A plaque marking the re-opening of Bancroft Gardens on the River Avon in 2009 by Sir Donald Sinden, and various other dignitaries.
The plaque reads:
Re-opened on 24 April 2009
by Sir Donald Sinden, Patron,
World Class Stratford
Cllr. Les Topham, Chairman,
World Class Stratford and
Cllr. Vince Seaman, Chairman,
Stratford-on-Avon District Council"These gardens are famous for their setting on the banks of the River Avon and their proximity to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Generations have enjoyed them as a place of relaxation and entertainment, as a meeting point and for enjoying the river and its wonderful views.
In William Shakespeare's day, this area was used by the townspeople to graze domestic animals. It was also the site for the first Shakespeare Jubilee Festival in 1769, organised by David Garrick.
Over time, the Bancroft became a hub of transport and industrial activity centred around wharfs and warehouses with a canal and a tramway adding to its road and river connections.
The coming of the railways in the mid-nineteenth century led to the Bancroft's decline, until 1887 when the site was first developed as public gardens.
Over the years, many gifts have been made to enhance the area, from original artworks to benches, trees and plants.
One of the most famous donations is the Gower Memorial with its statue of Shakespeare, which is located in the flower gardens. The memorial also incorporates a set of figures representing Shakespearean characters who symbolize philosophy, tragedy, comedy and history.
Overlooking the canal basin is a bronze statue-of Hermaphroditus named Youth at a Stream which was inspired by a tale from Greek mythology. This sculpture was donated to the town in 1932 as a water feature.
A memorial commemorating fifty years of peace between the nations of Western Europe in 1995 can be found beside the approach to the lock bridge.
In the walkway opposite Sheep Street is the Country Artists Fountain, also known as the Swan Fountain, which commemorates the 800th anniversary of the granting of the charter for Stratford's market by King Richard I (The Lionheart) in 1196.
As part of the re-landscaping work in 2008-9, a new analemmatic sundial, which uses human action to indicate the time, was created on the edge of the River Avon as a tribute to the work and contribution to society by the Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service."
SOURCE - info board
"Sir Donald Alfred Sinden CBE FRSA (9 October 1923 – 12 September 2014) was an English actor in theatre, film, television and radio as well as an author.
Sinden starred in the 1953 film Mogambo and achieved early fame as a Rank Organisation film star in the 1950s in films including Doctor in the House (1954), Simba (1955), Eyewitness (1956) and Doctor at Large (1957). He then became highly regarded as an award-winning Shakespearean and West End theatre actor and television sit-com star. winning the 1977 Evening Standard Award for Best Actor for King Lear, and starring in the sitcoms Two's Company (1975–79) and Never the Twain (1981–91).
Joining the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre company in 1946, Sinden was an Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) from 1967. Outstanding among his many notable stage appearances for the RSC, both at Stratford-upon-Avon and in London's West End (usually at the Aldwych Theatre), was his performance in 1963 as the Duke of York in The Wars of the Roses opposite Peggy Ashcroft as Queen Margaret.
Other notable performances by Sinden for the company were Eh? by Henry Livings in 1964; as Lord Foppington in The Relapse in 1967; Malvolio in Twelfth Night (opposite Judi Dench as Viola) in 1969 and again with Judi Dench and her husband Michael Williams in 1974, as Sir Harcourt Courtly in London Assurance (Albery Theatre).
After the production transferred to New York in 1975, Sinden became the first recipient of the newly established Broadway Drama Desk Special Award. Sinden sought and received advice about the character's costume and mannerisms in the role from the Regency novelist Georgette Heyer.
For the 1976 Stratford season and then at the Aldwych Theatre in 1977, Sinden won the Evening Standard Award as Best Actor for his performance in the title role of King Lear (with Michael Williams as the Fool). Meanwhile, he was also portraying in repertory, Benedick (regarded as "the most admired Benedick in living memory") opposite Judi Dench's Beatrice in John Barton's highly acclaimed 'British Raj' revival of Much Ado About Nothing, and in the same time frame also rehearsing the third season of the LWT sitcom Two's Company with Elaine Stritch during the daytime and filming the show at the studio in front of a live audience on Sunday evenings. He claimed "RSC money isn't very good compared with a normal commercial theatre rate. I was on their 'star' salary, which meant it worked out at about £47 per performance! You work for them 'for the honour' of doing the greatest classical plays, not for the money, so you have to make up the financial short-fall somewhere".
In 1979 he played the title role in Othello, directed by Ronald Eyre, becoming the last 'blacked-up white' actor to play the role for the RSC. Everyman editor and critic Gareth Lloyd Evans noted that his interpretation was "not…about colour or racialism" but one that illuminated the character's personal tragedy."
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