Shipston on Stour travel guide

Shipston-on-Stour is a small town and civil parish within the Stratford-on-Avon district of the southern part of Warwickshire, England. It is close to the borders with Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire. The 2001 census recorded a population of 4,456 in the town.
The town is located on the River Stour in a rural part of southern Warwickshire, roughly 15 miles (24 km) south of Stratford-upon-Avon. It is in the northern part of the Cotswolds, and is a focal point for the surrounding rural area.
It is located on the A3400 road (the old A34) between Stratford-upon-Avon and Oxford and was once an important stopping place for stagecoaches. Many former coaching inns remain in the town in the area of the High Street.
Etymologically, Shipston is derived from the Anglo-Saxon "Scepwaeisctune" meaning "Sheep-wash-Town", and the town had for a long time a regionally important sheep market.
Following a fall in the demand for local wool, the local economy was in part sustained by the opening in 1836 of a branch line running from the horse-drawn Stratford and Moreton Tramway, built ten years before and linking Moreton-in-Marsh with Stratford. In 1889 the line was upgraded to allow the operation of steam trains from Moreton to Shipston. Passenger services to the town were withdrawn in 1929 and the line closed completely in 1960.
Notable people born in Shipston include the actor Richard Morant and the 19th century archaeologist Francis Haverfield.
Shipston lay within an outlying part of the historic county of Worcestershire, where it formed part of the Oswaldslow Hundred. In 1931 it was merged with Warwickshire. Until 1974 it was the centre of the Shipston-on-Stour Rural District. (...) more....

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