Mary Arden's Farm - Bubbablue and me
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Shakespeare’s Stratford – visiting Mary Arden’s Farm

I love visiting Stratford-upon-Avon because there’s so much to do. When N’s a little older I shall take him on one of the red open top tour buses, but in the meantime we’ll be working our way around the various individuals to visit.  Our most recent was a trip to Mary Arden’s farm over the last bank holiday weekend.

Mary Arden's Farm - Bubbablue and me

I remember visiting years ago as a child (I definitely take after my mum in wanting to make sure N has some great experiences and learns from the practical side of things to bring learning to life) so was keen to see if I remembered it.  Mary Arden was William Shakespeare’s mother, and the farm  was her childhood home.  It’s still a working farm and you get to experience the farm as it works, along with people dressed in Tudor costumes.

welcome to the Arden family farmhouse

As well as the general activities and animals around the farm, there was also a green man trail.  I picked up a sheet even though N said he didn’t want to do it, but in the end we did do some green men spotting although we didn’t get them all.  I do think when you pay, you should be told about the children’s trails.  We weren’t even though we arrived early before it got busy, but I was on the lookout because I’d checked the website the day before.  That’s always worth doing because you can arrange your visit so that you get to see the activities at the set times.

wishing well

First of all we went for a general amble round the farm.  The specific activities – creating your own sheep, and shearing, weren’t happening until lunch time, so I didn’t think that we’d still be there for that.

sheep fleeces

We had a go first on the green courtyard at playing quoits.  N did make me laugh – it took him a while to realise that the aim was to throw the quoit onto the hoops and not just chuck them wildly.

playing Tudor quoits

The route through the manor house to the farm meant we got to see the workshops for basket weaving

willow basket weaving

And wood turning.  Unfortunately there was no one working, but N was still interested to ask questions.

N wasn’t too sure about the first pig sty.

‘Why are they in there mummy?’

‘That’s where they’re kept’

‘But why?’

pigs at Mary Ardens Farm

And the same questions about the ducks and why they had their water in a trough.  Sometimes the questions do get a bit much!

3 bottomed goat!
The magical 3 bottomed goat!

Palmer’s Farmhouse is much as it was in the 1500s.  Inside we could watch a cook making food on the fire.  N refused to come inside, but it was really interesting to ask questions and see the different foods they might have made.

Tudor farmhouse meals

It’s quite a compact place to visit so perfect for young children with plenty to see.  We wandered through the barns set up for later activities, and got a bit close as the geese were walked into their hurdle area to do their ‘show’.

herding geese at Mary Arden's farm

We got to learn about how to keep geese in control while herding them (tip, they like personal space, so walk into it and they’ll move), and how to get them to back off if they seem to be attacking (make yourself as big as possible, arms out etc, and they’ll back off thinking you’re a bigger bird than them.  When we were at school and had geese, the head of the school farm always used to tell us to wave paper like wings – guess that’s the same idea of making big!).

We didn’t stay to look at the owl and falconry talk and display which was happening at the time we were there, instead we played a spot of tudor snakes and ladders.

Tudor snakes and ladders

Then it was off to check out the playground.  The playground is brilliant.  Lots of wooden play equipment to climb, swing and slide on and down.  N was in his element

Firstly he rode a horse, and bossed me around, ordering me into the cart so he could drive me to school.

riding the horse and cart

Then the goat got some riding action (ok, that didn’t sound as rude in my head).

riding a goat

And N made good use of every type of swing before more children turned up.

We then had a bit of time before heading back to get some lunch, so wandered off to see the sheep.  We met one of the guys who worked at the farm, and he told us about the different types of sheep they have.  N was interested in why the sheep had horns (it’s the breed they are), and then the cows when we saw them in their fields (they’ve not been dehorned like our cows are.  He seemed to think it was only bulls who had horns so I had to explain that cows and calves also grew them, but mostly they were removed on commercial farms).

They also have some strange wild boar like curly haired pigs.  To me it was really hard to see where mud and pig started and ended, but N wasn’t interested in them anyway.

He just wanted to run along by the cows.  He wasn’t even that interested in the newborn twin calves either.

newborn twin calves

Once we’d reached the end of the cow’s paddocks, we arrived at the edge of the wildflower meadow.

picking buttercups

They have a path mowed into it, so you can walk through it without disturbing the flowers which is lovely.  We walked all the way round, although it was a shame we had to back track rather than the path leading back out the other end.

running in the wildflower meadow

Considering it was a bank holiday weekend, I would have expected it to be busier, but we pretty much had the wildflower meadow to ourselves.  In fact the whole farm didn’t feel crowded at all.

