Tudor Farm: Hidden Jewel of Anne Arrundel County
by Cheryl Adam
Complete Printable History

Coale moved to Maryland around 1654 and settled in West River (now Galesville). His first estate was called “Great Bonnerton.” He later gained a second estate, “Portland Manor,.” two miles from what is now Tudor Farm. Portland Manor is now marked only by the small road that bears its name off Route 2. 2.

 
William had three wives (each died young). Confusingly, he had two sons named William, one by Hester and one by Hannah. Hannah had two sons, John and William. Hester’s son William inherited Portland Manor, while Hannah’s William inherited another estate near Edgewater called Hickory Hills. The tract upon which what is now called Tudor Farm sits is part of a larger tract originally owned by Lord Baltimore, who then granted it to one Robert Frankline. From Frankline it passed to Walter Carr, who sold it to Edward Talbott, a contemporary of Wm. Coale I and a Quaker, who established a very large holding called Sudley Farm. Sudley Rd runs roughly parallel to the eastern property line). The core of the Tudor tract was known as Beaver Dams. More History

NATURAL WONDER 

Tudor Farm is unlike most properties in Anne Arundel County for two reasons: first, it is completely surrounded by mature trees, screened from neighbors and the road and thus remarkably private yet a short drive to both Annapolis or DC. Second, it is not dominated by open, cutover fields. The corn/soy fields (30 acres in all, thereby winning its low-tax designation of rural-agricultural) are interspersed around the property, bordered, in old English tradition, by “hedgerows.” The large tracts of property abutting Tudor expand the contiguous woodlands (much of it in conservation or in the process of going into conservation) to several hundred acres. The rural character of Lothian is vigorously defended by its active civic association and local government, which have sworn to fight the ugly sprawl of development that has ruined so many other areas.

TREES AND PLANTINGS

Tudor Farm is unique throughout Anne Arundel County for its diverse selection of specimen trees. In fact, it has been suggested on more than one occasion that the property become a state arboretum. The following species are found on the property:

White ash, red oak, white oak, willow oak, pin oak, Spanish chestnuts, tulip poplar sweet gum, silver maple, mulberry, persimmon, dogwood, sycamore, cottonwood, magnolia, beech, black walnut, cherry, apple, pear, peach, Japanese maple, hackberry, golden rain tree, silk tree, princess tree, Norway spruce, horse chestnut, black locust, red cedar, white pine, gingko. Other notable plantings include: large boxwoods, a large peony garden, huge hydrangea bed, wisteria, three types of daffodils, crepe myrtle, two vigorously bearing Concord grape arbors, forsythia. 

WILDLIFE 

Large deer herd - extremely large and healthy animals; red fox, gray fox, rabbit, opossum, gray squirrel, raccoon, newt, salamander, green lizard, black snake, garden snake, box turtle, bullfrogs (in the pond) two species of bat (light gray and dark brown), the world’s biggest ground hog (!). Butterfly species abound, as do dragonflies.

LIVING HISTORY

Southern Anne Arundel County and Lothian in particular abounds with families who have been in the area for 200-300 years. Halls, Fords, Chaneys, Birkheads, Morelands, and many others mentioned in the 1707 survey map are still in the area, some on the original holdings. The small town of Deale, a waterman community on the shores of the Chesapeake, has retained the quiet pace and charm of an earlier time - no big box stores, no sprawl. There is a cozy feeling to the town that seems straight from the mid-1900s rather than the early 21st century!