Day 141 – The Shakespeare Spoon

Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England is probably best known as the birthplace (and final resting place) of famous playwright and poet, William Shakespeare. It’s just 8 miles southwest of Warwick, which I featured in an earlier post about Warwick Castle


This spoon was crafted by Levi and Salaman of Birmingham, England in 1911, and while the bowl of the spoon clearly has an engraving with Shakespeare’s portrait, the handle says “Stratford-ON-Avon,” not “Stratford-upon-Avon.” 

Apparently, the former is the local government district which uses the preposition “on” to distinguish itself from the latter, which is the main town and the location of the district headquarters. However, this doesn’t explain why the spoon carries this name, since the Stratford-on-Avon district wasn’t formed until 1974. After looking at current websites, travel guides, and early 20th century maps, I can only guess that they use the two names interchangeably? 

Anyway, it’s a nice spoon. And as you can see, it’s a nice day in Seattle. The sunshine is back, at least for the next week. Maybe it’s time for a round of National Park spoons to get us ready for outdoor life again?