Flood Risk Assessment in Stratford-upon-Avon

A flood risk assessment in Stratford-upon-Avon starts with the River Avon, which runs through the middle of the town past the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and Clopton Bridge. It then turns to the two brooks that come down from the north and west, and to the surface water that collects in the streets between them. Our consultants prepare flood risk assessments in Stratford-upon-Avon for a planning application, a house purchase, a mortgage or an insurer, together with sequential and exception tests and surface water drainage strategies, on any site in the town. Reports for sites in Stratford-upon-Avon come from Unda Consulting Limited, a CIWEM Business Partner.

This page takes Stratford-upon-Avon to be the town as the ONS draws its built-up area: the centre and Waterside, Old Town around Holy Trinity, Shottery and Bishopton to the west and north, Clopton by the Welcombe Hills, and Bridgetown across the river, all in the CV37 postcode district. Tiddington, on the Avon just upstream, is a separate village inside the same town council parish and the same Environment Agency warning chain, so it is covered here too. Stratford-on-Avon District Council (the district takes the shorter "-on-Avon" name) decides planning applications, and Warwickshire County Council is the lead local flood authority; the rest of the county is on our Warwickshire page.

The Avon at Stratford reached 2.71 m on 10 April 1998, its highest since the gauge opened in 1987. It came back to 2.51 m in July 2007 and 2.26 m in Storm Henk in January 2024, both well above the 1.69 m at which the Environment Agency says property flooding is possible.

Call 01293 214444 or email enquiries@unda.co.uk and one of our flood risk consultants will go through a Stratford-upon-Avon site with you.

What the Avon gauge at Stratford records, and what each level means

The Warwickshire Avon has drained a long catchment from Northamptonshire past Rugby, Warwick and Charlecote by the time it reaches the town, and the Leam and the Dene have both joined it. The Environment Agency's River Avon level at Stratford gauge, close to Clopton Bridge, has recorded since December 1987. Its published thresholds and records are:

• 0.50 m to 0.93 m. The river's normal range at the gauge.
• Above 1.20 m. Flooding of low-lying land is possible, and flood alerts may be issued.
• Above 1.69 m. Flooding of property is possible.
• 2.71 m on 10 April 1998. The highest level the gauge has recorded, set by the Easter flood.
• 2.51 m on 21 July 2007 and 2.26 m on 3 January 2024. The next two highest daily peaks in the Environment Agency's quality-checked record, from the summer 2007 floods and Storm Henk.
• 1.89 m in January 2025, November 2012 and March 2016. Three more peaks above the property threshold in the last fifteen years, with 1.72 m in November 2019 and 1.71 m on Christmas Day 2020 close behind.

The town's flood warning area names the streets the Environment Agency expects water to reach first: Warwick Road, Tiddington Road, Bridgefoot, Waterside and the Shipston Road area, Avonside, Saffron Walk, the racecourse and Luddington Road. A separate warning area covers Tiddington and Alveston upstream. The Stratford reading and the gauges around it on the Avon, the Dene and the Stour can be followed on our live river levels map, and an assessment uses the same gauge history to set floor levels and test whether the way out of a building stays dry.

Flood marks by the theatre: the town's floods from 1769 to Storm Henk

Stratford-upon-Avon has kept its own record of high water on a wall near the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, and the Environment Agency's recorded flood outlines fill in the twentieth century. Together they show the river and the brooks returning to the same ground:

1. September 1769. Rain flooded the riverside amphitheatre built for David Garrick's Shakespeare Jubilee, and the masquerade ball was broken up as the Avon kept rising, as the Shakespeare blog recounts.
2. 1901. The highest of the flood marks by the theatre, about 30 cm above the others.
3. May 1932. The river rose weeks after the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre opened.
4. March 1947, July 1968, January 1985 and January 1992. Floods recorded along both banks of the Avon through the town; in 1992 water reached the Rayford Caravan Park on the upstream edge of town.
5. 10 April 1998. The Easter flood set the gauge record of 2.71 m. Swans floated down Waterside and the theatre was surrounded by water; the same slow-moving front flooded Leamington and Shipston-on-Stour.
6. July 2007. The Avon peaked at 2.51 m, and Shottery Brook flooded both banks from Drayton Avenue down to its confluence with the river.
7. March 2016. An inch of rain fell across the county overnight and the Avon reached 1.87 m on 10 March; the cricket ground, racecourse buildings, the Recreation Ground play area and the Riverside, Avon and Rayford caravan parks flooded, according to the Stratford Herald.
8. 2-5 January 2024. Storm Henk fell on saturated ground. The Recreation Ground went under, drains overflowed on Birmingham Road and the Royal Shakespeare Company cancelled performances as the river rose, as the Stratford Observer reported. Floodwater went through every building at the racecourse.

