Soulton Hall

Sir Rowland Hill's Tudor headquarters in, Shropshire, UK

Soulton Hall is a Tudor country house near Wem, England. It was a 16th century architectural project of Sir Rowland Hill, publisher of the Geneva Bible. Hill was a statesman, polymath and philanthropist, later styled the "First Protestant Lord Mayor of London" because of his senior role in the Tudor statecraft that was needed to bring stability to England in the fall out of the Reformation. The building of the current Soulton Hall, undertaken during the tumult of the Reformation, is therefore associated with the political and social work required to incubate the subsequent English Renaissance. Soulton Hall is understood to be constructed in an elaborate set of humanist codes drawing together concepts from classical antiquity, geometry, philosophy and scripture. It is further understood that the building influenced the architecture of many later buildings of similar style. With a hidden chapel in its basement, a priesthole, and bookcases hidden within its thick walls to hide heretical documents, Soulton Hall is likely to have served as a base for the conspiracy which led to the publication of the Geneva Bible, which bears the name of Rowland Hill on its frontispiece as publisher. The grounds of the hall contain archaeology of a lost theatre. Emerging scholarship links the manor to Shakespeare, and in particular the play As You Like It which concerns the estate of a character called "Old Sir Rowland". Sir Rowland Hill was a cousin of Shakespeare's mother Mary Arden by reason of the marriage of his heiresses Elizabeth Corbett to Robert Arden in the 1580s. Mentioned in the Norman Domesday Book, Soulton has housed a manor since late Anglo Saxon times, and a "lost castle" rediscovered in 2021 undergoing a multi season archaeological investigation by DigVentures. The modern manor incorporates a working farm pioneering various sustainable agriculture approaches, and also houses a series of contemporary monuments including standing stones and long barrow burial site.

Soulton was acquired by Hill and his protégé Thomas Leigh in 1556 from Thomas Lodge. Lodge's son, also called Thomas Lodge, would have been familiar with the woods at Soulton. Lodge Jr was the writer and dramatist, who wrote prose tale of Rosalynde, Euphues Golden Legacie, which, printed in 1590, would go on to be the acknowledged source from which William Shakespeare took inspiration when writing his pastoral comedy 'As You Like It'. Hill was a close associate of Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton (whose grandson Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton was the dedicatee of Shakespeare's sonnets) to the point of attending the private burial with the family on his death. The third Earl's wife Elizabeth Vernon is associated with Hill via her grandfather, who shared his childhood with Rowland Hill with them both being baptised at Hodnet within a couple of years of each other, and both families having stationed links to the area. Another Vernon, Margaret Vernon, a daughter of George Vernon, was the wife of Sir Thomas Stanley, whose family reputedly patronised Shakespeare, and is and is also associated with the writer to whom their epitaphs have been attributed to the writer in St Bartholomew's Church in Tong, Shropshire. Within the building are traces of older Tudor or medieval building phases on the site, with timber materials re used from predecessors of the manor's various halls. Examples of simple pargeting can be seen within the building. To the east of the hall is what is now a walled garden, accessed by steps from the terrace on the north, or by a Tudor gate to the north. At the front of the hall is a Pillared forecourt, again part of the 1550s design concept.

It has been suggested that Hill's statecraft involved the accumulation of state papers and culturally important texts at Soulton, which then passed, via the Alkington Cottons, into the Cotton Library (which includes the Beowulf manuscript and copies of Magna Carta) and this, along with the repeated memorialization of Sir Rowland Hill with Magna Carta, offers a potential explanation for the battle of Wem in the English Civil War during which Soulton was ransacked. The influence of Hill's publishing is underlined by the way the design on the Geneva Bible's frontispiece is understood to have been the inspiration for Benjamin Franklin's design for the Great Seal of the United States.

