Shell Summerhouse, 70 Metres North West of Nettlestead Chace is a Grade II listed building in the Mid Suffolk local planning authority area, England. First listed on 24 January 1986. Summerhouse.

Shell Summerhouse, 70 Metres North West of Nettlestead Chace

WRENN ID
heavy-nave-thrush
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Mid Suffolk
Constituency
Central Suffolk and North Ipswich MP: Patrick Spencer (Con)
Country
England
Date first listed
24 January 1986
Type
Summerhouse
OS grid reference
TM 089 493
Coordinates
52.10267, 1.04896
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Shell Summerhouse, located 70 metres north-west of Nettlestead Chace, is an early 19th-century structure, possibly dating around 1800. It has an octagonal plan with a diameter of about 2.5 meters. The summerhouse is timber-framed and clad in wattle and daub, featuring rustic half-logs. Its conical thatched roof is topped with a finial at the apex.

Three of the walls are open, while the remaining walls contain internal fixed wooden benches. The ceiling is designed in an octagonal pyramid shape beneath the rafters, adorned with panels of yellow, grey, and pink coarse plaster arranged in fans and other geometric shapes, all delicately outlined with borders made primarily of whelk shells. This creates a rustic ceiling effect reminiscent of the Adam style. Various types of shells, including cockles, oysters, limpets, and occasionally conch or coral, are embedded in the plaster within the panels. Despite repairs following storm and bomb damage, the overall integrity of the summerhouse remains largely intact.

Local climate

Shell Summerhouse, 70 Metres North West of Nettlestead Chace sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 700 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 90% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 75% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 28 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 68% of listed buildings. Of these, 15 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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