Car-free adventures aroundStratford-upon-AvonWarwickshire
Famous as Shakespeare’s home town, Stratford-upon-Avon is stuffed with bard-themed attractions. It also makes a great base for exploring the wider delights of Warwickshire.
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1. Explore by minibus, boat, bike or on foot
The river Avon flows right past the Royal Shakespeare Theatre (follow Good Journey’s directions to the theatre, home of the RSC). This makes Stratford-upon-Avon a great place for boat trips as well as dramatic encounters. The town is also a useful jumping-off point for exploring the nearby Cotswolds.
- The countryside of this National Landscape is as iconically English as Shakespeare’s plays. Follow narrow lanes through woods and rolling hills, past views and villages. Stratford-based Go Cotswolds Tours can meet you from the railway station for a day trip featuring classic cottages, country pubs and hidden gems.
- Back in Stratford, you can hire a rowing boat from Avon Boating for a self-guided tour of the river. Alternatively, take a short canal trip that includes going through a lock. Or, simply ride Britain’s last chain ferry over the Avon behind the theatre. Find out more about boat trips on the river.
- Cycle the Stratford Greenway for five miles of traffic-free path.
- Stratford is packed with places to visit that can shed more light on England’s greatest playwright. There are statues and gardens, museums and memorials. The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust has brought to life several bard-related buildings. These include the house and gardens at spacious New Place, where he lived his last 19 years.
- Visit Shakespeare’s half-timbered childhood home or walk out into the countryside to thatched Anne Hathaway’s Cottage. The cottage is a pleasant stroll (PDF) from the town with pubs and cafes near the route. For a longer hike through the Warwickshire countryside, read on…
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2. Walk the Monarch's Way
One of several long-distance footpaths running through or near Stratford-upon-Avon is the 625-mile Monarch’s Way. This retraces the route of King Charles II as he fled Cromwellian forces after the Battle of Worcester in 1651. Walking 11 miles of the route, heading north out of Stratford-upon-Avon, brings you to a village called Wootton Wawen. From here, regular trains and buses take you back into town.
- Start by crossing the Welcombe Hills and then you’ll pass Cobbs cafe and farm shop. Enjoy Cobbs’ fields of goats and Highland cows, colourful plots of veg and a Gloucestershire old spot pig. The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust sometimes organises guided walks over the Welcombe Hills.
- The last stretch of the route follows a canal-side towpath over an aqueduct. It passes The Saxon Sanctuary, St Peter’s church in Wootton Wawen with its Saxon core, bearded Jacobean knight, and carved stone faces.
- Bus X20 leaves hourly from outside the church (check the timetable before you visit) and gets back to Stratford in about half an hour. Or you can turn left at the half-timbered Bull’s Head nearby to take the train instead from Wootton Wawen station.
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3. Visit Warwick Castle
Trains and buses link Stratford-upon-Avon with the county town of Warwick. Here the centuries-old castle rises above the rooftops, blossoming parks and picturesque river.
- Bus X18 sets off from the coach park at the end of Stratford’s pedestrianised Henley Street (near the statue of a Shakespearean fool) and it stops at Warwick bus station, about a 10-minute walk from the castle.
- Inside Warwick Castle’s gates, there’s a mind-boggling menu of things to do. Get lost in a Horrible Histories maze. Pop along to a Royal weekend party, featuring uncanny waxwork Victorians like Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick (who inspired the song Daisy, Daisy). There are views from the top of the Conqueror’s Fortress, the original motte where Warwick’s first wooden keep was built in 1068. See flying displays from the castle’s resident owls, kites and eagles. Glimpse jewel-bright peacocks picking their way among flowers and topiary near the conservatory.
- There are onsite cafes too, for when you get peckish. You could easily spend all day – or all week! – at Warwick Castle. Follow Good Journey’s directions.
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4. Visit Compton Verney
Compton Verney is an art gallery, landscaped park, folk museum and grand mansion all rolled into one.
- Bus 77 and 77B from Stratford stop a few times per day right by the wrought iron gates and all visitors walk (or ride the shuttle bus) through the grounds, designed by Capability Brown. Plan your visit.
- There are sphinx-guarded Palladian bridges over a long, reed-fringed lake. Paths wind through wild daffs near a thatched ice house. There are also stately cedars of Lebanon. Peter Hall filmed A Midsummer Night’s Dream here in 1968 with, among other now-famous cast members, Judi Dench as Titania.
- Inside Compton Verney, there are royal Tudor portraits, a nude Venus by Cranach and an elegant hall designed by Robert Adam. Other artworks include changing exhibitions, and the UK’s biggest collection of British folk art. The folk galleries, with their elm chairs and paintings of prize heifers, were remodelled in 2018. The intimate spaces foreground the objects: chopping blocks and chestnut roasters, copper shop-sign sheep, dog weathervanes, an iron pig from a fairground carousel and a giant papier-mâché teapot.
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5. Coughton Court
About half an hour westwards by bus from Stratford, the delightful house and gardens at National Trust Coughton Court (pronounced “coat-en”) make an idyllic day trip.
- Bus X19 runs every hour and stops near the Throckmorton pub. It takes about 35 minutes from Stratford. Visitors can stroll back a few steps on the main road and left along the driveway to Coughton Court. The walk to the Welcome Centre is about 8 minutes.
- Thousands of daffodils surround this Tudor National Trust house each spring, seat of the Throckmorton family since the 15th century. A recent Throckmorton, Dr Tom (AKA the “Dean of Daffodils”) first devised a colour-coding system for daffs that is still used internationally.
- There are geese ranging through the orchard and you might catch sight of a tall heron rising from the lush ferns and kingcups in the Bog Garden.
- A six-mile walk through the nearby countryside passes some of the young groves of the Heart of England Forest project. This aims to create 30,000 acres of woodland in Warwickshire and Worcestershire. The older woods, once a medieval deer park, are full of bluebells in April and May.
- There’s a National Trust cafe at Coughton Court.
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Places to stay in or near Stratford-upon Avon
As you might expect from a well-known tourist destination, Stratford is packed with hotels.
- One of the best is the Townhouse, just four minutes’ stroll from the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and overlooking Shakespeare’s old half-timbered schoolhouse. Behind the castellated façade of the Townhouse are 11 en-suite bedrooms in a Tudor-and-Georgian building with pre-theatre meals in the restaurant.
- Stratford’s Youth Hostel is in a Georgian mansion out of town near Alveston in the Warwickshire fields. You can get there on bus 15, which stops outside the gates.
- For reasonably-priced accommodation that is simpler to get to, the canalside Premier Inn is a short walk from the railway station.
- If you’re going to be catching several buses, you might want to think about a day ticket of some sort. Stagecoach have them.
- For more information about the area, head to Visit Warwickshire.
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