folly

Detached square-plan single-bay single-storey rubble stone shell house, built c. 1850, within walled garden. Stone arches forming groin-vaulted trusses to roof, partially ruinous. Uncoursed rubble stone walls with rounded corners. Segmental-headed door opening to front (south) elevation. Segmental-headed niches to interior, some with pebble and shell decoration, some having animal bone and skulls incorporated. Stone slabs to floor. Supporting piers of rubble stone, with some fossilised timber. Central freestanding round-plan two-stage pier with projecting basins to upper stage, with applied pebble and shell decoration, lettering below basins reading 'The House that Jack built', and having figurative image of dog to lower stage. Situated against interior of north elevation of walled garden.

This ornamental garden folly is a picturesque feature in the grounds of St. Ann's estate. The central pier, with figurative motifs and lettering suggestive of a highly personalised structure, is particularly notable. Shell houses were popular garden features in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and could be purpose-built or conversions of existing buildings. Shell work was considered an appropriate hobby for young ladies, suggesting that this structure may have been decorated by or for the daughters of Benjamin Lee Guinness, who bought the estate in 1835. He embarked on a significant programme of landscaping and constructed several interesting follies.