In Sonnet 18, William Shakespeare referred to his lines of poetry as “eternal.” As it turns out, some of the wood flooring he and his company performed on may not be too far behind. Renovators at St. George’s Guildhall in King’s Lynn, England, recently uncovered oak floorboards with growth rings dating them to the early 1400s, when the medieval guildhall was constructed. Shakespeare and his company, meanwhile, are believed to have performed at the venue from 1592–1593. The floorboards are around 12 inches wide, 6 inches thick and held together by pegs. They were hidden under several layers of wood flooring estimated to have been installed in the 18th and 19th centuries. “It’s a really fortuitous survival,” Jonathan Clark, an archeologist hired to work on the hall, said in a statement following the discovery. “The main reason it’s still there is because it’s totally integral to the building; it would have been really difficult to dismantle it without destroying the structure.” The flooring would likely have been installed by shipwrights. The town is continuing with the restoration with plans to highlight the flooring’s history. So, while the Bard’s lines continue to resonate today, his stage is getting a second act, as well. “As archaeological finds go, this is extraordinarily rare, especially on this scale,” Clark said. “This is the largest timber 15th-century floor in the country, and that’s before you add the Shakespeare connection.”