The Tudor hall's unusual quoining relates to Anglo Saxon architecture, while incorporating other features at that time only seen in the architecture of Corpus Christi College Cambridge. This together with its unusual strict geometry and the mathematical relationship between the hall and walled garden, represent a geometric philosophical allegory seen in stately architecture as diverse as the Anglo Saxon Mercian royal crypt at Repton, and the Coronation Theatre of Henry III at Westminster Abbey with the Cosmati Pavement at its centre. The geometry is understood, as stated by James D. Wenn include commentary on sacred geometry:

Soulton's sermon in stones concerns the geometry of the rhombic dodecahedron — a solid that has certain ‘perfect’ characteristics, including that it can fill space (as cubes can), and is the 3D projection of a 4D Platonic Solid called the hyperdiamond. The former characteristic lends it an allegorical quality, because the concept of a civilised person fitting into a society, often represented by cubes, is made a little more complex and nuanced. Everybody can fit into a harmony, but it may take some patience — indeed, tolerance — to find the right fit. The connection to the fourth spatial dimension invokes ideas of God's power beyond the constraints of time, as discussed by ancient theologians such as Boethius. Even before Boethius, these ideas were discussed in ancient Greek philosophy. Plato's book Timaeus sought to reflect the harmony of the natural world, and by the invention of the Atlantis story (which later inspired Bacon), attempted to encourage civic harmony, too.

The whole precinct of the hall and linked courts to the north, east and south is matched to the geometry of the Telesterion at Ellusis, giving a compound of 55 yards square.

To the south of the current hall is a cobbled yard of Victorian date (1847). It is based on similar patterns seen at the preserved Tudor Hall at Plas Mawr it is likely the design was taken from Tudor features within the hall lost during subsequent renovations. Scholars have interpreted this as a dancing pavement linked to some of the ideas of harmony explored by Ptolemy. This pavement was installed by the 6x great grandmother of the current generation as cultural compensation for the loss of the Sir Rowland hill plasterwork ceilings which did not survive the mid 19th century. Other buildings in the region have retained such ceilings, such as Plas Mawr in Conwy.

A theatre court, modelled on the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, was built by Hill in the precinct of the house to the east of the current hall: the hall itself forms the theatre screen. This was completed by 1560 and therefore predates Teatro Olimpico and the Elizabethan Theatres such as The Globe and The Rose.

Some of the basement rooms retain their original Tudor treatment, including flooring, indicating that these were 'polite' rooms, rather than service spaces. One of these rooms (The Rithmomachia Room) contains in the tiles a games board for Rithmomachia, which is an early European bard game also known as The Philosopher's Game, an account of which Sir Rowland Hill printed with the title The most ancient and learned Playe, called the Philosopher's Game invented for the honest recreation of Students and other sober persons, in passing the tedious of tyme to the release of their labours, and the exercise of their Wittes.

The central room on the southern face of Soulton Hall has been identified as a classically inspired 'abaton' medical incubation space; that room is inside a conceptual rhombicdodecaedron and also in a room that has a cross lantern effect designed into the configuration of the house.

There is a priest hide on the principle floor of the house in the south west corner of the building in a turret containing several chimneys, in the interior of the room (believed to be Sir Rowland Hill's studiolo). It is not known whether this hiding place was ever used but provides evidence of early intent to use the building as a safehouse, from the time of its construction. More associated with the hiding of Catholics during the reign of Elizabeth I of England, the early date of the priest hole's inclusion in the architecture at Soulton combined with Rowland Hill's position suggests they were more likely intended for use to hide prominent protestants such as Matthew Parker from the inquisitions of Mary I. Uniquely among protestant leaders Parker did not flee England yet somehow survived. His whereabouts, and that of his library during this time have always been a matter of speculation. It has thus been inferred that Parker may have been sheltered at Soulton by Rowland Hill, with whom he was later associated, not least by both being Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes at the dawn of Elizabeth I's reign. The history of the priest hole has been memorialised by the addition of a modern plaque which says: Behind this tablet lies a space believed to have been intended to be used to hide scholars and priests from the authorities during the turmoil of the sixteenth century. This memorial honours all who have suffered persecution for their beliefs. On the beams in this room there are also quotations from Michel de Montaigne.

