Built in the early 16th-century when Smallhythe was a thriving shipbuilding port (today it's miles from the nearest navigable water), Smallhythe Place was later purchased by celebrity Victorian actress, Ellen Terry, in 1899. Ellen Terry's daughter, Edith Craig, transformed the house into a museum to her mother's stage career. There is also a thatched roof barn converted to a theatre where the likes of Sir John Guilgud (the nephew of Ellen Terry) have performed.