Pioneering digital experience opens a window into the home and history of Shakespeare’s eldest daughter

A groundbreaking new online archive created by University of Brighton’s Dr Ailsa Grant Ferguson in collaboration with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust offers a unique, immersive way to explore Hall’s Croft, the home of Susanna, eldest daughter of Anne and William Shakespeare.

The innovative project engages global audiences with 17th century women’s history and Shakespeare’s legacy in entirely new ways. Accessible to all and free to use, the experience, created by award-winning digital studio Arcade XR and built using advanced 3D photography and augmented reality, offers a bold new way to connect with history, wherever you are.

Hall’s Croft: A Spatial Archive shows that Susanna was much more than a famous writer’s daughter. Healer, household manager, reader, businesswoman and mother, she can tell us so much of the rich, multi-faceted lives of 17th century women.

Through a digital reconstruction and an augmented reality display this rich experience invites users to explore Susanna’s 17th century lifestyle and environment. Using advanced 3D photography and augmented reality, the project offers a virtual reconstruction of three rooms of Hall’s Croft. Users can navigate curated content and explore the projects' key themes – Home, Medicine, Garden and Susanna – by interacting with objects connected to the Hall family’s history.

User-friendly for newcomers and seasoned scholars alike, the platform offers curated archive searches and helpful research resources to invite users to engage with archives in new ways. Whether in classrooms, at home, or in community spaces, the tool enables anyone to dive deeper into early modern life. Looking to travel back in time and light candles, stoke the fire, or choose paintings for the walls? You can do that too.

Dr Grant Ferguson, Principal Lecturer in Literature at the University of Brighton, is thrilled with the results:

“This virtual space has granted my wish to lift the lid on the life and space of early modern women, to challenge our assumptions about Susanna beyond her restriction to daughter and wife and show the richness of her world. We want to invite everyone to see behind the curtain of curated displays and gain confidence to explore archives and collections that exist for all to access. Whether you want to explore the space for peace and calm or to find ways into advanced research, just start exploring and see what you find.”

Paul Taylor, Head of Museum and Curatorial Services at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust added:

“It is wonderful to finish the first year of our Women Who Made Shakespeare project with the launch of this immersive and engaging project on Susanna. She has always been an enigmatic character who has intrigued researchers for centuries and so to have the opportunity to explore her life in Hall’s Croft and share her legacy in such an accessible way with audiences across the world is something to celebrate.”

The project is a key component of a major £300,000 Arts and Humanities Research Council (part of UKRI) Fellowship.

Ailsa and the team have also created Susanna’s Cabinet, an augmented reality exhibition that brings early modern objects from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s world class collections into the users own space through any smartphone or tablet. Free to use and perfect for any age or environment, the exhibit offers an incredible opportunity to bring the past to life in homes and classrooms anywhere in the world.

Empowering a wider audience to interact with history, the project breaks down the barriers between past and present, student and scholar, museum and living room, offering a participatory journey into the daily life and cultural context of early modern England.

Hall’s Croft is currently only accessible to learning groups as the upper floors are currently undergoing a major restoration and conservation project, to bring its beauty and meaning to generations to come. Dr Grant Ferguson’s project has created a unique way to engage with this vital heritage site anywhere, any time, and form new relationships with the past.