Tonbridge Daily Snippet

Tonbridge was a forerunner in the theatre world as a theatre/playhouse known as 'Tunbridge Playhouse' and was one of only four theatres known outside London in the 17th century.

The evidence of this comes from the records at Maidstone Assizes Court and Tonbridge Parish Records stating that a number of attackers fatally wounded a man at 'Tunbridge Playhouse', during the Midsummer Fair in 1610.  The dead man was connected to a performing company so could have been an actor.

So why would Tonbridge be one of the rare towns to support theatre?  Tonbridge Castle and Tonbridge Manor was at the time in the care of Henry Carey who was known to have a keen interest in drama, and to have connections with the theatre, he was patron to a playing company known as The Lord Chamberlain's Men, and would probably have invited the players to Tonbridge. This company included William Shakespeare. Carey also established the Annual Fairs in Tonbridge where he would have encouraged permormances.

Penshurst Place may have also played its part as an occasional meeting place of many of the Renaissance writers, dramtists and intellectuals such as John Donne, Ben Jonson, Hobbes, Bacon and Shakespeare.  Donne became Rector of St. Nicholas's Church in Sevenoaks in the early 17th century, and Jonson wrote the pastoral masterpiece 'Ode to Penshurst'.  The intellectuals of the Renaissance were a close knit group and it is perfectly likely they were guests at both Tonbridge Castle and Penshurst Place, and a possibility why a playhouse/performing space was successful in Tonbridge.