shakespeare and his company of actors were on tour in King's Lynn.

The theatre claims documents show The Bard acted there in 1592 or 1593.

• BBC Bitesize: Who was William Shakespeare?

Last year a doorway, that may once have led to the Bard's dressing room, was also discovered at the King Street venue.

Performances were moved to another building on-site in February to start lifting layers of the floor.

Mr FitzHigham said the area of floor was "larger than a tennis court and it's all 1419 beams all around you".

"Having the whole floor exposed gives us a massive amount of information about the use of the venue over the last 600 years," he added.

During the conservation project, there has been early evidence of playgoers eating food, drinking, and smoking at the venue.

"We've literally found the food. We found all this stuff down the cracks of the floorboards," Mr FitzHigham said.

"We've got loads of nutshells, oyster shells, bits of pipe, broken wine bottles and chicken bones."

People can view the exposed stage before the next phase of the conservation project in July.

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