A new shelter by the new lake
The Houblon family acquired the Hallingbury estate, including Hatfield Forest, for the heir, Jacob Houblon III, in 1729. He set about creating a detached pleasure ground in the central area of the forest, starting with a lake.
A cottage was built by the side of the lake, for a caretaker.
By 1757 a shelter was added to the end of the cottage. It was constructed of a timber frame, with laths and mortar render to the outside. The outer wall was mostly flint.
The shelter was used for picnics and summer parties for friends and family. They would ride out from the main house, Hallingbury Place, about 2 km to the west, taking in the natural beauty of the forest.
The designer of the building is unknown but the classical temple-like form, at the edge of a lake, was a popular feature of mid-eighteenth century landscape gardens. These buildings were commonly known as grotto(e)s.
The 1757 map by Hollingworth and Lander has a vignette of the shelter, in its original, undecorated form (see image above).
The 1923 sale catalogue (for the Hallingbury estate) shows the Shell House attached to the end of the cottage (see image above above).
Decorating the shelter
Jacob’s fifteen year old daughter Laetitia is thought to have designed the decoration of the interior and exterior with exotic and colourful shells, split flints, blue glass, coral and sands. These exotic shells are believed to have come from the West Indies and would have arrived in the UK mixed in with ballast in the holds of ships. The ships were used to transport slaves from West Africa to the sugar plantations in the West Indies, and then to carry sugar back to the UK (to ports such as London, Bristol, Liverpool or Glasgow).
On the keystone above the door of the Shell House is a peacock, the breast of which is made from the fossil of an Inoceramus, a bi-valved mollusc from the Cretaceous period (145 to 65 million years ago).
