The Shell Cottage And Attached Garden Wall, Wilderness Garden At Adlington Hall

The Shell Cottage and attached garden wall, located in the Wilderness garden at Adlington Hall, was built in the mid-18th century for Charles Legh. It is constructed of Flemish bond red brick with buff sandstone dressings and features a stone-slate roof topped with a hexagonal brick chimney. The cottage is a single-storey building with a symmetrical three-bay front under a gable. It has raised brick quoining and dentilations beneath the brick-coped gable, which is adorned with stone finials. The end bays contain 12-pane sash windows with raised brick quoining on the jambs, and each window has a flat gauged and rubbed brick head with a stone keystone.

A large projecting doorcase, designed in brick to simulate rustication, features a flat stone hood that supports an engaged stone urn displaying the Legh Monogram, which is decorated with garlands. Inside, the cottage has a trapezoidal room with three walls covered in shells, pebbles, and bands of coloured mirrors. There is a fluted neo-classical fireplace with a cast-iron grate. A stone-coped brick wall extends from the ceiling to the kitchen garden, featuring a lancet-headed opening with brick rustication and a projecting brick hood. Some evidence suggests that the entire rear of the cottage was once covered in shells.