Stratford-upon-Avon

Stratford-upon-Avon
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Country	England
Shire county	Warwickshire
Population	30,495 (2021 Census)
Area (sq mi)	14.79 sq mi (38.31 km²)
Population density (/sq mi)	2062/sq mi (796/km²)

Stratford-upon-Avon, known locally as simply Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. With a population of around 30,000, it is close to the northern part of the Cotswolds, a scenic range of hills.

It is world-renown as the birthplace of playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616), and the town attracted over 2.7 million visitors per year prior to 2019. Popular tourists attractions in the town include Shakespeare's birthplace, an early 16th-century timber framed house on Henley Street, the 15th century cottage of Ann Hathaway (Shakespeare's wife) and the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. A trail of Stratford's tourist attractions, known as the "Historic Spine", begins at Shakespeare's Henley Street birthplace and ends at the Holy Trinity Church, which is where Shakespeare was baptised and buried.

Stratford is approximately 83 miles north-west of central London and 22 miles south of Birmingham city centre.

Geography

A 1902 map of Stratford-upon-Avon, prominently paying homage to the town's most famous son, William Shakespeare (1564-1616).

Stratford-upon-Avon is in the far south of the English Midlands and makes up part of the Barlichway hundred in south-western Warwickshire. It is close to the northern part of the Cotswolds, an upland rural areas of south-western England famous for its stone-built villages and market towns, of which a nearby example is Chipping Campden, 10 miles to the south-west. As the crow flies, the town is around 21 miles south of Birmingham, 17 miles south-west of Coventry, 83 miles north-west of Charing Cross in central London, and 64 miles north-east of Bristol.

Stratford-upon-Avon is close to the border of the traditional counties Warwickshire and Gloucestershire; the traditional Gloucestershire village of Clifford Chambers lies around 1.7 miles south-west of the town. Around 8 miles south of the town centre, again on the Gloucestershire border, sits Ebrington Hill which, at 856 ft (261 m), is the highest point in Warwickshire.

History

Around 1 mile away at the village of Tiddington are the remains of a Roman fort. The fort was probably occupied between the 1st and 5th centuries AD. During the era of the Roman Empire, the site at which Stratford-upon-Avon is now located was the site of a Roman road or 'street', which is referenced in the name of the town.

Germanic settlers from continental Europe arrived in Great Britain in c. 450 AD and south-western Warwickshire formed part of the Anglian territory of Hwicce, established in c. 577 AD. By 628 AD, the Hwicce became a client state of the kingdom of Mercia. The first written reference to Stratford-upon-Avon, and earliest evidence for a permanent settlement at the town, occurs in c. 693-717 AD, in which it is referred to as "Aet-Stratford the isles of the ford".

An Anglo-Saxon monastery, later destroyed by Vikings, may have existed in Stratford at the site of the Holy Trinity Church prior to the 11th century.

According to the Domesday Book, a survey completed at the behest of William the Conqueror, the town had recorded population of 29 households in 1086, putting it in the top 40% of English settlements in size at the time. At the time, Stratford (recorded in the book as Stradforde) formed part of the lands of the Bishop of Worcester and the now-defunct Pathlow Hundred of Warwickshire. The name Pathlow survives in the name of a hamlet around 3 miles to the north of the town.

The town became home to the Shakespeare family in 1551 when John Shakespeare (1531-1601), originally a farmer, moved to the town from Snitterfield, around 5 miles to the north-east. In the 1560s, William Shakespeare, who is regarded by many as "England's national poet", was born in the town. The world-renown actor, poet and playwright was baptized in the town on 26 April 1564. Shakespeare's sister, Joan, was born 5 years later and is the only one of John Shakepeare's 8 children to have known living descendants in the 21st century.

The Startford-upon-Avon Canal was constructed from 1793-1816, linking the River Avon at Stratford to the Worcester and Birmingham Canal at King's Norton via the Grand Union Canal. The canal is notable for Edstone Aqueduct, located around 4.5 miles north-west of Stratford, the longest cast-iron aqueduct in England. In the early 19th century, Stratford was a key inland port. The Industrial Revolution (c. 1760-1840) was otherwise relatively quiet for Stratford compared to other Warwickshire towns such as Birmingham and Coventry, although some industries did grow locally including the Flower & Sons Brewery which, established by Edward Fordham Flower (1805-18830) was operational from 1831 till 1967, when it was bought out by Whitbread.

Railways reached Stratford in 1859, after a branch was built to the town from the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway at Honeybourne, Worcestershire. In October 1860, this was followed by the opening of the Stratford on Avon Railway, which linked the town to the Great Western Railway at Hatton, about 9 miles to the north-east. Initially having separate termini, the two branches were connected with a single station opening at the present-day site of Stratford-upon-Avon railway station on 24 July 1861. Stratford Old Town railway station was opened in 1873 and, from 1909 until 1923, formed a part of the Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway. The station was closed to passengers in 1952, though it served a train carrying the Queen Mother to Stratford in 1964. Freight services to the station ceased in 1965.

Elizabeth II, who had previously been given a set of Shakespeare volumes by the town on her 18th birthday in 1944, visited the town alongside Philip, Duke of Edinburgh in June 1957. They visited Shakespeare's birthplace, the town hall and attended an anniversary performance of As You Like It. The first of four visits made by the Queen as Monarch of the United Kingdom, Elizabeth II would return to the town in 1975, to open the Centenary Garden, 1986 to open the Swan Theatre and 2011 to open the transformed Royal Shakespeare Theatre following a 3-year construction project.

Culture

Churches

The most notable church in Stratford is the Holy Trinity, where William Shakespeare was baptized in 1564.

Pubs

The oldest pub in Stratford is said to be the Garrick Inn, with part of that building reputedly dating to the 14th century.

Politics

The town is the centre of the Stratford-on-Avon parliamentary constituency, which was represented by Tory Nadhim Zahawi from 2010 until 2024. The Italian-born British politician Manuela Perteghella of the Liberal Democrats became Member of Parliament for Stratford-on-Avon in July 2024.