Stratford’s the place to behave Bardly

WILLIAM Shakespeare’s home town Stratford-upon-Avon has been named Britain’s adultery capital.

The Warwickshire tourist spot is the No 1 place where a husband or wife are most likely to have an affair, according to an “infidelity index” poll.

The town has 1,047 residents cheating out of a population of 27,455, said the study into the behaviour of unfaithful partners.

Researchers who created the interactive index came up with a table of 150 cheating hot spots across the UK.

Affairs

Users can now search a town or postcode to discover how many people are having affairs in any locality.

Stratford, where the Bard was born in 1564, came out highest, with 3.69 per cent of the population cheating.

The town, with its many Shakespeare-themed attractions, is one of the UK’s top tourism hot spots, with 2.5 million visitors a year.

With an average house price of £340,548, far above the national level of £226,071, it is one of the most desirable places to live in the UK.

Stratford is followed in the infidelity index by Wilmslow, in Cheshire, with Beaconsfield, Bucks, in third place. Windsor took fifth spot.

Irvine, in North Ayrshire, is Scotland’s cheating capital. Pontypridd was tops in Wales. The most faithful town is Wigan, Greater Manchester, where just 0.14 per cent of residents are cheating.

The figures were compiled by IllicitEncounters.com, a dating website for married people, and are based on its own data on the numbers of Britons cheating. Spokesman Christian Grant said: “We are increasingly popular in commuter towns like Stratford-upon-Avon, Harrogate, Wilmslow, Beaconsfield and Esher. Cheating in suburbia has never been more popular.” The website said it has seen a 20 per cent surge in registrations in the past five years, saying many couples simply cannot afford to divorce.