Stratford-upon-Avon (/ ... ˈeɪvən/ ... AY-vən), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire,[2] in the West Midlands region of England.

[5] Stratford was inhabited originally by Britons before Anglo-Saxons and remained a village before the lord of the manor, John of Coutances, set out plans to develop it into a town in 1196.

Stratford is a popular tourist destination, owing to its status as the birthplace and burial place of playwright and poet William Shakespeare.

[7][16] It is likely that an Anglo-Saxon monastery existed at the site of what is now Holy Trinity Church, which was founded after the land was acquired by Egwin, the third Bishop of Worcester (693–714).

[10] Stratford, then referred to as strete ford, remained a village until the late 12th century when it was developed into a town by lord of the manor, Bishop John of Coutances.

[24] The Historic Spine continues along Church Street where the Guild buildings are located dating back to the 15th century, as well as 18th- and 19th-century properties.

[27] John Shakespeare, originally a farmer, had moved to Stratford in 1551, from the nearby village of Snitterfield and became a successful glover (glove maker) and businessman, and an official on the Town Council.

[10][29] In 1769, the actor David Garrick staged a major Shakespeare Jubilee over three days which saw the construction of a large rotunda and the influx of many visitors.

[32] The River Avon was made navigable through Stratford in 1639, by the construction of locks and weirs, providing Stratford with a navigable link to the River Severn to the south-west and to near Warwick to the north-east, this allowed, in the words of Daniel Defoe "a very great Trade for Sugar, Oil, Wine, Tobacco, Iron, Lead and in a word, all heavy goods which are carried by water almost as far as Warwick; and in return the corn, and especially the cheese, is brought back from Gloucestershire and Warwickshire to Bristol".

[33] By the early 19th century, Stratford was a flourishing inland port, and an important centre of trade, with many canal and river wharves along what is now Bancroft Gardens.

The connection of Stratford to the growing national railway network, helped enable the development of the modern tourism industry.

[39] Victorian Stratford's growth as a tourist destination was further enhanced by Edward Fordham Flower and his son Charles Edward Flower, owners of a local brewery business, and important figures in local affairs: Through their campaigning and fundraising efforts, the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre was opened on the banks of the Avon in 1879.

Its replacement was opened in 1932, designed by Elisabeth Scott, making it the first important building by a woman architect erected in Britain.

[49][10][47] Stratford has a temperate maritime climate, as is usual for the British Isles, meaning extremes of heat and cold are rare.

[5] The town's population has undergone expansion in recent years following government approval to build 800 new homes in Shottery, which included plans for a new relief road.

[62][63] Stratford is a major English tourist town due to it being the birthplace of William Shakespeare, who many consider the greatest playwright of all time.

Sir Peter Hall was appointed artistic director (designate) in 1959, and formed the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in 1961.

[75] The venue is located next door to Cox's Yard and hosts an intimate 90-seat auditorium in the Grade 2 listed Attic space.

[85][86] The festival has talks from celebrity guests, workshops and educational programmes and has become one of the most noted literary festivals in the country,[87] with speakers including: Kirsty Wark, Alan Johnson MP, Baroness Shirley Williams, Tom Kerridge, Sir Tim Rice, John McCarthy, Michael Rosen, Howard Jacobson, Jeffrey Archer, Michael Palin, Jeremy Paxman, Alastair Campbell and Paul Merton.

The celebration takes place over two days on the weekend closest to 26 April, the date of his christening, and includes musical performances, drama and a parade through the town.

According to a descriptive placard provided for tourists there: The property remained in the ownership of William Shakespeare's direct descendants until 1670, when his granddaughter, Elizabeth Barnard, died.

Members of the Hart family continued living in the small adjoining cottage throughout the century.At the end of the 19th century, Edward Gibbs renovated the building to more closely represent the original Tudor farmhouse.

Payton "brought the house into great vogue"[100] though Byng in 1792 complained that "at the noted White Lion, I met with nothing but incivility" (cited from Torrington Diaries (ed.

[98] Payton was succeeded as innkeeper by his son John, and its reputation as one of the best inns on the Holyhead Road must have contributed not a little to the prosperity of the town.

[98] The building is now home to the Enchanted Manor Museum at the Creaky Cauldron and Magic Alley; the Box Brownie Café; Doug Brown's Really Good Gift Company; and the Not Just Shakespeare Tourist Information Centre.

Formerly a two-story building that was extended in the early twentieth century has a lower story of substantial close-set studding: the upper is of more widely spaced thin vertical timbers.

[107][108] Stratford is 22 miles (35 km) from the United Kingdom's second largest city, Birmingham, and is easily accessible from junction 15 of the M40 motorway.

The manually-powered Stratford-upon-Avon chain ferry was opened in 1937 and links Waterside, roughly halfway between the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and Holy Trinity Church, with the water meadows on the opposite side of the river.

It is a National Hunt course with an oval track of approximately a mile and a quarter and is considered to be one of the UK's leading small racecourses.

With the Royal Shakespeare Company in the town, many famous actors have at some point lived or stayed in Stratford or the surrounding villages.