Terrace Walls And Steps Below Bawdsey Manor

The terrace walls and steps below Bawdsey Manor, built around 1900, consist of three red brick retaining walls with ashlar dressings and flights of steps connecting different levels. The lowest wall is approximately 3 feet high, while the two upper walls are about 8 feet high. These walls are linked by an Imperial staircase that rises from two lower flights to a landing over a seating recess, and then continues as a single flight. All walls feature ashlar coping and regularly spaced pilaster buttresses with flat ashlar caps. The staircase includes ashlar treads, square piers with flat ashlar caps, and open ashlar panels of strapwork in the balustrade. It ascends via two lower flights of 11 steps to quarter-landings, followed by two additional flights of 10 steps that lead to the landing above the loggia, which has a 4-centred archway made of moulded brick. Above this, there is a flight of 3 steps leading to the lower terrace level, and nine more steps that ascend to the upper terrace level.