Soulton is an important Jacobean house, which proclaims its presence by standing bolt upright, a tall brick box with Grinshill sandstone dressings and four regular stacks of chimneys, which further elevate the house amidst the north Shropshire plain. The dating of the house has been misunderstood on account of the elaborate dated armorial doorcase which was added in 1668 to commemorate the marriage of the then owner, Thomas Hill (d. 1711), with the important heiress Sarah (1633–1678), daughter of Eyton Evans of Watstay (now Wynnstay), Denbighshire. Although the brickwork of the façade has clearly been disturbed to receive the stonework of the portal, the date of the house is often said to be wholly of 1668. The original build of the carcase, however, is evidently much earlier and it seems likely that it was in fact built for Thomas Hill’s grandfather, Rowland Hill (1558–1639) at the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth century. Soulton’s flat parapet concealing a leaded roof – distinct from the usual gabled fenestration of Shropshire’s Jacobean houses – is of a form found at Doddington, Lincolnshire (1593–1600), Bramshill, Hampshire (1605–1612), in the entrance front of Hatfield House, Hertfordshire (begun 1607), Charlton House, Greenwich (1607), and Quenby Hall, Leicestershire (finished 1621). Soulton, though, is much more compact than these other houses, having a double-pile plan of three storeys, raised upon a basement and symmetrical on each elevation. The north-facing entrance front shows an extraordinary confidence in its simplicity, with moulded string courses between the floors and just two bays of ten-light mullioned and transomed windows flanking the central entrance. The sides of the house have full height outer projections intended to contain closets, with the pairs of chimney stacks rising at the inner wall-head of each to create a subtle drama. There must have been an important master mason behind the house’s design; if only we knew more about the original build.