16 Best Sights in Stratford-upon-Avon and the Heart of England, England

Part of the University of Birmingham, this museum has a small but astounding collection of European paintings, prints, drawings, and sculpture, including works by Botticelli, van Dyck, Gainsborough, Turner, Manet, Monet, Degas, van Gogh, and Magritte. The museum also has a lively program of temporary exhibitions and a weekly lunchtime concert at 1pm on Friday, as well as occasional evening concerts. Starting in 2023, part of the museum closed for a few months for refurbishment; much of it is open now, though some work will continue through 2025. The museum is 3 miles south of the city center; to get here, take a train from New Street Station to University Station, which is a 10-minute walk from the museum, or jump on Bus 61 or 63, operated by National Express West Midlands.

Vast and impressive, this museum holds a magnificent collection of Victorian art and is known internationally for its works by the Pre-Raphaelites. All the big names are here—among them Rubens, Renoir, Constable, and Francis Bacon—reflecting the enormous wealth of 19th-century Birmingham and the aesthetic taste of its industrialists. Galleries of metalwork, silver, and ceramics reveal some of the city’s history, and works from the Renaissance, the Arts and Crafts movement, and the present day are also well represented. One gallery displays part of the incredible Staffordshire Hoard, the greatest collection of Anglo-Saxon treasure ever discovered. Part of the museum's four-year phased restoration (to be completed by summer 2025) introduced a new Made in Birmingham permanent exhibition that celebrates the city’s trades and crafts. The Edwardian Tearooms is a lovely spot for lunch between seeing the exhibitions.

Converted from a Victorian Gothic–style school, this gallery is among the city’s top venues for contemporary art from the United Kingdom and abroad, and rightly so. The bright, white interior of is divided into two main galleries, which host rolling exhibitions. A third space called The Tower hosts more site-specific shows. The bookshop is great, and there’s a very nice café on the ground floor. Ikon, which opened in 1965, exemplifies how Birmingham is embracing its past while moving very much into the future.

On a hilltop west of the town center, this church designed by George Steuart, the architect of Attingham Park, is one of England’s most distinctive ecclesiastical buildings. Completed in 1792, the round Georgian church is surmounted by a tower that is in turn square, octagonal, and circular, as well as topped by a dome. When built, it provoked riots among townsfolk averse to its radical style. The interior has a fine Venetian east window and a brass Arts and Crafts pulpit. Check the website for information about free weekly concerts Friday at 12:30 pm.

Between the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and Clopton Bridge lie these well-tended expanses of lawns and flower beds, with lots of seating and occasional performers entertaining those taking a breather between seeing the sights. The swans gliding gracefully along the river are permanent residents, coexisting with the pleasure craft on the river and the nearby canal. The centerpiece of the gardens is the Gower Memorial statue, designed in 1888 by Lord Gower as a homage to Shakespeare and adorned with bronze figures of Hamlet, Lady Macbeth, Falstaff, and Prince Hal—symbols of philosophy, tragedy, comedy, and history, respectively.

The early-18th-century Cathedral Church of St. Philip, a few blocks from Victoria Square, contains some lovely plasterwork in its elegant, gilded Georgian interior. The stained glass windows behind the altar, designed by the Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones (1833–98) and executed by the firm of William Morris & Company, glow with sensuous hues. There are regular free half-hour guided tours (most Mondays at 12:30 pm and Thursdays at 11:30 am) where you can find out how this church became a cathedral.

Chester’s unique Rows, dating back to the 12th and 13th centuries, are essentially double rows of stores, one at street level and the other on the second floor, with galleries overlooking the street. Whether you want to shop or simply ogle them, the Rows should not be missed. They line the junction of the four main streets in the old town and have medieval crypts below them, some of which reveal Roman foundations.

Accessible from several points and providing splendid views of Chester and its surroundings, the city walls are the country's most complete Roman and medieval defensive walls. The whole circuit is 2 miles, but if your time is short, climb the steps at Newgate and walk along toward Eastgate to see the great ornamental Eastgate Clock, erected to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897. Lots of small shops near this part of the walls sell old books, old postcards, antiques, and jewelry. Where the Bridge of Sighs (named after the enclosed bridge in Venice that it closely resembles) crosses the canal, descend to street level and walk up Northgate Street into Market Square.

