A small market town in Warwickshire, in the middle of England, standing on the River Avon. It is famous for one reason: William Shakespeare was born there in 1564 and died there in 1616. Because of that, it is packed with visitors all year — people go to see the house where he was born, his grave in Holy Trinity Church, and plays at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, home of the Royal Shakespeare Company. In English writing the name is often used as a kind of shorthand for Shakespeare himself: "the Bard of Stratford", or "the Stratford man". The upon Avon part is there to tell it apart from other English towns called Stratford — including a very different Stratford in east London, where the 2012 Olympic Park is. If someone in Britain says just "Stratford", the meaning depends entirely on who is speaking and where.