Merton Hall, Norfolk

Other listed 19th-century features of the estate include the shellhouse, a brick-built garden house by Edward Blore whose interior is faced entirely with seashells; the lodge, a one-storey building with a Greek-cross plan; and the brewery, now used as garages.

Merton Hall was built in 1613 on the site of a house which had been in possession of the de Grey family since the middle of the 14th century, and prior to that of their ancestors in the female line, the Baynards, to whom the property was granted at the time of William the Conqueror. Some portion of the older buildings still remain. Additions were made to the house in 1846 and 1876, and extensive stabling and a coachman's house were erected in 1889 or 1890. The older part of the house was destroyed by the 1956 fire.

Members of the de Grey family who owned the estate included William de Grey (1652–1687), his son Thomas de Grey (1680–1765), and his son Thomas de Grey (1717-1781). All were local MPs for Thetford or for Norfolk. When the latter died childless the estate passed to his nephew Thomas de Grey, 2nd Baron Walsingham and thereafter descended in that family, via a succession of Barons Walsingham, to the present time.