Our writer moved to Stratford for the river and the glorious walks – and is a master at avoiding the tourists
Stratford-upon-Avon is world famous, thanks to a certain Elizabethan playwright. I have spent years visiting family here, and finally moved to the town last summer, partly to escape from London rent, and partly for the promise of more space, more air, and more walking. For a small town, it’s a remarkable place for meandering walks that take you from town to country and back again in the turn of a corner or two. You can get lost among chocolate-box Tudor buildings and down pokey alleyways, around the canal, over the twists of the River Avon, through allotments and meadows, past Victorian mansions and houseboats and new-build estates.
The town has found uses for old paths. Part of what was once a horse-drawn wagonway is now the Tramway, and forms a bridge and busy tree-lined walk away from the town, flanked by a pub, sports centres and playgrounds. Cross the Avon near the Holy Trinity Church, the picturesque resting place of you-know-who, and you can wind down to the Greenway, which was part of the Honeybourne Railway, until it closed in 1976. Now, it is a popular path that stretches for five miles, all the way to Long Marston, and part of the West Midlands Cycle Route, linking Oxford and Derby via Birmingham. By and large, there is a respectful co-mingling of bikes, dogs, pushchairs and people.
