An Easter trip to Stratford became a regular part of our boating calendar in 1996. As there are lots of pubs in the town we could always find somewhere different, or in later years, ones that we hadn't been in for a while. The Falcon Hotel falls into this latter category.
Our first visit was on Saturday 29th March 1997 on our lunchtime 'crawl' around Stratford.
It is a fine Tudor style building and inside it is all you would expect from an 'olde worlde' hotel - with the sort of prices you'd expect as well. As it isn't a 'proper pub' is probably the main reason that we don't visit it every year.
The next time we ventured into the Falcon was on the evening of Saturday 14th April 2001.
We only spent one session in Stratford this time as our journey had been in the balance because of the Foot & Mouth outbreak. It was only a few days before we were due to set off that British Waterways managed to open the canals by insisting that we carried the chemicals needed to dip our shoes in to prevent spreading the disease. There were also disinfectant dips at all canal access points in the countryside.
This possibly explains why there were no people in the shot of the Falcon. As I recall, Stratford was very quiet that year, mainly because the outside world believed that Britain was closed. Vast pyres of burning cattle didn't help that perception!
The next time we visited the Falcon was on the evening of Saturday 26th March. This isn't one of my best photos - I can only conclude it was late on in our session!
Our most recent venture into the Falcon was on the evening of Saturday 30th April 2011. We'd delayed our trip by a couple of weeks so that we would be away during the Royal Wedding.
As you can see from this picture, the place hasn't changed a bit in the 14 years we've been visiting. Hardly surprising in a historic town like Stratford. However, it is now one of the Legacy Group of hotels...and the bar prices are still reflective of this status!
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