Shell Summerhouse, 70 Metres North West Of Nettlestead Chace

TM 04 NE 6/130

NETTLESTEAD HALL LANE Shell Summerhouse, 70 metres north-west of Nettlestead Chace

II

Shell summerhouse in the garden of Nettlestead Chace. Early C19, perhaps c.1800. Octagonal plan, about 2.5m diameter. Timber-framed with wattle and daub clad in rustic half-logs. Conical thatched roof with finial at apex. One wall-face and two flanking half-faces are open; the other walls have internal fixed wooden benches. The ceiling is of octagonal pyramid form beneath the rafters; it has panels of yellow, grey and pink coarse plaster, in fans and other geometrical shapes, delicately outlined with borders of mainly whelk shells. The effect is of a rustic form of domestic ceiling in the Adam manner. Other types of shells are embedded in the plaster within the panels, including cockles, oysters, limpets and the occasional conch or coral. Although repaired after storm and bomb damage, the integrity of the summerhouse is little impaired.

Listing NGR: TM0891149311