A deeper look into the River Avon
Stan's Cafe River Tours: The Avon at Willoughby Village Hall on Wednesday 5 August.
Review by Ann Evans
Stan’s Cafe River Tours are well underway this summer, following the river's route from its source in Northamptonshire to Tewksbury and its union with the River Severn. And to illustrate the journey is a specially commissioned three-metre-long textile tapestry illustrating the river and highlighting places of interest along the way.
This beautiful hand-made map of the River Avon was created by Ellie Carr-Smith and Molly Acacia Hughes at their Mead Studio in Shottery, Warwickshire using screen printing and the tufting technique – an ancient method of making a soft textured garment or rug.
The design showed churches, wildlife, bridges and towns along the way, all inspired by stories gathered by Stan’s Cafe’s Project Team working with communities and groups across Warwickshire and Worcestershire.
The script was written by Craig Stephens with actor Kathryn Hanke telling the stories, bringing to life moments in history such as the Battle of Naseby, a 19th century plane crash and many more little known tales and fascinating facts. Kathryn’s presentation was full of humour and drama, drawing the audience in as she told her tales, holding everyone’s attention to the very end of this 55-minute show.
Kathryn is well used to lively storytelling as she was a standup comic on the comedy circuit for nine years. More recently she has given that up in order to do more straight acting. “I do try to stick to the script because it’s such a well written script,” she said after delivering almost an hour’s monologue from memory – quite some feat!
She added, "After the show we usually invite the audience to come up and have a close look at the tapestry and to talk about their own memories of the river. So every show is different."
Other River Tours have been The Thames, The Lune, The Indus, The Severn, The Volga and The Niger. Stan’s Café itself (without the accent, pronounced Caff) is a theatre group that was started in 1991 by Graeme Rose and James Yarker. They came up with the name Stan’s Café, from the Stan’s Café they were eating at, just off Brick Lane, London after graduating from Lancaster University.
Graeme Rose was at the River Tour held at Willoughby Village Hall near Rugby. Graeme explained, “Every time we do a River Tour we seek out and collaborate with local textile artists who have connections with the river and commission them to create a map of the river in the medium they work in. It will be different every time, it might be embroidery or tapestry or as in this case using the tufted technique. We also have the support of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and the community groups they work with, along with Live & Local.”
He continued, “Stan’s Cafe has a core team of around five long term collaborators and a team of associated artists that change depending on the project. We’ve had many 'homes' over the years and are now settled at Our Facility which is an Edwardian School in Selly Oak.”
As visitors arrived at the Village Hall and took their seats in a semi-circle around the tapestry, and with a handful of props such as a crown, a stick and a hard hat, Kathryn began her story of life along the River Avon over the centuries. Afterwards, there was time for the guests to come forward and admire the tapestry and see what memories it evoked for them.
You can see Stan's Cafe River Tours: The Avon, here:
Tuesday 11 August 2026 Pershore Riverside Centre, King Georges Way, Pershore, Worcestershire WR10 1QU 11am.
Tuesday 11 August 2026 Bidford Community Library, Bramley Way, Bidford on Avon, Warwickshire B50 4QG 7.30pm. Thursday 13 August 2026 Birmingham Settlement Nature and Wellbeing Centre, Edgbaston Reservoir, 79 Selwyn Road, Birmingham B16 0SL 2.30pm.
Friday 14 August to Sunday 16 August 2026 Royal Shakespeare Company, The Dell, Southern Lane, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire CV37 6BB Fri 3pm, Sat & Sun 11am & 3pm.
Tickets: Pay What You Can (£10 recommended)
Details and tickets: https://stans.cafe
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