Crowded with gilded, carved, and painted tombs, the Beauchamp Chantry within this church is considered one of the finest medieval chapels in England. Despite the wealth of late-medieval and Tudor chivalry, the chapel was built in the 15th century in honor of the somewhat-less-than-chivalrous Richard de Beauchamp, who consigned Joan of Arc to burn at the stake. Alongside his impressive effigy in gilded bronze lie the fine tombs of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, adviser and favorite of Queen Elizabeth I, and Dudley’s brother, Ambrose. The church’s chancel, distinguished by its flying ribs, houses the alabaster table tomb of Thomas Beauchamp, one of the first Knights of the Order of the Garter, and his wife, Katherine Mortimer. In the Norman crypt, look for the rare ducking stool (a chair in which people were tied for public punishment). It is possible to take part in traditional brass rubbings for free, or for a fee you can climb the tower for sweeping views of the Warwickshire countryside. Check the website for seasonal opening times. 

A solidly built, early-Norman, Benedictine abbey restored in the mid-19th century, the priory dominates the steep streets downtown. The fine glass has examples from the 15th century—including a magnificent east window and the vibrantly blue Magnificat window in the north transept—to the beautifully evocative Millennium Windows, installed in 1999. Also here are a splendid set of misericords (the elaborately carved undersides of choir seats) and the oldest known carving of a merman.

Start a visit to this local history museum with a look at the Roman Stones Gallery, which displays Roman-era tombstones previously used to repair city walls (keep an eye out for the wounded barbarian). Afterward you can skip a few centuries to explore the period house for a tour that covers the1680s to the 1920s.

This historic chapel is the noble centerpiece of Stratford’s Guild buildings, including the Guildhall, the Grammar School, and the almshouses—all well known to Shakespeare. It also houses some of the finest surviving medieval wall paintings in Europe. The ancient structure was rebuilt in the late Perpendicular style in the 15th century. The paintings were covered with limewash during the Reformation on orders given to Shakespeare’s father, who was mayor at the time. Some of the most impressive paintings, rediscovered centuries later, have been restored and can be viewed, including an ornate painting known as The Doom above the chancel arch. Restoration on other paintings continues.

In the old grammar school, this museum traces the history of the building, town, railroad, and canal, mostly through local postcards. It also has displays on two literary celebrities linked to the area, the poets John Masefield and Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Founded in 1083, Shrewsbury Abbey later became a powerful Benedictine monastery. The abbey church, today a parish church, has survived many ups and downs and retains a 14th-century west window above a Norman doorway. A 1993 addition is a memorial outside the abbey to World War I poet Wilfred Owen, who was born nearby. To reach the abbey from the town center, cross the river by the English Bridge.

Six miles south of Ross-on-Wye, outside the village of Symonds Yat (a local dialect word for "gate"), the 473-foot-high Yat Rock commands superb views of the River Wye as it winds through a narrow gorge in a great 5-mile loop. It's best approached from the south on B4432, and from there it's a short walk. A small, hand-pulled ferry takes passengers across the river from the Saracens Head pub. About a mile southwest of Symonds Yat is King Arthur’s Cave, although any link to the legendary monarch is, well, just a legend. Several important Paleolithic finds have been made in the cave, including flint tools and the bones of a woolly mammoth and a saber-toothed cat. Today, it is home to a colony of bats. To find the cave, take the exit marked Symonds Yat West from the A40. Park at the rest area just before Doward Park Campsite, and follow the path a short way into the woods.

If you head southeast of Shrewsbury on the B4380 for around 5 miles, you can see, rising on the left, the Wrekin, a  distinctive wooded, conical, 1,335-foot-high hill formed out of volcanic activity. It may have been the inspiration for Middle Earth in the Lord of the Rings books, as at various times J. R. R. Tolkien lived reasonably close. The walk to the summit, which has panoramic views, is about 5 miles (best reached via the A5 as you head east out of town). A few miles farther on, on the B4380, you enter the wooded gorge of the River Severn. Part of the Shropshire Hills National Landscape (areas important for biodiversity), this is walking country, and you can find maps and guides on the official website.