In the hamlet of Wilmcote, near Stratford, Mary Arden's Farm brings back to life the Tudor rural world: that of the family of Mary Arden, the mother of William Shakespeare. A working farm peopled with old animal breeds, it tells of the peasant roots of the greatest of playwrights.
The home of the poet's mother
Mary Arden, Shakespeare's mother, came from a family of well-off farmers of Wilmcote. The site keeps two Grade I listed farmhouses: Glebe Farm, the true home of the Ardens, dated by dendrochronology to around 1514, and Palmer's Farm, that of a neighbour. These timber-framed buildings, with their barns and courts, show the dwelling and the farm of a prosperous rural family of the Renaissance — the milieu from which Shakespeare's mother came, before her marriage to the glover John Shakespeare took her into the Stratford bourgeoisie.
A correction of history
The site is also a fine lesson in historical method. For generations, visitors admired 'Mary Arden's house' in what was in reality the farm of the neighbour Adam Palmer. It was only in 2000 that dendrochronology — dating by the rings of the wood — restored the truth: the true home of the Ardens was Glebe Farm, until then unrecognised. The farm today works as a living Tudor holding, with old animal breeds (Mangalitza pigs, Cotswold sheep, Longhorn cattle). To see: the working Tudor farm, the old animal breeds, the two Grade I listed farmhouses.
Did you know?
Until the year 2000, millions of visitors had believed they were seeing 'Mary Arden's house' — when they were in reality visiting the neighbour's farm. It was dendrochronology, by precisely dating the roof timbers, that revealed the error and identified the true home of the Ardens, Glebe Farm. A striking example of how science can correct, overnight, a tradition centuries old.
Notes
Mary Arden's Farm lies at Wilmcote, Warwickshire (about 5 km from Stratford); a site of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, open to the public seasonally. Hours to check.
Quiz
- Whose mother was Mary Arden?
- William Shakespeare's
- Elizabeth I's
- Anne Hathaway's
- Which building is the true home of the Ardens?
- Glebe Farm (c. 1514)
- The Tower of London
- Palmer's Farm
- How was the misidentification corrected in 2000?
- By dendrochronology (dating the timbers)
- By an old register
- By a painting