When you visit Stratford Upon Avon, you can stop in and see a place called Hall’s Croft. It is right down the road from Shakespeare’s Birthplace and is the house where William Shakespeare’s oldest daughter, Susanna, lived with her husband, John Hall. John Hall was a physician in Stratford Upon Avon, and is thought to have influenced, if not outright advised, Shakespeare on the many uses of medicinal plants we see come up in his plays. A new study being led by our guest this week, Ailsa Grant Ferguson, not only aims to shed light on the kinds of plants that might have been used there at Hall’s Croft, but looks to literally re-plant them. In a project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, partnering with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in collaboration with the University of Brighton, Susanna’s Garden project will plant a sensory, wellbeing garden based on the plants used for women’s health by John Hall and probably Susanna in Stratford Upon Avon that includes the same plants Ailsa’s research reveals would have been used there by the Hall family to treat family and friends in the bard’s hometown. The exciting thing about this garden is not only the opportunity to see historic plants come literally back to life, but as Ailsa Grant Ferguson joins us today to share, this garden research project specifically explores Susanna’s role in medical care as she worked alongside her husband as a healer.

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