Mary Arden's Farm

If you can take just a little more Stratford-upon-Avon, I'll include one of the other properties we visited, the 16th century farmhouse of Shakespeare's grandparents and childhood home of his mother, Mary Arden. The adjoining property is a "living museum" where one can experience what life might have been like on a Tudor farm back in the mid-1500's.

We purchased the hop-on hop-off sight-seeing tour which included 5 different houses with 11 different stops but found that there wasn't time to do justice to more than 2 in a day, so we ended up making 3 separate trips to Stratford in order to see all the properties included in our tour. Other houses which I photographed but won't post were Hall's Croft (Shakespeare's daughter and son-in-law's house) and the Nash House (Shakespeare's granddaughter).

For more on Mary Arden's House, click here.

Home of Shakespeare's mother -  Featherbed Lane, Wilmcote

back of home

inside the dovecote

climbing roses in front garden

typical period table setting

primitive "utility" room?

notice height of door frame (mind your head!)

birthing room, rope bed, cradle

boys and servants slept on floor

The master of house and wife slept in a bed. The best bed in the house was reserved for guests. Boys and servants slept on the floor in the upper level. Girls slept on literal "shelves" coming out of the wall from the time they were very young until they left home. Girls who were not married by a certain age were said to have been "left on the shelf." 

through entry to garden

farmhouse kitchen

gathering the last of the plums for pie

As a "living history" museum, workers carried on tasks as they might have back in the mid-1500's. The farm included a dovecote, falconry, gardens and lots of animals - cows, pigs, goats, horses, chickens, etc.

Tudor farm maid

spinning wheel used to spin wool

barns and out buildings

makin' bacon