Grand Stairs And Grotto, 50 Metres West Of Shrubland Hall

BARHAM SHRUBLAND ESTATE TM 15 SW 3/25 Grand stairs and Grotto, 50m west of Shrubland 9.12.55 Hall. - II* Staircase leading down from The Balcony Garden to the Lower Panel Garden. C.1850; a part of the landscaping works by Sir Charles Barry for Sir W.F. Middleton, Bart. White limestone, modelled upon gardens at the Villa D'Este, Tivoli, Italy. The main body of the stairs is in 4 straight flights; at the head of each flight is a bay on either side, and the open balustrading with turned balusters here bears a pair of vases. Beside each flight is a stone- lined channel whose outer wall has piers with terracotta urns. At the foot of the fourth flight the stairs divide into two geometric flights, the balustrading terminating at swag-enriched urns on drum plinths. A balcony at the head of the lowest flights has a grotto formed at its base: the rusticated walling has an arched opening with a mask-carved keystone and a flanking pair of sunk panels with swags. From the orifice a stream is designed to flow over natural rocks into a pool. There are in all 115 steps, but the feature is known colloquially as "The 100 Steps". A major feature of what is widely considered to be the finest large C19 garden in Suffolk. The lower part of the stair-case is in the Parish of Coddenham.

Listing NGR: TM1256152523