Tolethope Hall in the parish of Little Casterton,

Rutland Rutland () is a ceremonial county and unitary authority in the East Midlands, England. The county is bounded to the west and north by Leicestershire, to the northeast by Lincolnshire and the southeast by Northamptonshire. Its greatest len ...

, England, PE9 4BH is a country house near

Stamford, Lincolnshire Stamford is a town and civil parish in the South Kesteven District of Lincolnshire, England. The population at the 2011 census was 19,701 and estimated at 20,645 in 2019. The town has 17th- and 18th-century stone buildings, older timber-framed ...

at . It is now the location of the Rutland Theatre of the Stamford Shakespeare Company. The hall is a Grade II*

Listed Building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...

From the A1 Great North Road, southbound, Tolethorpe Hall may be approached from the Old Great North Road ( B1081) through the village of Little Casterton. It is about two miles (3 km) from the A1. The grounds of Tolethorpe occupy about seven acres.

History

For 800 years from around 1088 until 1839 it was the home of three distinguished families, the de Tolethorpes (1088–1316), the Burtons (1316–1503) and the Brownes (1503–1839). Sir Thomas Burton (c.1369–1438) was MP for

three times and

High Sheriff of Rutland This is a list of sheriffs and high sheriffs of the English county of Rutland. The sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown: there has been a Sheriff of Rutland since 1129. Formerly the sheriff was the principal law enforcement offic ...

three times. Francis Browne was MP for Stamford and High Sheriff for 1524. His grandson Robert Browne (c. 1550-1633), born at Tolethorpe, became the leader of the Brownists, early advocates of a

congregational Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs it ...

form of organisation for the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church record ...

. Having in 1580 attempted to set up a separate church in

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, wit ...

, he moved to Middelburg in the Netherlands in 1581. He returned to England and to the Church of England, being employed as a schoolmaster and parish priest. The estate was purchased in 1864 by Charles Ormston Eaton, of a Stamford banking family, who carried out a major reconstruction of the hall and formal gardens. He added a large wing on the east in the Jacobean style, and another smaller one on the west. The date 1867 appears on brackets of the rainwater heads. From the 1920s onwards, Tolethorpe Hall was rented by John Burnaby-Atkins, head of a landed gentry family of Halstead Place, Kent; his widow lived there until 1967, when the Eatons sold it to a Cambridgeshire farmer who sold it to Michael Racher in 1972 who, in 1977, sold the near derelict hall and a few acres of land to the Stamford Shakespeare Company. The hall and its gardens are now noted as an outdoor

Shakespearian William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

theatre. The hall itself stands on the middle of three terraces cut in sloping ground. Its raked auditorium is arranged on the lower one, looking outward across the lower terrace which forms the open air stage behind which, is the open country of the Gwash Valley. The auditorium is permanently covered. The Stamford Shakespeare Company presents a three-month season each summer. Normally there are two Shakespeare plays and one by another playwright.

Notes

References

* Thorne, J.O. ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'' (1969) . * Cantor, Leonard, ''The Historic COUNTRY HOUSES of Leicestershire & Rutland'' (1998
Kairos Press

External links

Stamford Shakespeare Company

Tolethorpe Hall – The American Connection
gives some historical details about members of the Browne family who settled in America. {{coord, 52.68165, N, 0.48819, W, region:GB_source:enwiki-osgb36(TF023104), display=title Country houses in Rutland Culture in Rutland Theatres in England

History

See also

Notes

References

External links