Soulton: The Home of England’s Soul

Shards of flint, carried long distances, indicate that prehistoric people made their homes here in an abundant landscape with an important spring. In prehistoric times, the Triassic sandstone of Hawkstone is understood to have been ritually significant.

Shards of flint found at Soulton – it is not here naturally

The important Roman Road from Viroconium Cornoviorum (Wroxeter) to Deva Victrix (Chester) passes through Soulton. Significantly, an important Iron Age fort at Burry Walls unusually continued with Roman settlement and temple building after the conquest.

The Lost Roman Road Road running between Deva Vitrix and Viriconium

Brihtric, and his brother of Eadric Streona the Ealdorman of Mercia from 1007 to 1017, are slain by King Cnut on Christmas Day, 1017. Brihtric is most likely the same person recorded as the first known Lord of Soulton in the Domesday Book.

14th-century portrait of King Cnut

The manor of Soulton existed at the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 and is recorded as ‘Svltune’. The manor’s Saxon name means either ‘settlement with a plough’, ‘settlement with reeds’, or possibly ‘settlement in/near a gully’. Based on its Domesday Book entry, there were likely buildings on or near the site of the extant hall prior to the Norman Conquest, though these have yet to be archaeologically identified.

Soulton entry in the 1086 Domesday Book

“A ‘tiny castle’ is built as the manor house; it was the home of Yvo de Soulton, a Knight of the Shire in the early Parliaments of England.

Through years of exploration, DigVentures archaeologists have unraveled the secrets of the Soulton landscape, revealing remarkable finds.

The ‘lost castle’ High Medieval manor site with its moat is abandoned for the current home site, and a base court (the current Soulton Court quadrangle) is built.

Snow in Base Court, looking on to Soulton Court (the footprint is 1420s, and it was refaced in the 1780s)

Soulton Hall as it stood in Tudor times, a dense cluster of interlocking codes

In the 1550s, the ownership of the estate transitioned from the Lodge family to Sir Rowland Hill, who began the construction of what is now Soulton Hall. Designed as the elite accommodation within a broader “Merchant-Prince” palace complex, the building was constructed using a complex architectural code.

Shrine of St Erkenwald, part of the inspiration for Old Sir Rowland’s house in code at Soulton Hall

This work was an extension of Hill’s civic life in the capital; as Sheriff of London in 1541, he was in office when the relics of Erkenwald, Saxon prince, bishop, and saint, were removed from Old St Paul’s. Later, in 1550, he served as Lord Mayor when the ancient stone high altar of the old Cathedral was pulled down on St Barnabas’ Day.

It is held by many that Hill brought the memory and physical legacy of these items to Soulton as a deliberate act of resistance against the violence of the times.

By incorporating these elements into a coded environment, he created a sanctuary for the foundational identity of the City.

Unknown Man by Hans Holbein the Younger – a candidate for the sitter is Sir Rowland Hill

This polymath and “Old” Sir Rowland ran a quiet conspiracy to protect art and herald the English Renaissance, engaging in the intellectual diversions and drama that would later be memorialized by his cousin, William Shakespeare, in As You Like It.

Opening of Shakeaspeare’s play AS YOU LIKE IT as seen in the First Folio

The play’s source material was written by Thomas Lodge Jr, whose childhood was linked to the estate, and the “Dance of Harmony” that concludes the play remains physically etched into the Soulton Dancing Pavement as a lasting testament to this protected heritage.

The Soulton Dancing Pavement, showing The Dance, which features in AS YOU LIKE IT

The Civil War comes to North Shropshire, and the Library of Old Sir Rowland is hastily evacuated by the Royalists amidst the confusion of the mysterious Battle of Wem.

Malitia of Anglia at Soulton Hall, recalling the mysterious events of 1643 here.

Parliamentarians smash Old Sir Rowland’s chair. It is repaired. 

Old Sir Rowland Hill’s Chair of Estate.

In the economic dislocation of the post-Civil War period, Soulton is reconfigured and consolidated. The Wren door case and steps are added, and the lively pyramidal roof is simplified. Buildings for brewing, baking, and laundry are added to what we know as Dance Court, and Chess Court is added as we now experience it.

The 1668 door case, thought to have been designed by Wren

The Great Hall, which has witnessed both Old Sir Rowland’s era and the High Medieval period, is reconfigured to serve as a venue for civic life. This included events such as the healing of Wem after its Great Fire and one of the last witch trials in England (the case was thrown out as abusive).

Art installation of the ‘As You Like It’ dancers in the moot hall – the ancient great hall space

The base court becomes an important and very early model farm, linked to the Ironbridge work and the Enlightenment.

The bricked up Major Gate into Epidaurus Court

The Epidaurus Court main gate to the Soulton precinct is bricked up, as is Old Sir Rowland’s secret chapel.

Hannah Deakin compensates the house for the loss of its plasterwork ceilings by designing and installing The Soulton Dancing Pavement in the Dance Court.

Hannah Deakin who preserved The Dance in the Soulton Pavement.

Mathematics she can be seen doing is not supposed to have been found yet in the academic world.

Marginalia in by Hannah Deakin in the 1830s Soulton Day Book; in the 1840s this was book used to design the Soulton Dancing Pavement.

Soulton Hall’s 1830s account book, open at the pages the Dancing Pavement was designed at (the design used was cut out, and given to the masons, as seen)

Edward Ashton is killed at the beginning of the Battle of the Somme.

Profile: Second Lieutenant Edward Deakin Ashton (1889–1916)

This terrible loss, along with the arrival of new modes of thinking and repeated 20th-century wars and other emergencies, quietly puts Old Sir Rowland’s cultural project at Soulton into a slumber.

Edward Ashton is killed at the beginning of the Battle of the Somme.

This terrible loss, along with the arrival of new modes of thinking and repeated 20th-century wars and other emergencies, quietly puts Old Sir Rowland’s cultural project at Soulton into a slumber.

Soulton builds the first new Long Barrow in Shropshire (and only the second nationally) in approximately 5,000 years.

Andrew Fusek Peters captured the colourful spectacle at the Soulton Long Barrow in Shropshire.

The National Youth Theatre of Great Britain and other cultural stakeholders make Soulton their HQ during the Covid-19 pandemic, partly in recognition of the traditions of Old Sir Rowland, thus rekindling this ancient cultural project.

The Last Harvest was part of Signal Fires; Devised by the Creative Team and National Youth Theatre Company; Credit & copyright: Helen Murray

In late 2025, after years of private scholarship in collaboration with Byrga Geniht and sober consultation with historical and faith stakeholders, it is quietly stated locally by the Ashton family that it is understood that the memory of Erkenwald, Saxon prince, bishop, and saint, was brought to Soulton by Sir Rowland Hill.

‘Feretory’ is placed in Epidaurus Court to protect the Erkenwald site

Also in late 2025, a BBC interview with James D. Wenn places on record the understanding that the altar stone of Old St Paul’s is in the Soulton Hall chapel.

Easter Sunrise in the Aedicule (small chapel) at Soulton Hall. This is the most senior room, containing an altar stone linked to Old St Paul’s Cathedral.