These features of the hall's design may have been influenced by the scholarship of Hill's contemporary, historian and protestant theologian Matthew Parker of Cambridge.

Soulton is thought to have been copied by Francis Bacon when he built Verulam House. It is further thought that the construction of Soulton Hall (with its lost pyramidal roof) is done to represent a Holy Almandal.

The basement of the house contains a room called the 'Ædicule'; a concealed chapel in the east front (which is the only truly symmetrical face of the 1550s design and is intended to conjure Solomon's Temple). The central position of this room was prioritised so strongly that its doorway interrupts a load bearing wall supporting the hall above, thus requiring that other walls had to be reinforced. It is the only room in the building to have a central window. The house's alignment is taken from this room which addresses the range of dates possible for the celebration of Easter.

Sir Rowland Hills chair of estate, justice table, and bench a suite of renaissance state furniture has survived with its provenance in the hall at Soulton; this furniture shows deep familiarity with classical antiquity and shares stylistic details with a mid 16th century staircase.

The broader precinct incorporates a number of 18th century farm buildings constituting a 'model farm' from the Regency Era Age of Improvement. Most intact among these is a linear range now known as Soulton Court bearing a 1783 datestone relating to later work, but incorporating an earlier manorial hall or courtroom of unknown date prior to the mid 1600s. This courtroom is traditionally associated with an aborted witch trial of the 17th century.

In 1668 a semi circular door case bearing the marital coat of arms of Thomas Hill, a descendant of Sir Rowland's and a friend of Samuel Pepys was added above the front door.

A dovecot once existed to the south west of the garden wall which was dismantled by the end of the 1800s. An octagonal horse engine existed in the 1780s buildings just outside the base court to the north west.

The landscape across the current farm and beyond to Hawkstone was recruited by Hill to make allegorical references to scripture.

The arms of Thomas Hill, sometime high sheriff of Shropshire were added above the senior door in 1668.

The house flag is a square teal banner with an eight pointed star inside a circle, with looping garlands between the points of the star: three of these garlands are shaded and five are not. This symbol is taken from the preserved Dancing Pavement on the site and found in documents in the hall's archive.

The house of Sir Rocard Clough and his Katheryn of Berain ("the mother of Wales" whose son John has a dedication in Shakespeare's poem The Phoenix and the Turtle) at Bachegraig/Bach y Graig is understood to be 'the first brick house in Wales', built by Sir Rowland Hill's associate and fellow Mercer has been argued to have been based on Soulton Hall. Bach y Graig is acknowledged to be in an Antwerp style by Flemish craftsmen and were the first brick houses in Wales. While Clough's house has been demolished it shows important features in the Soulton design that were altered in later phases. The architectural and political project that Sir Rowland Hill instigated is understood to have continued to yield fruits in the immediate area, Hawkstone Abbey Farm and Hawkstone Hall are both buildings taking stylistic cues from the building. Attingham Park, also a Hill house, is also thought to be within the wider cultural project. The house is historically associated with St Mary's Church, Edstaston: the name of the house and family is carved into the church porch in the 1600s signifying their patronage. Further afield Wollaton Hall has been identified as a Prodigy House by Robert Smythson which may take cues from Soulton. The building is stylistically linked with Alkington Hall, a senior house of the Cotton family.

The historian James D. Wenn has noted a close connection with Sir Christopher Wren's St Mary Abchurch, which is the same size and shape and echoing a dancing pavement outside.

Some affinity both architectural, and by family connections has been attributed to Soulton with various early colonial American buildings, in particular Rosewell (plantation) in Virginia, while the Shirley Plantation, near Williamsburg Virginia is linked by family ownership of the Hill family.

