It’s hard to believe there was a time when there was only a solitary pair of swans in Stratford-upon-Avon. One pair, named Tom and Roxanne, their elegant predecessors wiped off the surface of the Avon by lead poisoning from angling weights and food shortages.

That was 40 years ago, and the then front-of-house manager at the Hilton Hotel (now the Crowne Plaza) decided that wasn’t good enough. After all, swans were synonymous with Stratford back in Shakespeare’s time (the Bard was called the Sweet Swan of Avon) – how could there only be one last hardly-breeding pair?

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