Once we’d had our fill of the yellow field, it was time to get back for lunch.  N stopped for a moment to watch and listen to the olde English musicians.  I don’t think he was very impressed with the music though, and refused to dance around with a little girl of similar age who was dancing nearby.

The café is a reasonable size, and going at around 12pm we didn’t need to queue.  They had the obligatory children’s lunchbox which was perfectly ok.  I’m not sure a huge pack of standard Walkers crisps was to be expected though.  I’d have preferred slightly smaller packs or an offer of slightly more healthy crisps like baked or ‘childrens’ versions which tend to be less saltier.  It included a homemade shortbread biscuit, juice drink, and a standard adult sized yoghurt, and sandwiches (cheese or ham).  The latter didn’t really go down well with N who usually loves any type of bread, but this was a heavy plaited style roll.  Personally, I think a wider range of children would prefer bog standard sandwich rather than fancy.

The rest of the menu was light bite in style.  You could choose some Tudor inspired meals, although I struggled to find something I fancied. I ended up with a brie, bacon and pesto panini which wasn’t particularly tasty, although the salad dressing was nice.  I’m slack because I really should bring a picnic to places – there were places to eat undercover which is quite unusual, so even on a wet day, picnics were feasible.

Before leaving we checked out the house.  The ground floor had people doing traditional spinning and wool crafts, although N didn’t want to have a go like the other children were.  The house had displays about the building of the house with wattle and daub, you could see inside some of the walls, with other rooms set up as they may have been all those years ago.  It was certainly interested to note how low some of the doorways were in the upstairs – due to the cost of building bigger doors!

Tudor house quiz board

There were also some interactive displays for you to find out more about the history of Tudor houses.

flowers at Mary Arden's Farm
Beautiful flowers in the gardens

All in all we had a great visit to Mary Arden’s farm, and there was still more we could have discovered and enjoyed had N been more compliant or a bit older to enjoy the more educational side.

As we left there was a red open top tour bus just dropping people off, which prompted questions from N about where the bus then went.  There’s so much to see in Stratford-upon-Avon, and apart from the traffic jams to get back to the side that we needed to be, this was a great start to the various Shakespeare houses around the town.

Have you ever visited Stratford-upon-Avon?  What’s your favourite place to visit there?

Why not take a look at these similar posts.

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14 Comments

  1. I didn’t know about Mary Arden’s farm! This actually would be a fantastic place to take my kids when their grandmother comes over for a visit – she loves Shakespeare and history and they’d love to see all it offers.

  2. Wow what a nice trip! Like time traveling and you get to go back in Shakespeare time! We havent been there but it would be nice if we can visit this with my son too. #countrykids

    1. It is a bit like that. Although N refused to dress up in the room where you could do so.

      There’s so much to do in Stratford – great for a weekend visit.

  3. I really love Msry Arden’s farm. When my pair were little we used to go so often and they always enjoyed everything they saw. They never seemed to tire of it. We loved the open bus tours too

    1. N keeps asking about the bus tours. I’m not sure I want to spend the money on it for him yet. But maybe it’ll be sooner than I think

  4. Emma this looks like a great place for children of all ages with so much to do, it sounds like you only scratched the surface but give a real flavour for everything on offer. I love the idea of basket weaving, I wonder if I could collect enough from our bushes to give it a go in activity hour? As for pigs in mud, ours turn every field they have into a mud soup in a couple of days! thank you for linking a lovely day out with Country Kids

  5. Oh this looks fantastic! We used to go to Stratford as children but I remember it now from a slightly older perspective. Mary Arden’s house looks like so much fun and perfect for a younger age group. This is certainly going to be on our radar for places to visit very soon
    Thanks for the review
    #CountryKids

  6. Reading this reminded me of COgges Farm Museum in Oxfordshire, although from memory that’s set up like an Edwardian or Victorian farmhouse (I can’t remember!). Regardless, I think it;s great to visit places you used to go to as a kid with your own offspring. #CountryKids

    1. It is a bit like Cogges, but much bigger and more to see. I felt like there wasn’t that much at Cogges, although we did enoy it.

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