Walking through a glade on the Cilwendeg estate, in Pembrokeshire, one suddenly encounters the prettiest of buildings: one would not be at all surprised if Hansel and Gretel skipped around the corner. The monochrome exterior, with stepped parapet, conceals a vibrant interior with walls and ceiling decorated with shells and minerals, brightly coloured glass in the windows and a floor inlaid with animal bones and teeth. By the end of the twentieth century this curiosity was neglected and the ceiling had collapsed, but an exemplary restoration means that the building is once more an absolute delight.

Credit for the survival of the Shell House goes to the Temple Trust. In the early 2000s, Suzannah Fleming, Chair of the Temple Trust and fresh from masterminding the restoration of Garrick’s Temple on the Thames, spotted the Shell House on a list of endangered buildings. The owner, local farmer Alan Bowen, was keen to see the building restored, and agreed to sell the building to the Temple Trust, enabling the charity to apply for grant funding.

But to travel back in time a couple of centuries, the Shell House was one of a number of landscape ornaments built by Morgan Jones the younger (1787-1840) on the estate he inherited from his uncle, Morgan Jones senior (1740-1826). Jones senior was the owner of the Skerries lighthouse off Anglesey. Every ship that used the busy shipping route, including all vessels heading for Liverpool, then one of the busiest ports in the world, had to pay a toll. Thanks to this incredibly profitable enterprise, Jones junior was able to live a life of leisure as a country squire.

Little is known of the early history of what we now know as the Shell House, and even its original name is not recorded: it is shown on the 1849 tithe map, and on the later Ordnance Survey maps, but it is not named. Nineteenth-century topographical works praise the beauties of the mansion and the demesne, but fail to mention the ornamental buildings. The first mention of the Shell House found to date is in the particulars when the estate was offered for sale in 1906, where it is noted as a ‘Quaint Grotto and Rookery’. It is thought to have been built by Jones junior in the 1820s, but the designer and the hand(s) behind the shell decoration remains a mystery. Shell houses are generally the work of the ladies of the house but Jones was a bachelor, with no wife or daughters, so perhaps he himself rolled up his fine linen sleeves and got to work. Or could his sisters have been the shell artists? Little is known about Margaret, but Jane Martha Jones (c.1780-1864) was clearly a capable woman, and she ran the estate from the time of her brother’s death in 1840 until she herself died in 1864 aged 85.

The plight of the garden ornament was highlighted in the Save Britain’s Heritage report of 1987, Pavilions in Peril. The author, Julia Abel Smith, wrote that ‘mercifully, this little charmer has escaped vandalism but suffers from neglect’. By the time the Temple Trust purchased it in 2003 the interior was in a sorry state, but enough of the shell decoration survived for an informed restoration to take place. The Temple Trust raised £156,000, from a variety of sources to enable work to begin.

Local conservation architect Roger Clive-Powell (1944-2015) was commissioned to oversee the restoration, and shell artist Blott Kerr-Wilson to recreate the interior. Cambria Archaeology conducted an exhaustive study of the building and excavated the area around it to salvage the remnants scattered around. They found that unlike many a Shell House, embellished with exotic specimens brought back from distant shores, the Cilwendeg garden house was decorated almost exclusively with shells from nearby Pembrokeshire beaches: mussels, cockles, oysters, razors, whelks, limpets and otters.

Blott scoured local beaches for replacement shells, aided by her apprentice, who was none other than the multi-tasking Suzannah Fleming. When replacements for the few non-indigenous shells that had once decorated the walls were needed, an appeal was made. Local residents quickly found the required pink conch shells in their family collections (many were descendants of merchant seamen) and donated them to this wonderful project. Blott remembers that finding the sheep knuckle bones and horses’ teeth to restore the floor was a less pleasant process, best glossed over.

The roof had collapsed, and this was the one area where the decorative scheme had been completely lost. Suzannah, Roger and Blott worked together to design a new pattern for the reinstated ceiling.

And there are some delightful finishing touches…

The two windows were restored with new stained glass based on fragments found on site, and even on the dullest of winter days the light streams through. The restoration was completed in 2006 and was awarded the Georgian Group’s prestigious Award for the Restoration of a Georgian Garden Building a year later. Few shell houses of this complexity survive and of those that do, for obvious reasons, there is little or no public access. The Temple Trust should be lauded for not just saving this rare example, but for its commitment to welcoming visitors to this exquisite little building.

Twenty years on there are new challenges, and a corrugated iron cover, supported by scaffolding, is currently keeping the building dry in preparation for remedial work to damp proof the front and rear gables. Planning permission has been granted and a fundraising campaign is about to be launched, so if you are able to help in any way click here to find out more.

