Mary Arden's Farm, also known as Mary Arden's House, is the farmhouse of Mary Shakespeare (née Arden), the mother of Elizabethan playwright William Shakespeare.[1] Because of confusion about the actual house inhabited by Mary in the mid-sixteenth century, the term may refer to either of two houses. Both are grade I listed and located in the village of Wilmcote, about three miles from Stratford-upon-Avon.[2][3]
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A house wrongly identified as Mary Arden's (it actually belonged to a neighbour) was bought by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in 1930 and refurnished in the Tudor style. This timber-framed house has been maintained in good condition over the centuries.
In 2000, it was discovered that the building preserved as Mary Arden's house had belonged to a friend and neighbour Adam Palmer and the house was renamed Palmer's Farm. The house that had belonged to the Arden family is Glebe Farm, near to Palmer's Farm. A more modest building, it had been acquired by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in 1968 for preservation as part of a farmyard without knowing its true provenance.[4] The building has lost some of its original timber framing and features some Victorian brickwork, but it has been possible to date it through dendrochronology to c.1514.[3]
The houses and farm are presented as a "working Tudor farm".[1] The farm keeps many rare breeds of animals, including Mangalitza and Tamworth pigs, Cotswold sheep, Longhorn cattle, Bagot and Golden Guernsey goats, geese and birds of prey, including a Hooded Vulture.[5]
- ^ a b "Mary Arden's Farm". Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
- ^ "Palmer's Farmhouse. Wilmcote". British Listed Buildings.
- ^ a b "Mary Arden's House and Attached Dairy". British Listed Buildings.
- ^ The Shakespeare Houses - The Official Guide, Revised 2008, ISBN 978-0-7117-2949-0
- ^ "Archived copy". houses.shakespeare.org.uk. Archived from the original on 27 August 2007. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)