Barceló Billesley Manor Hotel, Nr. Stratford

Local Attractions

Mary Arden's House & The Shakespeare Countryside Museum

Daily

Cost: £5.50; concessions £5; children £2.50; family £13.50; discounted Shakespeare Heritage Trail Tickets are also available

Hours: Winter: 10am-4pm (from 10.30am Sun)
Mid-Season: 10am-5pm (from 10.30am Sun)
Summer: 9am-5pm (from 9.30am Sun)

Retaining its country setting in Wilmcote, this timbered Tudor farmhouse is the childhood home of Shakespeare's mother, Mary Arden, before she married John Shakespeare. It is also home to the Shakespeare Countryside Museum and the adjacent Glebe Farm, where there are displays of farm implements and daily demonstrations by Heart of England falconry.

The farmhouse has many old outbuildings and showcases fascinating displays, bringing to life the work and traditions of the countryside from Shakespeare's time to the 20th century.

Visitors can see prize-winning livestock, a working blacksmiths forge and oxen, take a look inside the Glebe Farm's kitchen of 1900 and also enjoy a host of educational projects and special farming events all year round.

Mary Arden's House & The Shakespeare Countryside Museum