The district council's Storm Henk recovery notice described widespread surface water flooding across the district and asked residents to report flooded homes so that the county could reach the threshold for government support. So an assessment here checks the brooks and the drains as well as the river: in 2007 Shottery Brook flooded streets well back from the Avon, and in 2024 the drains overflowed on Birmingham Road.

Look up a Stratford-upon-Avon address, from Shottery to Bridgetown

Enter a CV37 postcode in the map below for a first screen of river, surface water and reservoir risk at that address from Environment Agency data; our full flood risk map does the same for any address in England. The coral line follows the ONS built-up area: the centre, Old Town, Shottery, Bishopton, Clopton and the Maybird and Canal Quarter area north of the railway, with Bridgetown and the Banbury Road estates over the river. Tiddington, the racecourse and the open meadows west of it, Clifford Chambers and Luddington lie outside the line, though the same councils and river evidence apply there.

Shottery Brook, the Masons Road brook and the canal between them

Two brooks come down to the Avon from the higher ground to the north and west, and the Environment Agency's main river map shows both as main river through the built-up area, which puts work beside them under its control rather than the county's. Our guide to main rivers and ordinary watercourses explains the difference. The district's 2022 Strategic Flood Risk Assessment traces each one street by street:

The SFRA also lists a formal flood investigation at Drayton Avenue on Shottery Brook, held in draft by the county council, and an Environment Agency scheme proposed for Racecourse Brook to protect 47 homes. It lists the town's low-lying ground by the Avon and Shottery Brook among the most sensitive in the district to the higher river flows expected with climate change. Canal failures elsewhere, such as the Whitchurch breach in Shropshire, are why the emerging Local Plan now asks a site beside a canal to consider that residual risk too.

River gravel on mudstone: the ground and drains under the town

Under most of the town the British Geological Survey maps Mercia Mudstone, a red clay-rich rock that lets little water through. Over it, on the centre, Old Town, Shottery and Bridgetown, lie the sands and gravels of an old Avon river terrace. Which of the two a site sits on decides much of its surface water drainage:

Core Strategy Policy CS.4 expects surface water from the 1 in 100 year storm plus climate change to be held above ground wherever that is practicable, and sets a presumption against storing water underground. On the gravel that can mean basins and swales; on the mudstone it means room for storage in the layout from the start. Our ground conditions checker gives a first read of a plot, and the BRE 365 infiltration rate calculator turns soakage test results into a rate.

Which plans and policies does a Stratford-upon-Avon application have to meet?

Stratford-on-Avon District Council decides applications in the town. Warwickshire County Council comments on surface water for major schemes as the lead local flood authority, and the Environment Agency on sites by the Avon and the two brooks. Six documents set what an application has to show:

Local government reorganisation does not change this for now. The Government chose a South Warwickshire unitary for the two districts in July 2026 and then paused the Warwickshire proposals for review in September, so the district council remains the planning authority and the county council the flood authority. Where a site is in Flood Zone 2 or 3, the test of alternative sites is set out in our guide to the sequential and exception tests.

The Canal Quarter, Clopton Quarter and West Shottery: where the town is set to grow

Most new housing in and around the town will come from a few large sites, and each one carries water conditions in its policy:

• Canal Quarter (Core Strategy Proposal SUA.1). About 27 hectares between Western Road, Wharf Road, Timothy's Bridge Road and Masons Road, planned for about 650 homes by 2031 and 350 more after, plus 9,000 m² of business space and a linear park beside the canal. The proposal requires the developers to de-culvert watercourses, and the SFRA puts homes on Timothy's Bridge Road and Masons Road in the brooks' flood zones; our guide to culverts and who answers for them covers what that involves.
• Clopton Quarter and the Park and Ride (draft STR.1). 37.67 hectares of Green Belt on the north-western edge of town, inside the A46, for at least 777 homes and about 139 more at the Park and Ride. The draft policy records that the site is partly in Flood Zones 2 and 3 and asks for capacity at the Stratford-Milcote sewage works.
• Land to the south-east (draft STR.2). About 2,727 homes on 174 hectares between Shipston Road and Banbury Road, with a surface water drainage strategy and an assessment of sewer capacity with Severn Trent written into the policy.
• West Shottery and north of Evesham Road (draft STR.3). At least 687 homes at West Shottery and up to 130 more off Evesham Road; surface water flooding at the north-west of the West Shottery site is to be handled with attenuation basins in the masterplan.

