AN 18th century Shell House has been restored to its former glory after a five-month restoration project reports the BBC.

Work on the building, thought to have been built in about 1750, sits within the National Trust’s Hatfield Forest nature reserve, near Takeley.

Funding for the renovation came from a “generous gift left in a will”, the charity said.

Some of its shells come from the West Indian, West African and Indo Pacific trade, collected by the Houblon family.

The building was designed to be used as a place to picnic and entertain, about a mile away from the family’s Hallingbury Palace, which was demolished in 1926.

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