Short answers, pulled from the story.
"Avon" comes from the old British word abona, meaning "river," which also survives as the modern Welsh afon and Cornish avon. This makes "River Avon" a tautological place name that translates as "River River." The same root appears in several other English and Scottish river names.
The River Avon rises from a spring near the village of Naseby in Northamptonshire and flows 85 miles southwestwards before joining the River Severn at Tewkesbury. Along the way it passes through Rugby, Warwick, Stratford-upon-Avon, Evesham, and Pershore.
The river is called Shakespeare's Avon to distinguish it from several other rivers named Avon in the United Kingdom. The name reflects the river's close association with Stratford-upon-Avon, the town most identified with William Shakespeare.
David Hutchings led the restoration of the Upper Avon Navigation, having previously completed the restoration of the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal. Work began on the 19th of July 1966 and was completed on the 1st of June 1974, when Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother opened the restored waterway. Hutchings was awarded an MBE for his leadership of the project.
The total estimated cost for the complete restoration of the Upper Avon was two hundred and fifty thousand pounds. All but twenty-five thousand pounds came from public subscriptions; the Department of the Environment provided a grant of twenty-five thousand pounds at the time of the phase one opening in 1971.
Craig Openshaw, a 41-year-old from Tewkesbury, became the first person to swim the entire 47.1-mile navigable River Avon on the 18th of July 2021, completing the challenge in 29 hours and 18 minutes. He and his four-person crew raised seventeen thousand eight hundred pounds for Cancer Research UK.