Within the manor is evidence of Bronze Age habitation, and some signs of Neolithic activity. The name of the manor is Saxon and means either 'settlement with a plough' or 'settlement with reeds' or possibly 'settlement in/near a gully'
The manor of Soulton existed at the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 (see: PASE Domesday) and is recorded as "Svltune". The Domesday Book records the manor as having previously been freely held by Brihtric — most likely the same Brihtric who was the brother of Eadric Streona the Ealdorman of Mercia from 1007 to 1017. Both Brihtric and Eadric were slain by King Cnut on Christmas Day, 1017. Based on its Domesday Book entry there are likely to have been buildings on or near to the site of the extant hall prior to the Norman Conquest, but these have yet to be identified archaeologically.

A Norman (possibly Adulterine) castle was constructed approximately 300 meters to the north east of the extant hall either during the Anarchy of the early 1100s, or later, certainly by the 1250s. The location is marked by a mound which can still be seen. This site is located around the point at which the roadway crosses a narrow gap in some wet terrain which would likely have had a strategic reason for establishing a fortification in that location. This building is believed to have burnt down at some point in the late 14th century. A grant of the manor in 1299 indicates that some of the ancient marker posts marking the boundary with Wales formed part of the boundary of the manor. The manor supported the clergy of the King's Chapel of St Michael in Shrewsbury Castle.

In September 1642, Charles I passed within sight of Soulton Hall, and subsequently set up a temporary capital at Shrewsbury. In 1643, the first Parliamentary garrison in Shropshire was declared at nearby Wem. On 17 18 October, the Royalists responded by sending a large force to the district, described as follows:3 cannon, 2 drakes, one great mortarpiece that carried a 30ln. bullet, had 120 odd wagons and carriages laden with bread, biskett, bare and other provisions and theire armye being formydable as consistynge of neer 5,000. The Royalist attackers only formed up on one side, approaching Wem only from Soulton Road. The engagement does not seem to have been seriously interested in taking Wem with the commander, Lord Capel, light heartedly smoking his pipe half a mile from the town on that road. The town was not taken and the manoeuvre lasted less than a day resulting in this couplet. The women of Wem and a few musketeers. Beat the Lord Capel and all his Cavaliers. It has been suggested that Hill's statecraft involved the accumulation of state papers and culturally important texts at Soulton, which then passed via the Alkington Cotton into the Cotton Library (which goes on to hold the Beowulf manuscript and copies of Magna Carta) and this, alongside the repeated traditional memorialization of Sir Rowland Hill with Magna Carta offers a potential explanation for the battle of Wem in the English Civil War during which Soulton was ransacked. The following February of 1643, Prince Rupert is recorded as being repeatedly in the district. matriculating in 1662, and went on to be made High Sheriff of Shropshire in 1680. He was later made a commissioner in an act of Parliament in 1698. He was buried in Wem Church with his wife Elizabeth, a member of the Corbet family. Another member of the family, Richard Hill was admitted to Grays Inn in 1657. Soulton Hall became the venue of an abortive witch trial some time around 1660. The suspected witch under accusation by local townsfolk of Wem was brought before Thomas Hill of Soulton, as justice of the district. The accused was spared any judicial processing as a witch and that allegation was dismissed, in contrast to the harsh persecutions of the time. There is an 1801 bridge on which Thomas Telford worked on the B5065, known as Soulton Bridge. There are also the remains of a water mill active from at least the 1300s until the mid to late 1800s near Soulton Wood. The manor is still owned by the wider family of the original family of Sir Rowland Hill via female descent.

In 1483, Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham was arrested on the edge of the manor following the failure of Buckingham's rebellion. This incident is referred to by William Shakespeare in the play Richard III, in ACT IV, scene iv.

There is periodic filming at the manor, including recently of BBC Countryfile .

