We are glad to acknowledge and signpost this blog post from Harper Adams University reporting on the recent reception held at Soulton Hall.
Representatives from across Shropshire gathered at Soulton Hall for the event, which was attended by Dr Simone Clarke, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education and Students at Harper Adams University. The gathering brought together university leadership, local civic partners, and researchers to celebrate more than ten years of collaborative working between Harper Adams University and the Soulton estate.
Groundbreaking historical discoveries made at Soulton Hall by the consultancy Byrga Geniht recently took center stage on The Rest Is History podcast, presented by historians Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook. During the episode, Holland described Soulton’s coded sixteenth-century layout as the nearest thing to a Tudor “Da Vinci Code” he had ever come across.
The research sheds light on how the hall’s founder, “Old” Sir Rowland Hill—a prominent Tudor statesman, former Lord Mayor of London, and the inspiration behind Shakespeare’s Sir Rowland de Boys in As You Like It—used Renaissance geometry, coded architecture, and secret basement spaces to quietly safeguard national heritage during intense religious turmoil. Architectural analysis and courtyard ground signals suggest that the hall was engineered to mirror the precise dimensions of the lost shrine of St Erkenwald. Erkenwald, a seventh-century Bishop of London, was an influential early lawgiver whose frameworks helped lay the foundation for principles later embodied in the Magna Carta. Proportions inside the house also preserve structural elements matching the lost High Altar of Old St Paul’s Cathedral, which was smuggled to Shropshire to protect it from state destruction. Furthermore, Soulton served as a sanctuary for radical publishing, providing crucial financial backing for the 1560 Geneva Bible and establishing the estate as a profound intersection of English law, literature, and faith.
Beyond these heritage revelations, the recent gathering celebrated a ten-year working relationship between Soulton Hall and Harper Adams University. Managed by university alumnus Tim Ashton, the estate functions as a living laboratory for ongoing agricultural studies, hosting research in soil health monitoring, forestry management, entomology, and soil ecology, including studies on springtail populations.
Researchers have frequently used Soulton to test non-invasive field equipment, including technology adapted from the university’s Earth Rover project, allowing them to map underground features without disturbing the historic ground. Over the past decade, the estate has also hosted high-profile discussions on land stewardship, including a visit by then-Environment Secretary Michael Gove in the autumn of 2017.
