Smallhythe Place, Ellen Terry's beetle-wing dress, and other pics from my visit ...

 

Smallhythe Place … the half-timbered house built in the late 15^th or early 16^th centuries … which Ellen Terry, the Victorian actress bought in 1899 and used until her death in 1928 …

Smallhythe Place - front (obvious - sorry!)

... it is now a National Trust property housing many of her items … books (3,000 of them), theatre collections, memorabilia …

View of bedroom - showing brace holding
together corner of room

The house was probably built after a major fire in the harbour and village as it was in 1514 … being originally called 'Port House' …

Another view of the bedroom - again
highlighting the brace

... the property now covers sixty plus acres … including various houses, a theatre, barns, orchards, nuttery, gardens and marshland etc … unusually there's a cellar ... 

Some of the 3,000 books in the
library, others stored away;
the contain lots of marginalia

Back in the day … it was the main house and land in the area … which today it still is, as there are now only a few houses left in what is known as Smallhythe.

Ellen Terry's button box

The home is of a costly construct, with an overhanging upper storey … which over the years has been maintained – as you'll see in the bedroom pics above … it has been 'tied together' with iron braces … denoting the hand of a skilled carpenter/ blacksmith …

Now I'm just giving you some pics ... 

This is a money box made by the local Rye Pottery ... established in the 17th C ...

Staffordshire Pottery established c 1720s

A Staffordshire pottery watch stand ... the watch is put into the 'cup' at night ... so when reaching out the watch is easily available to see the time ... 

The Beetle Wing Dress - this is what we went to see ... amazing isn't it ...

The beetle (genus Sternocera) only lives 3 – 4 weeks, while only beetles, which when they've died naturally, are collected for their wings.

There was an exhibit of beetle wings, with some display pieces for visitors to admire in a more close-up situation ... 

Her banqueting dress used in
the performances of Hamlet

Ellen Terry, the English actress of the late 19^th and 20^th centuries, refused to wear anything heavy or constricting for her performances – which Alice Comyns Carr, designer, complied with in her designs and the fabrics selected …

Her make-up box

Ellen's original make-up box is on display ... 

Ellen Terry

A sculpture of Ellen Terry by Margaret Winser ... 

Margaret Winser was asked on Ellen Terry's death to make a mould, in order that death masks could be made ... 

Showing the danger of living near the 
local 'river' - that was a busy waterway
in the 1500s

The River Rother runs through East Sussex and Kent and was used for navigation from Roman times ...  

... over the centuries these relatively small streams have had interesting histories ...

A view of the back of Smallhythe Place ... as the marshes became silted up - they were turned into agricultural fields ... 

... then barns etc were added to accommodate the change of the estate's use ...

These are just a few of the pictures I took as we went round ... but they give an idea of the house and its contents ... 

My post from 2016 - gives more information on the Beetle-wing dress ... 

Hilary Melton-Butcher

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