[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 that laid the path for the subsequent English Renaissance.

[6] With a chapel in its basement,[7] a priesthole,[8] and bookcases hidden within its walls, Soulton Hall is said to be connected with work which led to the publication of the Geneva Bible, which bears the name of Rowland Hill on its frontispiece as publisher.

[20][21] Mentioned in the Norman Domesday Book of 1086, Soulton has housed a manor since late Anglo Saxon times, and a "lost castle" rediscovered in 2021[22] undergoing a multi-season archaeological investigation by DigVentures.

The modern manor has a working farm focused on sustainable agriculture, and houses a series of contemporary monuments including standing stones and long barrow burial site.

The present hall building was constructed between 1556 and 1560 by Sir Rowland Hill, but is only the corps de logis (private block) of a much bigger complex subsequently muted and lost in intervening stages of development.

[31] The younger Lodge was the writer and dramatist, who wrote prose tale of Rosalynde, Euphues Golden Legacie, which, printed in 1590, is the acknowledged source from which William Shakespeare took inspiration when writing his pastoral comedy 'As You Like It'.

It has been suggested that Hill's statecraft involved the accumulation of state papers and other texts at Soulton,[33] 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[34] during which Soulton was ransacked.

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.

[38]The precinct of the hall and linked courts to the north, east and south has been matched to the geometry of the Telesterion at Ellusis,[27] showing engagement with those Greek concepts.

[41] This pavement was installed by the 6x great grandmother of the current generation[42] as cultural compensation for the loss of the Sir Rowland hill plasterwork ceilings which did not survive the mid 19th century.

[50] There is a priest hide on the principal 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).

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[51] of Mary I. Uniquely among protestant leaders Parker did not flee England yet somehow survived.

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[52] 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.

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 of perhaps the mid-1600s.

The house of Sir Rocard Clough and his Katheryn of Berain ("the mother of Wales"[70] whose son John has a dedication in Shakespeare's poem The Phoenix and the Turtle[71]) at Bachegraig (also called Bach-y-Graig) [cy][72] 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.

[citation needed] Further afield Wollaton Hall has been identified as a Prodigy House by Robert Smythson which may take cues from Soulton.

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 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.

[91]It has been suggested that Hill's statecraft involved the accumulation of state papers and culturally important texts at Soulton, some of 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[92] for the battle of Wem in the English Civil War during which Soulton was ransacked.

[94][95][89] In the late 17th century Soulton had passed to Thomas Hill, who attended Oriel College, Oxford[96] matriculating in 1662, and went on to be made High Sheriff of Shropshire in 1680.

[110][111][112] The National Youth Theatre (NYT) gave their first live in person performance[113] since the restrictions following the lockdown that was brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

[119] 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".

There is a blue plaque at the gate which reads "Birthplace of ROSALYNDE, EUPHUES GOLDEN LEGACIE by Thomas Lodge Jr. and AS YOU LIKE IT by William Shakespeare".

[135] An ongoing project to improve the presentation of the hall and its history was begun in 2022 involving re-furnishing rooms to a state more representative and sensitive to their Tudor heritage.

A plaque at the entrance to the hall[136] reads:Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile,Hath not old custom made this life more sweetThan that of painted pomp?

'Here feel we not the penalty of Adam...And this our life, exempt from public haunt,Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,Sermons in stones, and good in everything.

It is believed that affairs of state that took place at Soulton in the time of Sir Rowland Hill, in the sixteenth century, inspired Shakespeare to write this play and shaped several others.The connections of the building to the Classical philosophy and geometry of Ancient Greece are represented with an inscription from Isocrates echoing a 1600s carving on what is now Shrewsbury Library.

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.