Distance: 8.2 miles

Difficulty of the terrain: medium

Get the route via: Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox

Walk through rural south west Warwickshire along the course of the River Avon from Stratford-upon-Avon to Bidford-on-Avon a deeply historic little town and crossing place over the river.

The Story

The Walk

Getting Back

Shakspeare on the Lash

Bidford-on-Avon is a large village, really a small town, of around 7,000 people sat around seven miles west of Stratford-upon-Avon. Like Stratford it sits on the River Avon, lying slightly north of where it dips south skirting the Cotswolds escarpment into Worcestershire.

There is an old fable connecting local lad William Shakspeare to Bidford-on-Avon. It purports that Shakespeare joined a party from Stratford that set off down the Avon took take part in a drinking contest with a side from Bidford. Following the contest Shakespeare fell into a drunken stropour beneath a crab apple tree in the village, a descent of which, still known as “Shakespeare’s Tree” grows in the village to this day.

Following the competition Shakespeare’s fellows from Stratford wished to continue the drinking bout. However, in his wisdom the bard declined, reciting instead the lines:

“No, I have drunk with “Piping Pebworth, Dancing Marston, Haunted Hillboro’, Hungry Grafton, Dodging Exhall, Papist Wixford, Beggarly Broom and Drunken Bidford” and so, presumably, I will drink no more.”

The story is an amusing piece of apocrypha, and while Shakespeare is reputed to have been a prodigious drinker, unlikely to be true.

These days, as well as being the archetypal steadily expanding south Midlands homeworker, new retiree and commuter town, Bidford has a well preserved old centre. It was a significant place long before Shakespeare’s time, perhaps because it is relatively easy to cross the Avon there, when heading from north to south or vica versa. Indeed the town’s name comes from a reference in old English to a minor noble who controlled the ford. But the Anglo-Saxons were far from the first to cross the river there. The Roman Icknield Street, or Ryknild Street, either works, ran through the town, spanning the Midlands linking the Cotswolds with South Yorkshire.

At the river’s narrow point a venerable bridge with eight narrow arches constructed in 1650 on the orders of the Warwickshire Quarter Sessions crosses the Avon at Bidford. This bridge, amongst the oldest in the country still in use for road traffic, replaced an earlier medieval structure destroyed on the orders of Charles I in 1644 to cover his army’s retreat south east from Worcester to Oxford during the Civil Wars. 

In the early 21st Century the steady growth in housing across southern Worcestershire and Warwickshire has put the bridge, which is so narrow only one vehicle can inch past at any time, under significant pressure. Several times in recent years it has been struck by a car requiring extensive repair work. When I visited Bidford-on-Avon in summer 2024 the bridge was closed because of one of these incidents. Interestingly I heard several townspeople say they preferred it closed to traffic, usable only by pedestrians and cyclists, maybe this will become a permanent development? The next chapter in the long history of Bidford-upon-Avon being a place where travellers traverse the river. 

The Walk

Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox

I create the Walk Midlands routes via Ordnance Survey Maps Explorer enabling me to take them on my phone. Subscribe yourself via the banner above.

This walk from Stratford-upon-Avon to Bidford-on-Avon begins from Stratford-upon-Avon Railway Station.

Exit left onto Stratford-upon-Avon Railway Station concourse opposite some recently built flats.

Walk straight ahead and then around to the left along a pedestrianised path heading towards the town centre.

Upon reaching the public road carry on straight ahead down the pavement approaching a crossroads on the edge of the town centre.

Here there is a set of traffic lights. Cross the road to the right, then head left, before turning right onto Grove Road.

Carry on straight ahead along this road for quite some distance.

Presently you reach a roundabout.

Here turn left, heading towards a sturdy concrete bridge.

Beyond the bridge continue along the road until you reach another roundabout.

Walk around the roundabout to the left. Cross over the carriageway coming from the south, and then follow the carriageway around to the right. Soon you reach the entrance to the car park at the top of the Stratford Greenway.

Turn left into the car park and walk all the way along it. Prior to its closure in 1976 the route which is now the Stratford Greenway was the southward extension of the railway from Birmingham which now terminates at Stratford-upon-Avon Station. It joined the Cotswolds Line at Honeybourne. Prior to World War Two fast diesel trains ran from Birmingham Moor Street to Cardiff along the route, and in the years prior to closure tourist trains headed from the West Midlands to the West Country along the line in the summer.

At the bottom of the car park you join the Greenway which takes you south from Stratford.

Passing Stratford Racecourse you presently come to an old rusted metal railway bridge over the River Avon.

On the far side you continue along the Greenway heading away from the town.

After some further distance you see the top of the Cotswold escarpment in the distance to the south. Here you see an old cottage to your left and a short terrace of cottages of a similar vintage to the right.

Once level with the cottages there is a lane. Turn right onto the lane and follow it around, turning to the left, passing the terrace.

