The Tudor Da Vinci Code

Tom Holland (0:08)

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the third of the bonuses that we have been running in association with our series on Queen Elizabeth I, the Tudor Cold War, the war against Protestants against Catholics, all of that. And today, we have something perhaps a little unexpected, a little bit mysterious, I might even say, because we are going to be exploring the nearest to a Tudor Da Vinci code that I have ever come across. And it is a story that is in the process, I think, of being told. And I have with me, as my guest on today's show, Tim Ashton, a farmer, but much, much else. And he is the heir to a long line of people who have owned a house in Shropshire called Soulton Hall, which is one of the most amazing houses that you will find anywhere in England. And I kind of stumbled across almost by accident about a decade ago when I was with a friend driving back from the Lake District to London, and we were going down the motorway and he said, oh, we could drop off and stay at Soulton Hall. It's this amazing place that I stayed at years before.

And so we took a diversion and we went to stay at Soulton Hall where Tim offers bed and breakfast. And Tim, I remember now you hinting at some of the mysteries that this extraordinary house you are sitting in now contains. So you remember that meeting and what you told me.

Tim Ashton (1:49)

I remember it very well. And as you indicated, my family had been here a long time. I've grown up at the house and it comes in a slightly confusing package if you go up here. And also it needs to be understood that no one knows what's normal outside of their own sort of experience.

Tom Holland (2:05)

That is very true.

Tim Ashton (2:07)

Yes. So quite how unusual this house is, is not that easy to discern without getting an external perspective.

Tom Holland (2:14)

Yes, it is a house full of mysteries. And for those of you who are watching on video, you have some of the clues as to these mysteries behind you. So there is a portrait of a Tudor looking gentleman, a picture of the house, there is a chair and we will be coming to some of these objects over the course of our talk. But for now, you are just outside the town of Wem.

You are on the border with Wales. We're basically in kind of Sandbrook country, it has to be said. And the house, it is a very distinctive looking house. So could you just describe it for us?

Tim Ashton (2:49)

It's in a flat plain in an area with some cliffs over to the east. And you cross a river on a bridge, and then there is a large sort of cube that rises up in front of you. And in previous times, it would have had a pyramidal roof, but that has gone in the 17th century.

And it's trying to talk.

Tom Holland (3:14)

OK, so it's a cube, and it's surrounded by gardens, and they also have a kind of distinctive character that we'll come on to. Now, when was it built? Because according to Pevsner, it was built in 1688

But this is now no longer thought to be the case, right?

Tim Ashton (3:35)

No, my family have always resisted that idea anyway. If you look closely at the house, there's a Baroque door case that's inserted for a wedding in 1688

The construction is mid-Tudor and all day long in the 1550s, which changes the house from being very backwards and inarticulate to incredibly progressive and forthright.

Tom Holland (4:00)

You have said specifically that it was constructed between 1556 and 1560, and this is a kind of key moment in the story of the Tudor monarchy and indeed of England more generally.

Because in 1556, the queen on the English throne is Mary, a Catholic. She dies in November 1558 and is then succeeded by Elizabeth, a Protestant. So the question of when exactly it is built is rather crucial. Is it being built in the reign of Mary or is it being built in the reign of Elizabeth?

Tim Ashton (4:35)

It's being built in the reign of Mary because the builder dies in 1561 and involved in certain projects of statecraft discreetly in Shropshire. The story I am aware of from growing up in the house is that there was a sort of a location where out of favour Protestants congregated and carried on their association in a way that was plausibly deniable as being politically valiant.