Arden family

[3] The family shares its name with the Forest of Arden, a culturally defined area ranging across these counties south of Watling Street which is associated with the setting of the action in Shakespeare's play As You Like It.

[4] By the 14th century, under Sir John de Arderne, the most senior line of the Arden family had their primary estate near Solihull at Park Hall, Castle Bromwich.

[8][9][10] Modern scholars Parry and Enis have noted the importance which 16th investigations into the ancestry of the Ardens had for the powerful Dudley family.

Concerning Turchil Parry and Enis describe him as "the only Saxon magnate to increase his territories after the Norman conquest" and "the largest landholder in Warwickshire at the time of the Domesday survey".

In the thirteenth century the main line of the Ardens was descended from Siward's grandson Thomas, and his family was based in Ratby in Warwickshire.

By the end of the century this branch of the family no longer existed, but significant lands had been sold to Thomas Arden of Hanwell and his wife Roesia.