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The Barn Theatre at Smallhythe Place

The stage and audience chairs at the 17th-century Barn Theatre at Smallhythe Place in Kent
The stage at the 17th-century Barn Theatre | © National Trust Images/James Dobson

Step into the theatrical world at Smallhythe Place and experience live performances in the National Trust's only working theatre.

A brief history

The 17th-century Barn Theatre was the brainchild of Ellen’s daughter, Edy Craig. Throughout her time at Smallhythe, Edy wished to convert the barn into a theatre, but her mother would not allow it. After her mother passed away in 1928, Edy held the venue’s first performance the following year.

The working theatre hosts productions to this day and is a venue for hire for special occasions such as weddings.

Transforming a barn into a theatre

The timber frame, four-bay structure of the barn suggests it was originally designed to fulfil a multi-functional purpose, incorporating cattle housing as well as crop storage and processing. Later, in the mid-19th century, several changes were made to the building to increase the crop storage area and various lean-tos were added to the outside. Since then, the main structure and features of the barn have changed very little, except for rethatching the roof in 2009.

Our famous patron

At the start of 2020 the National Trust announced Joanna Lumley OBE as the new patron of the Barn Theatre at Smallhythe Place in Kent, the former home of Victorian actress Dame Ellen Terry. Read more about this here.

A bride and groom on their wedding day in the garden at Mount Stewart, County Down
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Weddings and venue hire at Smallhythe Place 

Hire the unique Barn Theatre venue in the Kent countryside for your weddings, events, and functions.