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Tudor Festival 28-30 May 2011

Tudor Festival and Sheep Shearers’ Feast at Mary Arden’s Farm Whitsun Bank Holiday 28-30 May

Three days of merry-making are in store at the Mary Arden’s Farm Tudor Festival this May Bank Holiday (28-30 May), culminating in a grand Sheep Shearers’ Feast and the ultimate woolly challenge – to make a farmer’s felt waistcoat from raw fleece in just one day.   The real working Tudor Farm where William Shakespeare’s mother, Mary Arden, grew up on the outskirts of Stratford upon Avon, will be alive with music, dancing, crafts, and games for all the family.

Visitors can watch as shearers strip the sheep of their winter coats, then try their hand at the skills needed to turn fleece to fabric – spinning, carding, felting and tozing.  Resident Tudors Mistress Anne and Mistress Alice will show how it’s done as they practice for the race on Monday to make a jacket from fleece in daylight hours.
Children will love searching for young William Shakespeare’s lost sheep on the trail through the farm fields, then getting their fingers into the fleeces from different rare breed sheep reared on the farm and crafting their own woolly creations.  The farm’s rare breed sheep, similar to varieties that would have been kept in Shakespeare’s day, will be on show in the Great Barn.

The farm is also home to other rare breeds, including two newly arrived Traditional Hereford heifers with very rare bloodlines, English Longhorn cattle, Bagot goats and curly-haired Mangalitza pigs.  On Monday 30 May, the Mary Arden’s Farm team will be giving talks about their heritage livestock.

Falconry displays, blacksmithing, woodturning, candle-making and storytelling will provide plenty of food for the imagination about life in Shakespeare’s day.   Feast your eyes on food being prepared for the shepherds’ daily meals and the grand banquet on Monday(the menu includes mutton pears, elderflower jellies, ‘boyled sallet’ and lamb’s wool ale),then tuck into hog roast and real ale, or traditional Tudor pottage and spelt bread.

After lunch, join in with traditional singing and dancing and watch the ‘mummer’s play’, All’s Wool That Ends Wool.  (Mummers were roving troupes of actors who performed seasonal folk plays in pubs and house-to-house).

Mary Arden's Farm is three miles from Stratford upon Avon town centre in Wilmcote, in the rolling Warwickshire countryside. The farm is now being developed under environmental stewardship guidelines to preserve the landscape features and encourage the flora and fauna that would have thrived in Shakespeare’s day.   The site has been a working farm for more than 450 years, and supports more than 60 species of birds, including the green woodpecker which feasts on a field of anthills, and some 30 species of meadow wildflowers.  The Farm is open daily 10am – 5pm until the end of October, and runs a full programme of events, including falconry every weekend and during school and bank holidays, and daily family-friendly activities 23 July – 4 September.  For more details see www.shakespeare.org.uk

The site is well sign posted and on site free parking is provided. Wilmcote railway station is directly opposite the Farm.Under 5s are free. Family tickets admit up to 3 children.   Ticket prices: Adult: £9.50 Child: £5.50 Concession £8.50 Family: 24.50.  Five house tickets allow unlimited entry to the five houses cared for by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (Anne Hathaway's Cottage, Hall's Croft, Mary Arden's Farm, Nash's House & New Place, Shakespeare's Birthplace) for 12 months from the date of purchase.  Ticket prices: Adult: £19.50 Child: £12.00 Concession: £17.50 Family: £50.00.
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For further information, please contact:
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust       
Lynn Beddoe – PR Manager       
Direct line: 01789 207134      
Mobile: 07887 661770     
Email: lynn.beddoe@shakespeare.org.uk   
Web:  www.shakespeare.org.uk