Mary Arden's Farm, also known asMary Arden's House orGlebe Farm, is the farmhouse ofMary Shakespeare (née Arden), the mother ofElizabethan playwrightWilliam Shakespeare.[1] Because of confusion about the actual house inhabited by Mary in the mid-sixteenth century, a nearby farm was conserved in the 20th century as "Mary Arden's Farm", but has been subsequently renamed Palmer's Farm. Both aregrade I listed and located in the village ofWilmcote, about three miles fromStratford-upon-Avon.[2][3]
The house that belonged to the Arden family is Glebe Farm, near to Palmer's Farm. A more modest building, it had been acquired by theShakespeare 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 throughdendrochronology to c.1514.[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. Thistimber-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 renamedPalmer's Farm.
The houses and farm are presented as a "working Tudor farm".[1] The farm keeps manyrare breeds of animals, includingMangalitza andTamworth pigs,Cotswold sheep,Longhorn cattle,Bagot andGolden Guernsey goats, geese and birds of prey, including ahooded vulture.[5]
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