Some of this article's listed sources may not be reliable. Please help improve this article by looking for better, more reliable sources. Unreliable citations may be challenged and removed.(March 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Sir Rowland Hill's Tudor headquarters in, Shropshire, UK
prior to 1017 for the manor, on the current site by the late 1300s, with the current hall (corps de logis of wider [lost/muted palace complex]) begun c. 1556
Completed
by 1560
Technical details
Material
Single phase construction using Grinshill sandstone and Tudor brick, incorporating timber framing which reused older timbers in some cases
Design and construction
Architect(s)
? Matthew Parker
Website
www.soultonhall.co.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.[2] 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.[3][4]
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.[5]
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.[6]
The grounds of the hall contain archaeology of a lost theatre. Emerging scholarship[7][8][9] links the manor to Shakespeare,[10][11] and in particular the play As You Like It[12][13][14] which concerns the estate of a character called "Old Sir Rowland".[6][15] 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.[16][17]
Mentioned in the Norman Domesday Book, Soulton has housed a manor since late Anglo Saxon times, and a "lost castle" rediscovered in 2021[18] 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". Place names.
^CCash (29 May 2023). "What it Means to Take a Covenant in Scotland: Contracts Versus Promises in Religion and Law". Cassidy Cash. Retrieved 10 September 2023.
^"Revealed: Links between Shropshire country hall and the King's Coronation". The Shropshire Star. 21 April 2023. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
^Mccabe, Helen (30 August 2023). "Archaeological Excavations at Soulton Hall - Wem Rural Parish". www.wemrural-pc.gov.uk. Retrieved 31 August 2023.
^Garnet as Emblem of Goodness | Philosophical architecture from Henry III to George III, retrieved 10 September 2023
^ ab"Excavation resumes at Wem manor at the centre of medieval and Tudor history". Whitchurch Herald. 3 June 2023. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
^"Sir Rowland Hill". www.wemcofe.co.uk. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
^"PRESS MENTION: Shakespeare in Shropshire". BYRGA GENIHT | Country House Consultancy. Retrieved 20 November 2023.
^"Discovering the hidden Shakespearean ties of Soulton Hall in Wem". Whitchurch Herald. 23 December 2023. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
^"Radio Shropshire - Listen Live - BBC Sounds". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
^Austin, Sue (23 February 2024). "Shropshire Day: Natural beauty and culture help county celebrate its own patron saint's day". www.shropshirestar.com. Retrieved 23 February 2024.
^"Soulton Hall". Historic Houses. Retrieved 31 October 2023.
^"Radio Shropshire - Listen Live - BBC Sounds". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 17 November 2023.
^"January 2024". www.stmaryabchurch.org.uk. Retrieved 18 November 2023.
^Robinson, Daniel (2023). The Ceremonial Country of Shropshire (1 ed.). The Cartographic Arts.
^"Parishes: Curdworth | British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
^Austin, Sue (29 January 2024). "Shakespeare's links with Shropshire unveiled - when and where you can hear about them". www.shropshirestar.com. Retrieved 30 January 2024.
^"Dirty Weekend: Dig into Shropshire's past at Soulton Hall". DigVentures. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
SoultonHall is a Tudor country house near Wem, England. It was a 16th century architectural project of Sir Rowland Hill, publisher of the Geneva Bible...
with pleasure grounds and gardens. It historically associated with SoultonHall the Shropshire headquarters of Sir Rowland Hill ("Old Sir Rowland") publisher...
doi:10.11141/ia.61.9. "Dirty Weekend: Dig into Shropshire's past at SoultonHall". DigVentures. Retrieved 2019-06-03. Duensing et al 2021 - https://digventures...
Roman Road from Uriconium to Deva Victrix ran close by to the east at Soulton. It is understood a lost Roman camp may have been in the area, called Rutunium...
during the COVID-19 pandemic, outdoor performance was reintroduced to SoultonHall when NYT members gave their first live in-person performance since pandemic...
the rhombic dodecahedron. These codes are also present in the older SoultonHall, house of the Geneva Bible publisher Sir Rowland Hill, from which it...
The Soulton Long Barrow and Ritual Landscape is a modern memorial in the form of a long barrow in the Soulton landscape near Wem in Shropshire, England...
of Animal Farm; this run included outdoor performances on a farm at SoultonHall. A new adaptation written and directed by Robert Icke, designed by Bunny...
Nonsuch Palace, Sutton Place and Layer Marney Tower, and the building of SoultonHall under Queen Mary I, it was not until dawning of Elizabethan architecture...
Bible, derived part of the. geometrical code embedded in his house at SoultonHall, Shropshire upon the ancient theatre at Epidaurus. The first systematic...
of code include: SoultonHall, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Verulam House, the now lost house of Francis Bacon Wollaton Hall In spacecraft reaction...
that this building was derivative of Sir Rowland Hill's building at SoultonHall. When he was 36, Bacon courted Elizabeth Hatton, a young widow of 20...
Rowland Hill, who published the Geneva Bible, configured his house at SoultonHall to evoke the Telesterion, as both at 55 yard precincts, as first set...
Hall, Shavington cum Gresty Shelvock Manor Shipton Hall Sild HallSoultonHall Stanley Hall Stanmore Hall Stokesay Castle Stokesay Court Sunnycroft The Mount...
a few days of the year. The other major Hill houses at: Hawkstone HallSoultonHall as well as: Grade I listed buildings in Shropshire Listed buildings...
Retrieved 2023-12-19. "Discovering the hidden Shakespearean ties of SoultonHall in Wem". Whitchurch Herald. 2023-12-23. Retrieved 2023-12-23. "Sir Rowland...
their labours, and the exercise of their Wittes in 1562; his house at SoultonHall also contains a board for the game on a basement parlour or prayer room...
Attingham Park. A rare Anglo-Saxon hall, which was a high status building from the Anglo Saxon period, and possibly a feasting hall or palace, was excavated at...
Retrieved 20 May 2020. Doughty, Eleanor (8 December 2019). "Inside SoultonHall, a house that was 'like a spaceship arriving in Shropshire'". The Telegraph...
an exhibition, which displayed Weavers own papers and material from SoultonHall relating to its historic dancing pavement. The school has the following...
born his father had transferred the ownership the manors of Hawkstone and Soulton to Sir Rowland Hill, publisher of the Geneva Bible and a fellow Lord Mayor...
Gresham. Bach-y-Graig has been identified as possibly derivative of SoultonHall, the architectural project of Sir Rowland Hill, an associate of the Greshams...
of concerns of both sides to secure the Library of Old Sir Rowland at SoultonHall. By 1622, his house and library stood immediately north of the Houses...
Walton-on-Thames St Erconwald's Roman Catholic Church, Wembley With a banner in SoultonHall, the house of Tudor statesman Sir Rowland Hill who published the Geneva...
Historic England. "THE OLD HALL (1055350)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 14 October 2014. "SoultonHall". Historic Houses. Retrieved...
Global Information
