Small Cheshire town attracts Shakespeare's players

It may be a surprise that a small Cheshire market town on the River Dane near the foothills of the Pennines was a regular stop on the tour route north for Shakespeare’s acting company, The King’s Men, for nearly twenty years.

Between 1614 and 1633, the company seemed to have had a taste for a northern tour later in the year or in the early spring, taking in the market town of Congleton.

Although Shakespeare would never have joined them on the road at this late stage in his writing and acting career, there is no doubt that some of his plays would have been in the provincial repertory, and that his experienced troupe of actors would have joined the tour.

The history plays especially would have had appeal, given featured members of the northern nobility such as Thomas Stanley, Earl of Derby (Richard III, revived at court in 1633) and the Percy Earls of Northumberland (Henry IV, Pt 1, revived at court, 1612-13, 1625).

The Swan in Congleton was an important inn with a half-timbered facade set at an imposing height on West Street, a main road winding through the town to the left off High Street. During the period of Jacobean and Caroline performance the inn was owned by Randall Rode, mayor of Congleton in 1606–8, 1621–2, 1633-4 and 1635-6. By the 18th century the Swan, renamed the Lion and Swan, became Congleton's principal coaching inn.

The present 2-storey inn is heavily restored and was mostly rebuilt and extended in the 19th century in brick to include a stable block and coach house. New gables were added on either side of the central front. A section of 16th century wattle and daub fabric and load-bearing timbers remain on the ground floor in the central core. No inn-yard survives though there is a deep car park to the right of the inn.

The King’s Men first appeared between 25 December 1614 and 24 March in 1615. They returned twice in the autumn of 1620, early in 1623 and then again in November the same year. Four more trips north through Congleton were made in 1627 (December), sometime in 1630-1, and spring 1633, the reward typically 10s - the town was consistent in its level of payment, but not lavish.

By Sally-Beth MacLean, General Editor, Records of Early English Drama

A group of Northern-based Elizabethan performers who originally went by the name of Lord Strange’s Men played a prominent role in the success of Shakespeare’s early acting career.

Lord Strange’s Men (pronounced strang) began life as a troupe of acrobats under the patronage of the Stanley family, headed by the Earl of Derby, who had homes in Lancashire and near Liverpool.

Later in the 1580s Lord Strange patronized a new troupe, this time of actors – including William Kemp (who was to go on to become Shakespeare’s ‘clown’), Thomas Pope and George Bryan.

It was in the late 1580s and early 1590s that Lord Strange’s Men were to make their mark, as they set their sights on success in London… and the new Rose Theatre.

The Rose playhouse was the first purpose-built theatre south of the Thames to be located on Bankside, Southwark.

The playhouse was erected by Philip Henslowe in 1587 and functioned for a couple of decades on the north side of Maiden Lane (now Park Street).

The first acting company known to have been in residence at The Rose was Lord Strange’s Men, who had won themselves a reputation as an innovative and talented troupe under the patronage of Ferdinando Stanley, Lord Strange, the heir of the 4th Earl of Derby.

Philip Henslowe's Diary. With kind permission of the Governors of Dulwich College

Thanks to the unique survival of the journal known as Henslowe’s Diary we can track the performances (and receipts) by play at The Rose during two seasons when Strange’s Men maintained residence (from 19 February-22 June 1592, and again from 29 December 1592-1 February 1593). Actor Edward Alleyn was the star performer, and although we have no actual record that Shakespeare himself was a member of Strange’s Men, it is possible that he was indeed one of their hired actors at the time, as well as a contributing playwright.

Will Kempe, Thomas Pope and George Bryan, three leading members of Strange’s Men, migrated to join Shakespeare and Richard Burbage in the newly formed Chamberlain’s Men after the sudden death of their patron, Ferdinando Stanley (briefly 5th Earl of Derby) in the spring of 1594.

All three would have been known to Shakespeare already, at least as actors in Henry VI, Part I during their heyday with Strange’s Men.

This Northern connection is still in evidence years later, when in 1614 (Shakespeare is still alive and retired to Stratford-upon-Avon by this time) the Bard’s company, now known as The King’s Men, return to the North West to perform alongside the Earl of Derby’s troupe in a Cheshire Inn.