WITH quiet efficiency and almost single-handed, Levi Fox raised the status of the Shakespeare historic buildings in and around Stratford from sadly rundown remains to a national monument. Long before it became fashionable, he made the use of traditionally trained craftsmen a rule for restoring the old buildings in his care and elevating their interest in the eyes of both scholars and tourists.
As a young Coventry archivist, Fox found in the strongroom of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-on-Avon the ideal wartime haven for Warwickshire’s county records. Three years later as he was supervising their return he learnt that the trust was looking for a new director, applied, and stayed for the next 44 years.
The son of a Leicestershire rural smallholder who turned his hand to mining with the seasons, Fox went to Ashby-de-la-Zouch Grammar School where he came under the tutelage of the headmaster, Thomas Arnold Woodcock, who saw in him a gifted historian. Fox went on to Oxford and a first in medieval history.
Intending to become a history teacher, he was quickly disillusioned with schoolmastering after a first round of interviews, and instead was drawn to the then still medieval city of Coventry to become its first archivist. Shortly before, he had married his childhood sweetheart, Jane Richards.
Called up in the Second World War but invalided out after a medical examination had identified tubercular traces, he returned to Coventry and after the Blitz that devastated the ancient city he was given the task of distributing rations to the beleaguered populace, formative training in administration and management.
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On becoming director of Shakespeare’s Birthplace Trust, which had acquired the birthplace in an auction in 1877, he found a group of buildings — Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, Shakespeare’s Birthplace, Mary Arden’s Cottage — struggling to survive in the devoted but untutored care of volunteers and amateur historians. He got the birthplace itself reopened in 1950 and the gradual restoration of the other buildings was accomplished, often by the precarious ploy of borrowing against future income in which his judgment turned out to be justified. He also acquired and restored Hall’s Croft, the house of Shakespeare’s daughter Susannah, which he opened in 1951.
The trust’s mission had been outlined in an Act of Parliament in 1891, amended in 1930, and in 1961 Fox pushed through a new Act to bring its aims up to date. Meanwhile, he continued to pursue research, and the growing historical record, which became enhanced by the Royal Shakespeare Company’s archive, badly needed a purpose-built centre and library. This was duly opened behind the birthplace on the eve of the quartercentenary of Shakespeare’s birth in 1964, when Fox was appointed OBE.
The anniversary also demonstrated his flare for effective but dignified publicity. He persuaded the authorities to issue the first non-royal stamp to commemorate Shakespeare’s 400th birthday.
A greater challenge came on the night of November 22, 1969, when Anne Hathaway’s Cottage was badly damaged by fire. Fox insisted that the house should be restored exactly as it had been and that only correct materials should be used in the reparation. Within 24 hours of the fire he had identified the properly seasoned wood he needed and also found the right craftsmen to do the work.
Fox used artists as well as craftsmen in enhancing the trust’s displays, including the painter John Piper, the letterist John Skelton and the sculptor Paul Vincze who designed the 1964 memorial medallion.
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In 1989 he fulfilled a long-held ambition of creating both a conservation centre for the trust’s work and a museum of country crafts when he opened the Shakespeare Countryside Museum in a farm next to the childhood home of Shakespeare’s mother, Mary Arden.
That also was the year he retired, at the age of 75, to be made director emeritus. He continued to teach until recently, and wrote and spoke widely on the history of the town, the region and the trust. He was popular among American audiences, and had honorary doctorates from George Washington University and the University of Birmingham. “Shakespeare and the trust had completely taken over my life,” he wrote in his 1997 memoir.
His wife of 64 years died in 2002. He is survived by their son, a theatre designer, and twin daughters.
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Levi Fox, OBE, Shakespeare historian and administrator, was born on August 28, 1914. He died on September 3, 2006, aged 92.