Palmer's Farmhouse was constructed in 1569, although the hall and kitchen date from 1580. These include display pieces such as the inglenook fireplace (whatever that is), an early 16th-century aumbry cupboard (presumably for storing all those aumbrys you have lying about), and a 17th-century dining table marked up for a game of shove-halfpenny (who needs television and the internet?). The dairy and parlour occupy the older part of the house and pieces to look out for here include a 16th-century carved chest, a 17th-century bread ark, and, my favourite, a 19th-century mouse trap, while in the upstairs room you can see a children's truckle bed. This was for centuries believed to be the childhood home of Mary Arden, Billy's mother, but research released in 2000 revealed that this honour belonged to the neighbouring Glebe Farm, purchased by the trust in 1968 and subsequently renamed Mary Arden House. This property was left largely untouched and items on display in the living room, dairy, and parlour include a locally made 18th-century clock, some 19th-century china, and an early 20th-century iron stove.

Spread across the farmyards and outbuildings here are the collections of the Shakespearean Countryside Museum. This museum attempts to tell the story of rural life in England that formed the backdrop of a number of Billy's plays, including "As You Like It," which was set in the bordering Forrest of Arden, from where the Arden family took there name. In the rickyard you sill find farm wagons, a 19th-century horse-drawn fire engine and two rustically decorated Romany caravans. Out the back of Palmer's farm is a horse-powered cider mill, open-fronted Byre, a quaint dovecote with 650 thankfully vacant nesting niches, and the great barn with exhibitions on the seasonal jobs on the farm. The museum concludes in the outhouses of Mary Arden's House with exhibits on the craft of carpenters, coopers, and wheelwrights. The grounds are home to the trust's herds of Cotswold Sheep and Longhorn cattle that can be seen on the pleasant field walk. While the garden plays host to regular displays of falconry with a variety of birds of prey on show, including Ricky, the Snowy Owl that plays Hedwig in the Harry Potter films, although be warned, as he is notoriously reluctant to sign autographs.

The houses and their settings are evocative and make you want to write sonnets, while the museum is fascinating and well organised, and yet doubtless due to its distanced location, this is one of the least visited of the properties, but then that's all the more reason to go.