A History of Stratford-upon-Avon

Medieval Stratford

From archaeological finds we know that the area now known as Stratford-upon-Avon was inhabited in the bronze age, although nothing precise is known of these inhabitants. The name of the town is of Saxon origin and means the area where a road crosses a river (Avon) by a ford (Strat-ford). Presumably this refers to a Roman road crossing the river near which there must have been a Roman settlement but again no documents have survived to confirm this. This area was dependent on Worcester Cathedral and part of the Saxon kingdom of Hwicce, later to become part of the more powerful Kingdom of Mercia. By AD 691 there was a monastery either on or very near the site of the present day parish of Holy Trinity. In fact the first documented reference to a place of worship in the area is in the charter of 845 granting privileges to a small existing minster church. However, nothing remained of this monastery at the time of the Norman conquest in 1066.

The town was spared the devastation of the Norman Conquest, mainly because the Saxon Bishop of Worcester, Wulfstan, supported the invaders. With the increase in agriculture following the clearing of the nearby Forest of Arden in 1196 a charter was obtained from King Richard I for a weekly market for the produce. It was around this market that the new town came into existence. This would explain the distance from the original old town to the present-day town center. The two different settlements grew independently but not without local hostility. One inconvenience was that the new townspeople had to worship in the old parish church.

By the 14th century Stratford had become a center of trade for the region. Although the relatively tranquil and prosperous existence of both communities was temporarily interrupted by the Black Death in the mid- 14th century, the new settlement continued to prosper as is evident from the growth of Guilds. These Guilds had both religious and secular duties which included, among other things, supporting chaplains, maintaining altars in churches and seeing to the needs of the poor. They also financed a school and almshouses. The most important of these Guilds was the Gild or fraternity of the Holy Cross which was made up of the more influential people of the town.

The administration of the new town was effectively in the hands of the Guild operating from the Guildhall in Church Street. The Gild of the Holy Cross continued to administer the town undisturbed until the dissolution of religious institutions during the reign of Henry VIII. The Gild came to an end in 1547, although the school was allowed to continue.