Smallhythe Place – History 1514 – 1939
There is very little known about the early history of Smallhythe Place because no documentary records of the origins, purpose or construction of the house have been discovered. The description below is taken from a number of specialist surveys of the property
Origins The precise age of the house is not known. The style of the building suggests that it was built in the early 16th century. A fire on 31 July 1514 destroyed some of Smallhythe and it is possible that the house was built shortly after the fire.
Purpose The original purpose of the house is not known. It originally had two front doors and an unusual internal layout, indicating that the house had been designed for semi-public, perhaps business, use. Traditionally, the house was believed to have been the port reeve's house but again there is no documentary evidence for the existence of a port reeve at Smallhythe. It is possible that the house may have served as an inn or court house or may have been the home/office of a local shipbuilder. However articles in the Daily News of 24 and 27 July 1928, the time of Ellen Terry's death, state that the house may have been the residence of the priest of the nearby church, and that the church had been established by Dutch settlers.
Unusual construction The need to incorporate different layouts on the ground and first floors let to the use of some interesting and innovative details of construction. The frame of the building is very unusual and only two other buildings are known with similar frames. There are six bays on the ground floor but only five bays on the first floor. As shown in the sketch below, post A, B, C and J extend the full height from ground floor level to roof level but posts E, F and H extend only up to floor level on the first floor (although, to complicate matters, post H is a full height post in the rear wall). Posts D and G are set in the mid-rail and extend up to roof level.
Peg holes show that some of the windows, a, b, c, d, e, and f were oriel windows similar to the one in the south wall. The first floor windows have shutters but may have been glazed like the ground floor windows
A B C D E F G H J A B C D E F G H J Internally, the partition walls on either side of the 1st floor entry chamber, aligned to posts D and G, were put in after the floor was laid and were not placed directly above the walls of the cross passage on the ground floor. This has resulted in the considerable distortion in the floor in and outside the of the entry chamber.
Beneath the southern end of the house is a cellar that appears to predate the house above. The present chimneys probably date from the 17th century but the cap of the southern chimney is post 1900 - a photograph of this date shows the chimney capped off at the roof.
The window frame on the first floor at the back of the 1st floor hall chamber was made from timbers from the stern of a Galleon, upside down.
Layout The internal layout of the building basically conforms to the norms of the time for the home of a person of some rank but, unusually, the house originally had two front doors, possibly indicating that a part of the building had a public use of some sort. The present front door served the cross passage and the rooms to the south of it, whilst another front door, beside the present front door, served the rest of the house.
The house is now considerably smaller than when originally built. Two ranges (wings) at the back of the house were replaced by lean-to outshuts in the 17th century, probably when the building became a farm house. The drawings below show the original internal layout of the building, to the extent known.
Smallhythe Place from the South showing the byre, stable block and barn Modifications Peg holes suggest that the door from the cross passage to the southern room was originally opposite the door leading into the hall but was moved to its present position, possibly during the construction of the house. With the change in the economy of Smallhythe in the late 16th and early 17th century, the layout of the house was converted into more conventional form, probably to serve as a farm house. The size of house was reduced by the replacement of the two “ranges” or wings at the rear of house by two ground floor lean-tos with catslide roofs. Unweathered timber marks the site of the demolished two storey range at the north end of the rear of the building. This range was entered by doors on the ground floor and the first floor. The demolished range at the south end of the rear of the building is likely to have housed a stairway. The slope of the roof of this range is visible on the rear wall. Other changes were the construction of the present chimneys, the addition of ceilings to the first floor chambers, and the changing of one of the two front doors to a window. It is probable that the wall paintings in the southern room dates from this time. Upstairs, the door from the northern chamber to the hall chamber was moved from the west end of the dividing wall to the east, to create a corridor along the east side of the house.
There was once a door in the southeast corner of the southern chamber that led to a garderobe (drop toilet). The tie bars through the house date from approximately 1730. The bolts are marked and were made locally in Biddenden.
The inglenook fireplace in hall has been enlarged; peg holes in the cross beam above the hearth show that the present fireplace replaced one 2.3m wide. Fireplaces elsewhere in the house have been added over time. In 1905, Ellen Terry had the fireplace in the hall substantially re-built. An earth closet was installed upstairs in 1910 and in 1911 the roof was renewed and three interior oak posts erected. Pegholes and horizontal notches show the site of a fixed bench on the front wall of the hall.
The cow byre on the south side of the house and the stable block were added in the 19th century. Neither is shown on a c1840 tithe map but both are depicted on an 1870 Ordnance Survey map. There was a door from the south east corner of the southern room to the cow byre. Above the stable block was a space used as a fodder loft or tack room. This space was converted into a studio during Ellen Terry's ownership and in the early 2000s converted into a costume store.
Central heating was installed in the house in the mid-1920s. Edith Craig had a bathroom made for the use of Charles Staite, an actor, who she permitted to live in the house during the Second World War. He was the only person to live there after Ellen Terry died. The bathroom (since removed) was in a room off the hall chamber. The room is identifiable from the outside by a triple dormer window.
Purchase by Ellen Terry In 1884 Ellen Terry rented a cottage for the summer in Winchelsea, next door to Tower Cottage, the weekend cottage of Alice Comyns Carr, a friend who was married to Joseph (Joe) Comyns Carr, the drama critic of the Pall Mall Gazette. Alice later became Ellen's stage dress designer. In subsequent years, Ellen often rented a cottage in Winchelsea for the summer, where she was joined by family and friends, including Henry Irving. In 1892 Joseph Comyns Carr sold Tower Cottage to Ellen Terry for £900 (he had purchased it in1888 for £200). Despite buying Smallhythe Place 7 years later, she did not dispose of Tower Cottage until 1914, when she sold it for £2,500.