The Shell House awaiting work to prevent water ingress. The wooden porch was long-gone but has been recreated based on the evidence discovered during the survey of the building. The Flâneuse visited on a murky February morning, so here is Suzannah’s cheerful photo taken on a brighter day:

The Shell House can be seen between 1st March and the end of December, but visits must be pre-booked. Further information can be found on the Temple Trust’s website. The mansion and further picturesque estate buildings are strictly private.

Huge thanks to Suzannah for her help with this post. Thank you for reading and, as ever, you can share your thoughts via the comments box at the foot of the page.

In 1987 Save Britain’s Heritage (SAVE), the charity which campaigns to save historic buildings from needless destruction, published Pavilions in Peril, a report which considered the great number of garden buildings in Britain that faced an uncertain future. Author Julia Abel Smith researched 54 case studies, including a number of groups of follies, across England, Wales and Scotland. The Folly Flâneuse recently revisited the report, and was delighted to find so many buildings had been rescued.

Some of the greatest restoration projects have been thanks to the work of the Landmark Trust, the charity that rescues important buildings that would otherwise be lost, and makes them available for holidays. Indeed their pioneering role in this field was acknowledged in the book, which featured before and after views of The Chateau at Gate Burton, Lincolnshire, on the front and back covers. The Chateau’s restoration was completed in 1984 and two further buildings featured in Pavilions in Peril have been saved since 1987: Mowbray Point at Hackfall in North Yorkshire and Robin Hood’s Hut at Halswell House in Somerset.

Mowbray Point, now called The Ruin, was a derelict shell when the Landmark Trust began work to transform it in the first years of the 21st century. Hackfall is a detached pleasure ground, created by the Aislabies of Studley Royal in the middle of the 18th century. The other follies in the woodland  have also been restored thanks to the work of the Hackfall Trust and the Woodland Trust, amongst others, and there is full public access.

In Somerset, Halswell House is also home to a group of follies. As Pavilions in Peril went to press in 1987 it was announced that grants had been offered to help secure the future of the fanciful cottage called Robin Hood’s Hut, which was in such a ‘deplorable condition’ that it had been delisted, and other structures on the estate. The Somerset Buildings Preservation Trust restored the Ionic Temple, also known as the Temple of Harmony, in 1996, and then began work on the absolutely lovely Robin Hood’s Hut. In 2002 the Landmark Trust began work to fit out the interior as a holiday let, thus securing the building’s future.

At Cilwendeg in Pembrokeshire, Wales, The Temple Trust, which is dedicated to saving garden buildings, has restored the 1820s Shell House. Pavilions in Peril was able to report that this ‘little charmer’ had escaped the attention of vandals, but the building was deteriorating, and there was a threat from falling trees. The Temple Trust (alerted to the need to save garden buildings in part by the SAVE report) acquired the building in 2003, and carried out a full restoration which included replacing the pretty timber verandah and the long-lost coloured glass windows. Blott Kerr-Wilson restored the intricate shell-work interior to its former glory, and the Shell House is now open on designated days each year.

At Enville Hall, in Staffordshire, the owners have restored a number of garden buildings on their private estate. In 1987 the gorgeous gothick Museum was described as in ‘dire condition’, with the roof caved in and the windows gone. Originally built in 1750 as a greenhouse, it later served as a billiard room and a summerhouse, and then in the 19th century it housed a natural history collection, hence its present name. The exterior was beautifully restored soon after the report was published.

Three cheers too for the work of local authorities. In Durham the County Council worked with the Friends of Hardwick Park to save the wonderful 18th century landscape, which had fallen into a really sad state. Thanks to a substantial grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the landscape has been restored, important garden structures have been repaired, and the scant remains of others have been consolidated and interpreted. The work was completed in 2010, and visitors can now appreciate the park as Georgian visitors to John Burdon’s estate would have done. Most dramatic of all is the recreation of the fabulous domed Temple of Minerva, designed by architect James Paine. Although largely derelict the columns and most of the materials survived scattered around the central core, enabling rebuilding to take place.

There is not space here to mention all of the buildings that have been saved. Pavilions in Peril is still in print at the absolute bargain price of £5, so if you don’t already have a copy The Folly Flâneuse suggests you buy one, and explore for yourself. You can order the book and read more about SAVE’s work here https://www.savebritainsheritage.org/publications/publications-in-print/3

At the time of writing houses and gardens are still adapting opening hours in line with government guidance. Please check websites for further information.

Cilwendeg Shell House http://www.thetempletrust.org.uk

Enville (private)  https://envilleestate.com

Hackfall http://www.hackfall.org.uk

Halswell (private)  https://halswellpark.wordpress.com

Hardwick Park https://www.durham.gov.uk/hardwickpark

The Landmark Trust https://www.landmarktrust.org.uk

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