Smallhythe Place

Smallhythe Place stands beside the quiet lanes of Small Hythe, a hamlet near Tenterden in Kent. The half-timbered house was built in the late 15th or early 16th century and once formed part of a busy shipyard where the River Rother met the sea. After the channel silted up, the estate turned to farming and the barn was raised to store crops and animals. Ellen Terry bought the property in 1899 and lived there until her death in 1928, turning the grounds into a private retreat of roses, orchards and a working theatre. The house holds Ellen Terry’s theatre collection and personal letters gathered after her death. Visitors see walls devoted to David Garrick and Sarah Siddons, a dining room note from Sarah Bernhardt, Sir Arthur Sullivan’s monocle and a visiting card from Alexandre Dumas. The library contains more than three thousand books collected by Terry, and her bedroom remains as it was in her lifetime. The Costume Room displays sumptuous wardrobe pieces, including the iridescent beetle-wing dress she wore as Lady Macbeth in 1888. Beyond the house, the Barn Theatre seats seventy and presents around thirty plays each year. Every July the anniversary of Terry’s death is marked by Shakespeare performances. Past actors include Peggy Ashcroft, John Gielgud, Alec Guinness and Sybil Thorndike. The theatre’s patrons have been Sir John Gielgud for fifty years, Donald Sinden for twenty, and now Joanna Lumley. The cottage grounds still show Terry’s rose garden, orchard and nut trees, offering a peaceful setting for the estate’s history.