In the late 1890s, Ellen Terry and Henry Irving were driving around the marshlands between Rye and Tenterden when they came to a small bridge over the narrow stream that was once the creek on which stood the old port of Smallhythe. On the right was an old farmhouse. Ellen immediately decided that this was where she wanted to live and die. Irving told her to buy it. They went inside the house and met an old shepherd. He did not live there and in response to Ellen's question “Is it a nice house?” simply answered “No”. Nonetheless, she asked him if he would tell her if it was ever for sale and he agreed. In 1899 Ellen received a postcard with a Tenterden postmark and the brief message “House for Sale”. Edith Craig and Chris St.John went to look at it and despite rooms being full of fleeces, were enthusiastic. Ellen Terry bought the house in the same year. It was a convenient place for her to live. The village shop was 500 yards up the road. Trains from Tenterden, Wittersham and Rolvenden to London took just two hours.
The property had become available when Hatch and Waterman of Tenterden, on behalf of the executors of the late Miss Hope, offered for sale by auction on 13 June 1899 at the Saracen's Head Hotel, Ashford, 146 acres of land at Smallhythe including “an Old-fashioned Elizabethan Farm House and 6 houses and cottages”, in 7 Lots. An 8th Lot comprised land near New Romney. Ellen Terry bought Lot 7, which comprised 65 acres, 3 rood and 29 perch of land, the Elizabethan Farm House, then in the occupation of Mr Charles Martin, bailiff to the late Miss Hope. Other buildings etc on the land comprised stabling, chaise house, barn, wagon lodge, 4 bullock lodges and yards, as well as piggeries, sheep tun and pond. Ellen Terry wrote on the sale notice “I bought this in 1899”. The property was known as “The Farm” when Ellen Terry bought it but by then it had ceased to be a working farm and the only signs of farming were grazing sheep in the fields.
In addition, Ellen rented the 11 acres, 2 rood and 24 perch of “Rich Pasture Land” and cottage (Yew Tree Cottage) on the west side of the road, opposite her original purchase, that had comprised Lot 5 of the sale. In 1914, she purchased the land and cottage. The cottage was occupied by Alfred Friend at the time of the 1899 auction. Ellen wrote on the 1899 sale notice “Bought this on return from Australia 1914 (Had rented it previously)”.
Ellen also rented and later purchased the land and buildings that comprised Lot 3 of the 1899 sale. These included 7 acres, 0 rood and 34 perch of Rich Pasture Land and a pair of Elizabethan cottages. The cottages were combined into one house, known as The Cottage and later as Priest's House. Ellen gave the property to her daughter Edith, who lived there until her own death in 1947. Ellen wrote on the 1899 sale notice “First rented one, afterwards bought one, for Edy and then gave her both”. The area of the three parcels of land totalled 84 acres, 3 rood and 7 perch. Later, she sold off a good deal of land (about 64 acres), reducing the land holding to the present figure of just over 20 acres.
Priest House and Smallhythe Church Rear of Smallhythe Place and barn 1929
In her will, Ellen left all of her remaining property at Smallhythe to her daughter Edith. After Ellen's death, a national appeal was launched to raise £15,000 to purchase the property from Edith and preserve it as a memorial to Ellen Terry. Sadly, the appeal failed. During 1929 it brought in only £1,000 and the plan was abandoned. However, Edith was not deterred from creating a memorial to her mother; she used her own resources to turn the house into a museum and the barn into a theatre. Both opened to the public in mid-1929. Alas, despite a small annual allowance from the appeal fund, she found the financial drain too much to bear and, in 1938, she approached us. The following year, 1939, the Trust agreed to take on the property, subject to Edith retaining a life interest. Edith remained at Priest's House until her death in 1947. The transfer of the property from Edith to us took place on 21 November 1939 and comprised: Smallhythe Place, barn and gardens; The Toll House and Wharf; Yew Tree Cottage; Priest's House, Hopes Meadow and Orchard; Fostall Field (4.5 acres); arable land of approximately 11 acres and, south of the Reading Sewer, the site of the old jetty (on the west side of the road, now the car park). The total land holding amounted to just over 20 acres. At some point, either Ellen or Edith acquired The Toll House (also known as the Ferry House) and its associated land, which lay between Yew Tree Cottage and the river, for this property was included in the transfer of property from Edith to us in 1939. The Toll House comprised Lot 6 of the 1899 sale, when it was described as a Grocer's shop occupied by a Mrs Morse. It was subsequently demolished.
Edith Craig created the memorial museum immediately after the death of Ellen Terry and opened it in July 1929. Edith left Ellen's bedroom very much as it had been during her mother's time but used the sitting room and the dining room for historical displays. The library was created in 1968 to bring together books from all over the house, where they had often stacked in piles. The vast majority of current items in the house belonged to Ellen Terry notwithstanding that, on the instructions of her executors, some of her effects were sold by auction in Tenterden on 12 December 1928, and at Christies, London later the same month.
Smallhythe Place viewed from the north Toll gates with Yew Tree Cottage, Smallhythe Place, Priest House and church in the background