Bidford-on-Avon is a large village and civil parish in the English county of Warwickshire, very close to the border with Worcestershire. In the 2001 census it had a population of 4,830, increasing to 5,350 at the 2011 census. History Ryknield Street, the Roman road, passes through the village, going north towards Alcester. There is also an ancient Anglo-Saxon burial site under the free car park located just behind the Indian restaurant "No 72". First discovered in the 1920s, artefacts from more recent excavations are located at Warwick Museum, while material from the first excavations on the site currently resides in the hands of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. A Bronze Age razor was found in excavations at Bidford-on-Avon. Bidford was the birthplace and childhood home of the 20th-century author Barbara Comyns. William Shakespeare is said to have joined a party of Stratford folk which set itself to outdrink a drinking club at Bidford-on-Avon, and as a result of his labours in that regard to have fallen asleep under the crab tree of which a descendant is still called Shakespeares tree. When morning dawned his friends wished to renew the encounter but he wisely said "No I have drunk with “Piping Pebworth, Dancing Marston, Haunted Hillboro’, Hungry Grafton, Dodging Exhall, Papist Wixford, Beggarly Broom and Drunken Bidford” and so, presumably, I will drink no more." The story is said to date from the 17th century but of its truth or of any connection of the story or the verse to Shakespeare there is no evidence. The Falcon Inn was a favourite tavern in his day. Location Bidford-on-Avon village is, as its name suggests, situated on the River Avon, some downstream of Stratford-upon-Avon and about the same distance upstream of Evesham. The village grew up around an ancient ford (Byda's Ford), now replaced by a narrow stone bridge, on the Ryknild Street Roman road, now a minor country road to Honeybourne to the south. To the north Alcester is about away, Redditch away and Birmingham away. It also lies on the Heart of England Way. Local government Bidford-on-Avon is a civil parish with an elected parish council. It falls within the areas of Stratford-on-Avon District Council and Warwickshire County Council. The three councils are responsible for different aspects of local government. Besides the village of Bidford itself, the civil parish includes the settlements of Barton, Broom and Marlcliff. Broom lies to the north