Visit Shakespeare's Birthplace on Henley Street, the house where he is believed to have been born in 1564

Watch a play at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, beside the Avon

Visit Anne Hathaway's Cottage at Shottery, the farmhouse of Shakespeare's wife

Stand in the garden of New Place, the site of Shakespeare's last home, and see Holy Trinity Church, where he is buried

William Shakespeare is believed to have been born in 1564 in the house on Henley Street, and he is buried in Holy Trinity Church by the Avon. The garden of New Place marks the site of his last home, his wife's family farmhouse is Anne Hathaway's Cottage at Shottery, and the Royal Shakespeare Theatre stands on the river.

Stratford-upon-Avon: Shakespeare's Birthplace and the RSC

Walk through the linked garden rooms one after another

Find the White Garden and the Fuchsia Garden among the rooms

Look at the box, hornbeam and yew hedges that make the walls

Walk out into the Cotswold countryside the garden looks over

Hidcote, at Hidcote Bartrim near Chipping Campden, is one of the best-known and most influential Arts and Crafts gardens in Britain, laid out as linked 'rooms' divided by hedges, each with its own planting of rare trees, shrubs and herbaceous borders. It was made by Lawrence Johnston, an American who took British citizenship and fought in the Boer War, on an estate his mother bought in 1907. The National Trust has it now.

Hidcote: The Garden Made of Rooms

Explore Warwick Castle, the medieval castle begun by William the Conqueror in 1068 beside the River Avon

Watch the trebuchet, Britain's largest working siege machine, and the Falconer's Quest birds of prey show

Visit St Mary's Church in Warwick, and the Beauchamp Chapel with the 15th-century tomb of Richard Beauchamp

William the Conqueror began Warwick Castle in 1068 beside the River Avon, and it now has Britain's largest working trebuchet and a birds of prey show. In the town, St Mary's Church holds the Beauchamp Chapel and the 15th-century tomb of Richard Beauchamp.

Warwick Castle and the Beauchamp Chapel

See the Royal Pump Rooms on the Parade and the art gallery and museum inside

Walk the Regency terraces of the Parade and Lansdowne Circus

Spend an afternoon in Jephson Gardens by the Leam

Walk through the Pump Room Gardens and Victoria Park

Leamington Priors was a small village until its water got a reputation for medicinal qualities in the 18th century; it grew into a spa town, renamed Royal Leamington Spa in 1838, which is why parts of the Parade, Clarendon Square and Lansdowne Circus have especially fine Regency architecture. The Royal Pump Rooms still stand on the Parade, now home to the town's art gallery and museum, with Jephson Gardens and the Pump Room Gardens beside them.

Royal Leamington Spa: Regency Terraces and the Pump Room

Try to count the stones of the King's Men — the accepted count is 77, but legend says no one will ever count them three times and get the same number

Stand at the King Stone and recite the witch's prophecy: "Seven long strides shalt thou take, and if Long Compton thou canst see, King of England thou shalt be" — then take seven paces toward the valley and try to locate Long Compton village below; the hill crests just enough to block the view

Walk the 400m from the circle to the Whispering Knights portal dolmen — four standing stones around a fallen capstone, named in legend for knights who lagged behind whispering treachery against the king; they mark a Neolithic burial chamber that predates the circle by approximately 1,000 years

Three separate prehistoric monuments stand on the ridge along the Oxfordshire–Warwickshire border near Chipping Norton: the King's Men stone circle (77 stones, 33 metres diameter), the King Stone single monolith, and the Whispering Knights portal dolmen — the oldest of the three at around 5,500 years. All three are connected by the legend of a witch who turned a marching king and his entire army to stone with a single prophecy.

Rollright Stones: The Witch's Army

Walk through the ruins of the old cathedral, the medieval church of St Michael, destroyed on 14 November 1940, and into Basil Spence's new cathedral, consecrated in 1962, with Graham Sutherland's giant tapestry Christ in Glory

Visit the Coventry Transport Museum, home to the Thrust SSC that set the land speed record in 1997

Walk Spon Street, the medieval street where timber-framed houses were moved from elsewhere in the city

Coventry's old cathedral, the medieval church of St Michael, was destroyed in the air raid of 14 November 1940, and its ruins stand beside Basil Spence's new cathedral, consecrated in 1962, with Graham Sutherland's giant tapestry Christ in Glory. The Coventry Transport Museum holds Thrust SSC, which set the land speed record in 1997, and on Spon Street timber-framed houses moved from elsewhere in the city have been rebuilt together.

Coventry: The Two Cathedrals and the Transport Museum

Swim in the open-air lido, reopened in 2007 and filled with brine diluted to the saltiness of the sea

Find the Norman church of St Andrew where St Richard was probably baptised

Walk the Salwarpe, whose name probably means the river that throws up salt

Droitwich sits on massive salt deposits worked since ancient times — the Romans called it Salinae — and the natural brine underneath holds two and a half pounds of salt to the gallon, ten times stronger than sea water and rivalled only by the Dead Sea. The town's fortune was built on it: the brine baths opened in 1830, for floating in something that dense rather than for drinking. They have long closed, the last in 2008, but the open-air lido, reopened in 2007, is filled with brine diluted to the saltiness of the sea. John Corbett, the salt king, industrialised the trade and remade the town as a spa, and built Chateau Impney for his wife in the French château style; it has been closed since 2020.

Droitwich Spa: The Town Built on Brine Ten Times Saltier Than the Sea

Hike to the Worcestershire Beacon (425m), the highest point of the Malvern Hills

Tour the Morgan Motor Company factory, the sports-car maker founded in Malvern in 1910

Visit Great Malvern Priory, the Benedictine church with its medieval wall tiles

Taste the water at St Ann's Well on the hillside above Great Malvern

The Worcestershire Beacon, 425m, is the highest point of the Malvern Hills. On the hillside above Great Malvern you can taste the water at St Ann's Well, the Benedictine priory church below keeps its medieval wall tiles, and the Morgan Motor Company has made sports cars in Malvern since it was founded in 1910.

The Malvern Hills: Worcestershire Beacon and the Morgan Factory

Walk across the Iron Bridge over the Severn, built in 1779 by Abraham Darby III as the world's first major bridge of cast iron, and see the tollhouse

Explore Blists Hill Victorian Town, the open-air museum of a Victorian Shropshire town

Visit the Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron, beside the furnace where Abraham Darby first smelted iron with coke in 1709

Walk the Ironbridge Gorge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986

In 1709 Abraham Darby first smelted iron with coke at Coalbrookdale, and in 1779 Abraham Darby III built the Iron Bridge over the Severn, the world's first major bridge of cast iron, with its tollhouse at one end. The gorge has been a World Heritage Site since 1986. The Museum of Iron stands beside Darby's furnace, and Blists Hill Victorian Town, now run by the National Trust, recreates a Victorian Shropshire town.