In 2020, during the crisis in live performance and theatre resulting from the COVID 19 pandemic, outdoor performance was reintroduced to Soulton. The National Youth Theatre (NYT) gave their first live in person performance since the restrictions following the lockdown that was brought about by the COVID 19 pandemic. The play was a new, specially devised work called The Last Harvest In 2021, the NYT returned with a performance of Animal Farm. In October 2021 Soulton Hall hosted an immersive performance of the Old English epic poem Beowulf, together with a selection of shorter pieces of Old English and Old Welsh poetry, by early medieval living history/reconstructive archaeology group Thegns of Mercia, titled Beowulf at the Barrow. The performance took place around the site, with the historic Moot Hall representing the great hall Heorot, and the Soulton Long Barrow representing the dragon's lair and Beowulf's own burial mound, serving as venue for the final sections of the poem.

Michela Gove visited as Secretary of State for DEFRA in 2017. In 2021, during the North Shropshire by election, the various candidates and media were headquartered at the manor.

An eighteenth century dance, the Soulton Jigg, is linked to the manor and published in John Walsh's 1740 "The Second Book of the Compleat Country Dancing Master". Material from the Soulton collection concerning its dancing pavement was loaned to the inaugural John Weaver Festival of Dance, (marking the 350th anniversary of the birth of the Shropshire born "Father of English ballet").

Merlin Fuhcher is the poet in residence.

The manor includes various protected archaeology. An official excavation with DigVentures took place in June 2019. The excavation of a mound (a scheduled ancient monument) revealed the existence of a structure which might be a castle from the 13th to 15th centuries, according to an archaeologist. As the dig continued, medieval artifacts were also unearthed, including an ampulla, a necklace, cups, bowls, and jug handles. These have been dated to circa 1250.

A modern long barrow, Soulton Long Barrow, has been constructed on farmland north of Soulton Hall. Begun in 2017, the site became operational in 2019. The new monument was covered on an episode of BBC Countryfile, being visited by Matt Baker and Ellie Harrison in April 2019.

Three megalithic limestone standing stones are located on the access route to the barrow. These were added to the approach route to the barrow in autumn 2017. The stone for these monoliths, as with the barrow itself came from Churchfield Quarry, Oundle, near Peterborough. There is no deliberate alignment beyond way marking for these standing stones. In 2020, a standing stone, with an alignment to the setting sun on the winter solstice, was added to the ritual landscape to acknowledge the suffering of the families impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic.

There is a farm at the manor, including Soulton Wood. The farm practices no till farming. This was covered in an episode of BBC Countryfile in April 2019 with Matt Baker. The woodland is largely oak with some cherry and ash. In total the woodland covers about 50 acres and it is designated ancient woodland. Material from the wood was supplied for repair of the House of Commons after bomb damage in the Second World War.

An excursion from Sidmouth to Chester in the summer of 1803 (1803) by Edmund Butcher. Whittingham. Antiquities of Shropshire, Vol. 10 (1860) by Robert William Eyton. J. R. Smith,. The Castles & Old Mansions of Shropshire (1868) by Frances Stackhouse Acton. Leake and Evans. Memorials of Old Shropshire (1906) by Thomas Auden. Bemrose & Sons. Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, Volume 40 (1919). Shropshire Archaeological and Natural History Society. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society Held at Philadelphia (1939). American Philosophical Society. 1939
Burke's Guide to Country Houses: Reid, P. Herefordshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire (1978) by Mark Bence Jones, and Peter Reid. Burke's Peerage. The Tudor and Stuart Legacy, 1530 1730 (1989) by Lawrence Garner. Swan Hill. The World of the Country House in Seventeenth century England (1999) by John Trevor Cliffe. Yale University Press. Hills of Hawkstone (2005) by Joanna Hill. Phillimore & Co Ltd.
Shropshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) (2006) by John Newman. Yale University Press. Design and Plan in the Country House: From Castle Donjons to Palladian Boxes (2008) by Andor Gomme, Austin Harvey Gomme, and Alison Maguire. Yale University Press.