Past the terrace continue along the lane. There is a view towards the Cotswold escarpment on the left as you walk.

Presently the lane curves around. Here there stands a metal gate leading onto a bridleway across the field. Pass to the right around the gateway and carry on along the bridleway.

Walk along the bridleway approaching a gap through the hedgerow on the far side into a very large field.

Upon reaching this gap walk through and carry on along the bridleway on the far side walking around the edge of the very large field.

Eventually you reach a gap through the hedgerow and continue along the bridleway on the far side approaching the first houses on the edge of the little village of Weston-upon-Avon.

Continue straight ahead along the lane heading into Weston-on-Avon passing the village’s idyllically pretty limestone church.      

Reaching the end of the village turn left onto a bridleway.

Entering a field, turn to the right and follow the path to the right.

Crossing into another field turn to the right, following a footpath along the edge of the field, along the line of a small new estate of expensive looking houses in a quasi-modern style.

On the far side of the field walk through a metal gate and follow the footpath through the trees. Presently at the bottom of the field you reach a corresponding gate leading out onto a lane.

Once on the lane turn left. Then almost immediately turn right onto a residential road called Miller’s Close leading into the middle of the large village called Welford-on-Avon.

Continue along the road approaching the main road through the village.

Upon reaching where the lane joins the main road you stand opposite a big old house. Cross the road and turn to the left, here there is a snicket running behind the big old house.

Walk along this snicket some distance until you reach a t-junction on the path. Here turn right.

Follow the footpath through some meadows situated near the centre of the village. The path runs for quite some distance.

At the top of the path you come out onto a lane which you walk straight along through a residential area of Welford-on-Avon for some distance.

You pass a sign for the village’s bowls club as the path narrows. Past the sign you soon come to the entrance to a small campsite of static vans on your left. Turn left and enter the campsite.

Once in the campsite turn right and continue along the track through the static vans.

Presently you reach a wide waymarked path leading into woodland. Continue along this path for some distance. It runs parallel with the River Avon.

The path runs along the edge of a field then back into woodland now close to the River Avon. You soon get the first glimpse of the river.

Continue along the path through the woodland near the river.

Presently you reach a junction on the path. Here, turn right through a metal gate.

On the far side of the gate keep walking straight ahead through a meadow beside the river.

Walk straight ahead along the path heading through a series of metal gates.

Continue following the path through meadows and patches of trees beside the River Avon.

Presently after quite some distance you approach a metal gate where a tumbled down shed stands on the far side.

Through the gate turn to the right and follow the path around the tumbled down shed then straight ahead.

You pass a lock on the Avon, which is navigable by barges as far as Stratford-upon-Avon, approaching a willow tree.

Beyond the willow tree turn right following the path around the edge of a long, but fairly narrow meadow.

On the far side of the meadow turn right and follow a path through the undergrowth towards a bridge over a little stream.

Beyond the bridge the path soon reaches a car park.

Walk across the car park and follow the track which leads out of it.

Soon the track curves around sharply to the left, running away from the river. Turn left here and follow the track towards a main road.

Through a gate and out onto the side of the road turn right.

Taking care, walk along the road. There is a reasonably good verge for most of the distance that you follow it. But there are some tight bends that drivers sometimes take at speed so take care. There are signs and markers here and there placed by Warwickshire County Council showing how high the flood water rises advising drivers not to use the road when the waters cover it.

Presently you reach the village of Barton. Follow the road into the middle of the village, past a series of big houses, some very old.

At the centre of the village turn left down a lane, walking towards a thicket of trees beside the River Avon, and passing through a gateway into the trees.

Once level with the river bank, turn left and follow the path for some distance.

Approaching a field there is a flight of steps which you walk down.

At the bottom of the steps follow the path along the edge of the field.

At the far side of the field there is a thick old hedgerow studded with trees. Here there is a metal gate which you walk through before passing through a corresponding metal gate on the far side of the hedgerow.

This leads out into a large meadow beside the Avon. Bidford-on-Avon stands straight ahead on the far side of the river.

Walk straight ahead across the meadow following a well worn footpath.

As you walk the town looms nearer, as does the stone span of the mid-17th Century bridge across the Avon.

On the far side of the meadow there is a gate leading out onto the side of the road.

Turn right crossing the bridge into Welford-on-Avon.

This is where the walk ends.

Getting Back

At the time of writing in August 2024 Bidford-on-Avon was fairly well served by a small number of buses. The 28 between Evesham and Stratford-upon-Avon ran hourly during the week and Saturdays, and every other hour on Sundays, throughout the day. The somewhat less frequently 247 six times a day – but not on Sundays – between Redditch and Evesham via Bidford-on-Avon. Stratford-upon-Avon, Redditch and Evesham all have railway stations. Stratford and Redditch with frequent trains north towards Birmingham, and Evesham with services between Worcester and London via Oxford.