The names of Stratford and Shakespare are synonymous throughout the world. The writer who has exerted the greatest global influence was intimately connected with the town throughout his life. Stratford was where he was born, brought up, went to school, met his wife and baptised his children. Many influences of Stratford and its outlying countryside have been traced in Shakespeare's writings, and a signiifcant number of the surviving Shakespeare documents relate to his business and family affairs in Stratford.
The proposed World Heritage Site contains evidence both of the Stratford of Shakespeare's day and the building associated with him, and also of Shakespeare's influence on the town through the development of the area as a focus of literary tourism from the 18th century. As such Stratford is evidence of the early development of a cultural tradition now fundamental to the way of life and economy of many parts of the world.