Garden Walls Including Owl House At Home Farm, Morton Hall Estate

The garden walls and owl house at Home Farm, part of the Morton Hall Estate, date from around 1830. They are constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond. The structure consists of two lengths of wall that meet at a corner, where the owl house is located.

The exterior features tall south and west walls capped with flat stone, meeting at a right angle. Randomly placed burnt headers are visible throughout. The south wall has a doorway with a semi-circular head, and the outer face of both walls includes brick piers at intervals. At the corner is a circular brick owl house, supported by a sandstone corbel on the inner angle and brick corbelling on the outer angle. This two-storey owl house has flat brick coping and two square openings facing north, which previously led to chambers.

Inside, both levels of the owl house have brick vanes that serve as roosts, while the rest of the interior is plain. This building has been identified as a purpose-built owl house, a type that is not commonly found. While owl houses were typically incorporated into the gable ends of barns or featured simply as owl holes for vermin control, this distinctive two-stage design is presumed to have been rare even at the time it was built. Information from the Norfolk Archaeological Unit has contributed to this understanding.