There is no tangible proof that Shakespeare ever visited Alveston though it is unlikely that he did not.

His father had land across the river on the Welcombe Hills and the river was easily fordable. The old church may well have been the inspiration for the graveyard scene in Hamlet. In 1579, when Shakespeare was 15 years old and working in the Council Office, rumours arose that a young woman who had been found drowned in the Avon at Alveston had in reality been poisoned. This led to the body being disinterred and a new post mortem carried out. The woman was deemed to have died from drowning. Her name was Catherine Hamnet – a name with a striking similarity to that of Hamlet and the name that he gave to his son in 1585. Another suggestions is that she inspired the description of Ophelia’s drowning.

Although the first major battle of the English civil war was fought at Edgehill, only 14 miles away, Alveston, largely escaped the full force of war with only minor threats, thefts and skirmishes . The only major event was the imprisonment of Thomas Peers in Warwick Castle with demands for a ransom not being met. He died in the dungeons of the castle.