Short answers, pulled from the story.
The name Stratford-upon-Avon combines the Old English word stræet meaning street with avon a Celtic term for river. This street was part of a Roman road connecting Icknield Street in Alcester to the Fosse Way and the ford has been used as a crossing since Roman times.
Bishop John of Coutances laid out plans to develop the village into a town in 1196. He created a new grid system around one hundred acres north of the original settlement and King Richard I granted a charter to Stratford in 1196 allowing a weekly market to be held there.
Stratford became a centre of considerable activity during the English Civil War due to its strategic location at the junction of several main roads. Royalist forces under Colonel Wagstaffe occupied the town in February 1643 and Lord Brooke recaptured it by the 25th of February after an engagement on the nearby road to Warwick.
The town receives approximately 2.7 million visitors each year because it is the birthplace and burial place of William Shakespeare. David Garrick staged a major Shakespeare Jubilee over three days in 1769 which saw the construction of a large rotunda and contributed to the growing phenomenon of Bardolatry that made Stratford a tourist destination.
The first steam railway reached Stratford in July 1859 followed by another branch in October 1860. Both branches joined to open the current station in July 1861.
In the 2021 census Stratford had a population of 30,495 which increased from 27,894 in the 2011 census. The town's population has undergone expansion following government approval to build 800 new homes in Shottery with up to 500 new homes planned in the Bishopton area and 270 on Loxley Road.