SHAKESPEARE experts from around the globe gathered in East Lancashire to discuss the Bard's links with the area.

The conference was organised following claims that Shakespeare spent some of his early years at Hoghton Tower.

The evidence is so strong that plans for a £40million Shakespeare theatre and centre in Lancashire have been unveiled. The three-day conference, at Hoghton Tower, was organised by Lancaster University and academics from as far afield as Japan and Russia were invited.

Those present were looking at Hoghton Tower's associations with Shakespeare, and its implications for his career and wider Elizabethan culture.

It was focusing on the writer's early life, prior to his days at the Globe Theatre.

One of the organisers of the event was Lancaster University professor Richard Wilson, whose theory on why Shakespeare came to East Lancashire was published in the Times Literary Supplement.

Shakespeare - recently voted Man of the Millennium - is thought to have worked as a servant at Hoghton Tower. There is evidence that a servant named William Shakeshafte was, in fact, the young Bard.

And it is thought that some of his works could have been based on his experiences in Lancashire.

It is hoped the proposed Shakespeare theatre and exhibition centre, announced by Sir Bernard de Hoghton in May, would attract both tourists and students of the Bard to East Lancashire.

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