Much ado about everything

By Steve Cunningham

FOR 70 years, millions of tourists have dutifully visited the birthplace of Mary Arden, Shakespeare's mother, near Stratford. But, it has been revealed, they were paying good money to tour the wrong house.

The half-timbered building called Mary Arden's House had nothing to do with her. It was mistaken, with the help of an 18th-century conman, for a neighbouring property.

Glebe Farm, a much-renovated brick farmhouse 30 yards down the road in Wilmcote, Warwickshire, has become the 'new' Mary Arden's House.

Mary was the daughter of a sheep farmer and grew up in Wilmcote, near Stratford. In about 1557 she married a glover, John Shakespeare. They had eight children, of whom the oldest boy, William, and four others survived.

The case of mistaken identity can be traced back to an unscrupulous 18th-century wheelwright, John Jordan, who conducted guided tours around Stratford and made several spurious claims.

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust was never sure of the building's history and asked local historian Nat Alcock to investigate. Alcock, a retired university chemistry lecturer, studied the records of Lord Abergavenny, who owned extensive lands in Warwickshire in the 16th century. He discovered the case of mistaken identity after studying church records.

Things could have been worse, however: The Trust at least owned the 'new' Mary Arden House. It bought it 21 years ago to prevent demolition and the constrution of a housing estate in the area.

Mistaken identity is common enough in historical research. Not all heritage sites have a wretched Mr Jordan to confuse matters, but in many cases, facts are lost or twisted in time.

A new book, Bannockburn: Scotland's Greatest Ever Battlefield Triumph by Peter Reese, claims that the place of pilgrimage for thousands of Scots - who want to pay tribute to one of the nation's greatest victories - is the wrong spot.

The book claims that the triumph at Bannockburn of Robert the Bruce over Edward II of England really took place more than a mile away, in a field next to a housing estate.

Reese is calling for another memorial to be built at what he claims is the real site. He, says the real battle took place to the north-east of the memorial on an area of farmland bounded by the Bannock Burn and the Pelstream Burn.

The site of one of Britain's most important moments is also being disputed: The Roman invasion of Britain in AD 43.

Until recently, scholars have agreed that the bulk of the Roman army landed at Richborough in east Kent. They were then thought to have advanced along the North Downs to fight a major battle near Eccles on the River Medway, before pursuing the defeated Britons across the Thames to capture their tribal capital at Colchester.

Two years ago, a monument was put up on the banks of the Medway to commemorate this event. It was the most decisive battle ever fought on British soil, apart from Hastings.

Now Professor Barry Cunliffe, a leading scholar of Roman Britain, suggests that the monument might have been put in the wrong place. He thinks that the main landing took place in the harbours of the Solent, focused around the Fishbourne-Chichester area - much to the dismay of Kent scholars.

In all these cases, history has become confused and the misinformation passed on to millions more. Did the Shakespeare sightseers suffer because the house they visited was the wrong one Did the loyal Scots show any less respect for their beloved Bruce, just because the memorial was a mile adrift And is it important where the Romans landed

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