Smaller schemes meet the same rules: a terrace of flats near the station, a conversion on Waterside or a new house on a Bridgetown plot each answers Policy CS.4 now, and draft Policy ID.9 once the new plan is adopted.

From a Waterside café to a Bishopton extension: when sites in the town need an assessment

Three things decide it: the flood zone the site sits in, how big it is and what it will be used for. Inside Zones 2 and 3 nearly every proposal needs one. In Zone 1 the answer depends on the site area and on whether the surface water maps show water crossing it. Some cases we see in the town:

Draft Policy ID.9 goes further and would ask for a site-specific assessment and a drainage strategy with every development, so a scheme submitted after the new plan is adopted should expect both. Our article on building an extension in a flood zone covers the householder case in more detail.

Reports for sites on the Avon, the brooks and the edge of town

A buyer on Tiddington Road, a householder in Shottery and the promoter of a Canal Quarter site each need a different report. Our chartered consultants write each one, and a senior consultant reviews and signs it off before it goes to you or the council.

• Applications by the Avon and the brooks. Homes, conversions and commercial schemes in the river's flood zones need a flood risk assessment for planning that meets Policy CS.4 and the Environment Agency's standing advice.
• River, brooks, ground and drains together. A flood risk assessment for a Stratford-upon-Avon site reads the Avon gauge, the two brooks, the surface water routes, the gravel and the sewers as one picture.
• Before exchange in the warning area. Where a search flags a house on Tiddington Road, Avonside or Luddington Road, a flood risk survey for property purchase looks at the building itself, its floor level and its flood history.
• New homes in Zones 2 and 3. Housing proposed in the Avon or brook floodplain has to pass the sequential and exception test under Policy CS.4 before the district council can approve it.
• Major schemes and the county council. Ten or more homes, or any other major development, need a drainage strategy that the county council can accept as lead local flood authority.
• Storage above ground. On gravel or mudstone, a surface water drainage strategy shows how the 1 in 100 year storm plus climate change is held at greenfield rates, above ground where Policy CS.4 expects it.
• After permission. Where a Stratford-upon-Avon consent comes with a pre-commencement drainage condition, the discharge of drainage conditions supplies the calculations and maintenance plan the council needs before it signs the condition off.
• Levels on the brooks. Where national mapping is too coarse for a site on Shottery Brook or the Masons Road brook, flood modelling sets the design flood level, as draft Policy ID.9 asks where flood data are thin.
• A route out when the Avon rises. For flats, holiday lets or a hotel in the Stratford warning area, a flood warning and evacuation plan ties the occupants to Environment Agency warnings and a dry route to higher ground.
• Homes with a flood record. On streets the SFRA names, from Saffron Meadow to Hogarth Road, a flood risk assessment for insurance gives an insurer evidence about one address rather than a postcode.
• Water in the river gravel. Where a basement, a lift pit or soakaways go into the Avon terrace, a groundwater flood risk assessment looks at water held on the mudstone and rising with the river.
• Sewer capacity. With capacity at the Stratford-Milcote works written into the town's draft allocations and Policy CS.4 asking for separate foul and surface water, a foul drainage strategy shows where the wastewater goes.
• Theatres, hotels and the racecourse. After Storm Henk cancelled performances and flooded every racecourse building, a business continuity flood risk assessment plans how a riverside business keeps trading through the next flood.
• Land before an offer. For land like the Clopton Quarter, partly in Flood Zones 2 and 3, a flood risk feasibility study shows early how much can be built and where the water has to go.
• Business space in the Canal Quarter. The 9,000 m² of business space planned for the Canal Quarter will bring commercial buildings, and a BREEAM flood risk assessment covers the Pol 03 credits.

Who handles flooding in Stratford-upon-Avon, from Floodline to the Warwickshire Resilience Forum

If a flood puts anyone in danger, call 999; a power cut goes to 105. Day to day, flood risk in the town is split between these bodies:

Free flood warnings for the town come by phone, text or email through the Environment Agency's sign-up service. When the county council investigates a flood, its report follows the process in our article on Section 19 flood investigations. Downstream, the Avon passes Bidford and Evesham to meet the Severn at Tewkesbury, covered on our River Severn page. Upstream, the Leam joins it below Leamington Spa, and Charlecote Park, a few miles above the town, appears in our look at flood risk at Britain's landmarks. Every other town and county we cover is on our areas page.

Questions about Stratford-upon-Avon sites, floods and planning

To discuss a riverside building on Waterside, a house in Shottery or land on the edge of town, call 01293 214444 or write to enquiries@unda.co.uk. A flood risk consultant at Unda Consulting Limited will review the address and explain which reports it calls for.