River Avon
— — the river Shakespeare grew up beside.
Not only on a wall.
“The Warwickshire Avon rises near Naseby and runs about 85 miles through the English Midlands to join the Severn at Tewkesbury. It passes Rugby, Warwick, and Stratford, where the half-timbered town centre still leans toward the water and a swan or two drift below the Clopton Bridge. The river name itself is older than English, a Brittonic word for water.
River Avon, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Warwickshire Avon, sometimes called the Shakespeare Avon, rises near Naseby in Northamptonshire and runs about 85 miles southwest through Warwickshire, Worcestershire, and Gloucestershire before joining the River Severn at Tewkesbury. It drains a catchment of roughly 2,900 square kilometres across the English Midlands. The river name derives from the Brittonic abona, meaning simply river, which is why several British rivers share it. Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare in 1564, is the best-known town on its banks.
The Avon is navigable for much of its lower course. The Lower Avon Navigation, between Tewkesbury and Evesham, was restored in the mid-twentieth century by volunteer trusts, and the Upper Avon Navigation reached Stratford in 1974. Together they form roughly 47 miles of cruising water for narrowboats and small cruisers. The river runs slow through water-meadow country, with weirs and locks at intervals. Swans and grebes are common, and flood events have closed Stratford's riverside more than once.
The most visited stretch is the riverside at Stratford-upon-Avon, where the Royal Shakespeare Theatre fronts the water and the Bancroft Gardens carry tourists past the Gower Memorial. Public footpaths line both banks for several miles. Rowing boats, punts, and small cruisers can be hired from the south bank in season. Holy Trinity Church, Shakespeare's burial place, sits a short riverside walk upstream from the theatre. Most visitors arrive by train from London Marylebone or Birmingham.