Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: The Bard ne'er slept under this roof

Dal Times di oggi:
THURSDAY NOVEMBER 30 2000
Alas! The Bard ne'er slept under this roof
BY OLIVER WRIGHT AND NORMAN HAMMOND, ARCHAEOLOGY CORRESPONDENT
THE managers of Shakespeare's former estate admitted their embarrassment
yesterday after revealing that in the past 70 years millions of visitors had
been guided round a house which had no connection with the Bard.
Since 1930 some 100,000 tourists a year have made the pilgrimage to the
village of Wilmcote in Warwickshire, paying to look round the house where
Shakespeare's mother, Mary Arden, was said to have lived before moving to
Stratford-upon-Avon.
But yesterday the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust admitted they could now prove
conclusively that Miss Arden had never lived in the house named after her.
It was not even built until five years after she had left the village.
New research by Nat Alcock, a historian, found that Miss Arden lived 50
yards away in a farm which, although also owned by the trust, was bought 40
years ago only to protect the site from development.
Dr Alcock found deeds belonging to the former owner of the land, Lord
Abergavenny, which showed that Glebe Farm, built in 1514, had once been
owned by Agnes Arden, the second wife of Robert Arden and Mary's stepmother.
The house known since the 18th century as her home had belonged to Adam
Palmer, a close friend of the Arden family. It was not built until 1569,
after Miss Arden had moved to Stratford to marry Shakespeare's father.
Compared to the timbered Tudor finery of what was always considered Mary
Arden's house, Glebe Farm looks out of place. Refaced with Victorian red
brick, it was always believed to have been built later but has proved to be
an almost complete Tudor farmhouse.
Experts who dated the timber used in the building of the house show it was
built in the summer of 1514 or shortly thereafter, in the reign of Henry
VIII. A stone-walled kitchen wing was added a few years later.
Professor Jean Wilson, author of The Archaeology of Shakespeare, said:
"Shakespeare would probably have played there as a child, when visiting his
maternal relatives."
Richard Morris, the chief guide to the old Mary Arden's House, admitted that
millions of visitors had been shown around the house wrongly believing it
had a Shakespeare connection.
"It is all a bit embarrassing," he said. "We are lucky that visitors to Mary
Arden's House have also been able to look round Glebe Farm and we have
always said that the old house was only believed to have been where she
lived."
Roger Pringle, director of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, said that he
asked Dr Alcock to carry out the research because he decided it was time
they knew for sure if Mary Arden had lived in the house or not.
Mr Pringle said: "I believe Dr Alcock's discovery justifies the trust's
commitment to making people aware of the evidence for our historic houses."
Mr Morris said the case of mistaken identity could be traced back to an
unscrupulous 18th-century Stratford wheelwright, John Jordan, who made
several spurious Shakespeare-related claims.
The trust said that Glebe Farm would be renamed Mary Arden's House and the
other house would be called Palmer's Farm. All merchandise would be changed.
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Ciao
Anna

 wrote in message
news:T4pV5.707$bP.2...@twister2.tin.it...


 Stratford-upon-Avon.
Dear Lady Ann,
Perhaps the article you so kindly posted was edited by your goodself in the
interest of saving band width, but having read it several times, I seem
unable to find the agency or person/s to whom one can write to request a
refund. It being many years ago that the undersigned visited the 'shrine' in
question and the exchange rate of the pound being now what it is, one could
surely procure a glass or two of bolly with it.
Should the person/s to whom such a request be listed somewhere in the
article,  could you kindly inform an agèd queen. An opportunity for a glass
of Bolly - purely for medicinal purposes, should never be passed up.
--
I remain, as always,
Bambi
dtb