Archaeology Notes

Event ID 830052

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/830052

NT37SW 168.04 3254 7270

NT 3269 7250 A major programme of monitoring, evaluation and architectural recording was undertaken at the mansion house and within its surrounding policies during conservation works between June 2000 and August 2001.

Shell House (NMRS NT37SW 168.04). A comprehensive investigation of the c 1770-80 shell house within the water gardens to the NNW of the mansion was undertaken. Clearance of the interior revealed a well-preserved diagonally patterned polished sandstone floor with marble insets. A drawn and analytical record was made of the standing fabric, which deduced many details of its internal decoration and lost roof structure, and provided a record of its intra-mural heating system, external decoration and secondary ogee-headed window to the S. Analysis was made of an extensive assemblage of recovered fallen decorative materials that include both inshore and exotic (Far Eastern) shells; fragments from a variety of broken glass vessels, including wine glasses of the period c 1725-70; minerals such as crystal masses and agates; and industrial waste products. An evaluation trench to the rear of the structure elucidated details of the original stoke-hole.

An evaluation trench some 6m to the W of the shell house examined masonry remains that were found to represent an ashlar-lined entrance area leading to a brick-vaulted tunnel. Iron fixtures suggested statuary had formerly been attached, while lead piping indicated the possibility that it had incorporated a water feature. The structure had been deliberately infilled, apparently in the 18th century. While only a limited part of the structure was exposed, it had possibly been a subterranean grotto-like construction that was superseded by the existing shell house.

Sponsor: National Trust for Scotland

T Addyman 2001

Three new trenches were excavated. The previous Trench 50 at the rear of the structure was considerably extended in order to fully expose the remains of the oven pit serving the intramural flue system that had been previously located. Trench 84 involved the excavation of a substantial area against the S wall of the structure in the hope of revealing details of the collapsed window within the rubble pile at that point; this produced a significant quantity of window glass but little other material, suggesting that the window had been wooden. Trench 85 was located at the lower W exterior wall foot of the Shell House to the N of the entrance. A further major sample of the midden of fallen decorative materials (such as exotic shells, minerals, glass and industrial waste) from the interior was recovered. New types of decorative materials include mirror fragments and pieces of carved mother of pearl (perhaps abalone shell) deriving from the decoration of an ornamental box or piece of furniture. A fragment was found of an aqua glass intaglio impression depicting a classical archer. This was most probably manufactured by the antiquarian James Tassie of Edinburgh in the later 18th century, and may have come from a collection of such objects at Newhailes House.

Further investigation was made of the masonry remains exposed in 2001 just below and to the W of the Shell House. The S half of the feature was excavated, revealing it to have been a water cascade flowing down to the edge of a large, shaped pool (now infilled). Water emerged from a brick-vaulted culvert and fell down three semi-circular stone cascades (now largely robbed) before falling into the pool itself. Each tier was lead-lined and bounded by ashlar flanking walls that stepped out at each level. The latter were capped with 'rockwork', consisting of fragments of industrial (possibly smelting) waste to match the facade of the Shell House behind. Probable fittings for statuary were identified within the rear walls of the upper tier, and a large piece of sponge - artificial coral-form rockwork - was found loose within the feature, apparently part of its decoration. A small sondage revealed the continuation of the brick culvert vault to the E of its mouth, but its route beyond this remains uncertain.

The principal question that remains about the feature is its dating - is it coeval with the Shell House (thus 1770s), or does it relate to the laying out of the water gardens in the 1740s? It is possible that the rockwork is a secondary intervention. The feature had been infilled by the early 1790s. The cascade is paralleled by similar water garden features in association with grotto structures.

D Connolly (Addyman Associates) 2002