page_title: Mary Arden's Farm
hierarchical_section_title: Mary Arden's Farm
caption_attribution_description: This is Mary Arden's House, or as it is known now as Mary Arden's Farm. The site is owned by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. There is a series of different farm houses, and they have farm animals on site! From Station Road in Wilmcote. It is now thought that Glebe Farmhouse was where Mary Arden lived until she married John Shakespeare (and not what is now called Palmer's Farmhouse). It is Grade I listed. This is a photo of listed building number 1024575. Mary Arden's House and Attached Dairy, Wilmcote ASTON CANTLOW 539/8/3 ASTON CANTLOW ROAD 19-AUG-03 WILMCOTE (East side) Mary Arden's House and attached dairy (Formerly listed as: ASTON CANTLOW ROAD WILMCOTE Glebe Farmhouse and attached granary) I Farmhouse and attached dairy. Early C16, altered and refaced in C19; mid-C17 dairy. Farmhouse originally timber-framed with wattle and daub and brick infill, almost completely underbuilt and refaced in C19 brick, save for most of cross-wing and dairy which are of regularly coursed lias rubble with some timber framing surviving to upper level of the former; plain tile roofs. PLAN: Comprises a 3-bay hall range aligned east-west with a slightly later 2-bay cross-wing projecting to the north at the west end, the hall range originally consisting of a chamber bay, open hall bay and service bay and the cross-wing housing a kitchen open to the roof. A chamber was added over the service bay and a large chimney inserted in part of the former hall in the mid-C17; the stone dairy was added to the north end of the cross-wing at about this time. After this, the house was little altered save for the insertion of an upper floor in the kitchen range until the mid-C19, which is probably also the date of the lean-to dairy attached to the hall range. EXTERIOR: South side has blind gable of cross-wing to left; main range with late C20 plank door to left and late C20 leaded casements to left and right of centre, latter with segmental head; gabled eaves dormers with leaded casements to left and right of prominent axial ridge stack with corbelled capping; all the casements are 2 light except the lower left which is of 3. Cross-wing has exposed square timber framing to upper floor on west side; 2 late C20 single-light leaded casements and plank door on ground floor and 3 late C20 2-light leaded casements on first floor; exposed queen-post truss to north gable end. North side of main range has 2 gabled eaves dormers, a late C20 leaded casement to centre and plank door to right; lean-to dairy addition to left of centre. Stone dairy attached to north gable end of cross-wing has half-hipped roof and late C20 leaded casements; external stone steps on east side leading to plank door with gable breaking eaves. INTERIOR: Hall range has beam marking position of former partition to right of south door; late C20 replica of Victorian cast-iron range in fireplace; stone flag floor. C20 stone flag floor in kitchen that has partly reconstructed wash boiler next to fireplace. Plank doors throughout; stone shelves in lean-to dairy. Wide floor boards and exposed wall framing to both ranges. Hall range has exposed clasped-purlin queen-post roof in 3 bays with curved windbraces and braces to tie beams; some smoke blackening and evidence for a smoke louvre; identical roof in 2 bays to cross-wing, also with smoke blackening. HISTORY: The hall range has been dated through dendrochronology to c.1514 and it is clear that the cross-wing was added very shortly afterwards. Recent research has shown that this is the house referred to in 1587 as previously occupied by Agnes Arden, widow, who would have taken it over after the death of her husband, Robert in 1556. Robert and Agnes Arden were the father and stepmother of Mary Arden and it is therefore at Glebe Farm that she would have lived until she married John Shakespeare and moved to Stratford in 1557. SOURCES: Nat Alcock, Topography and Land Ownership in Wilmcote (2000) and Bob Meeson, Glebe Farm, Wilmcote, Warwickshire (2000), unpublished reports for the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
context_page_description: Mary Arden's Farm, also known as Mary Arden's House, is the farmhouse of Mary Shakespeare, the mother of Elizabethan playwright William Shakespeare. Because of confusion about the actual house inhabited by Mary in the mid-sixteenth century, the term may refer either of two houses. Both are grade I listed and located in the village of Wilmcote, about three miles from Stratford-upon-Avon.
  A house wrongly identified as Mary Arden's 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.
  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.
context_section_description: 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. Because of confusion about the actual house inhabited by Mary in the mid-sixteenth century, the term may refer either of two houses. Both are grade I listed and located in the village of Wilmcote, about three miles from Stratford-upon-Avon.
  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.
  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.
  The houses and farm are presented as a "working Tudor farm". 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.
caption: Mary Arden's house, also known as Glebe Farm
exif: {"Image Make": "FUJIFILM", "Image Model": "FinePix S2980", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Digital Camera FinePix S2980 Ver1.01", "Image DateTime": "2013:02:02 12:24:13", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "", "Image ExifOffset": "290", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "27124", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "2613", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/640", "EXIF FNumber": "32/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Standard Output Sensitivity", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2013:02:02 12:24:13", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2013:02:02 12:24:13", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "93/10", "EXIF ApertureValue": "134/25", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "867/100", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-33/100", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "163/50", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4288", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3216", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "26960", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "6992", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "6992", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}