Terrace With Retaining Wall And Steps Garden Wall And Summerhouse Adjoining Cornbury House To East

This is a terrace with a retaining wall and steps leading down, a garden wall, and a summerhouse, situated to the east of Cornbury House. The terrace likely dates from around 1850.

The retaining wall is constructed of limestone ashlar with a moulded plinth, decorative details, and a moulded coping, stretching approximately 170 metres. A two-flight staircase is located centrally on the south-east front of Cornbury House, featuring pairs of square gate piers with moulded bases and capitals, large carved urns, and two pairs of wrought-iron gates with spearhead railings. A panelled wall runs through the centre of the terrace.

At the north-east end of the terrace stands a summerhouse, likely constructed between 1901 and 1906 by John Belcher. It occupies the centre of what was once a semi-circular pergola, of which most remains have been removed. The summerhouse is a lattice wooden structure built on a brick plinth with a limestone ashlar wall to the rear and a lead dome. It includes a three-bay portico with lattice wooden Ionic columns, swags between volutes, a lattice frieze with Greek key ornament, triglyphs, and a scrolled key to the centre, a moulded wooden cornice with mutules, and a lattice parapet. A lattice screen and archway are positioned to the rear of the portico. The interior is domed and features a panelled wooden seat at the rear. Low, curved brick walls flank the portico, originally supporting the pergola.

To the rear of the terrace is a garden wall, extending approximately 60 metres, that adjoins the house to the south-west and forms the south-east side of the stable courtyard. This wall probably dates from 1689 and is built of roughly squared limestone with a stone coping, featuring buttresses to the rear. A round-arched gateway is located at the south-west end, with a panelled gate, radial fanlight, and keystone.

The terrace is likely contemporary with additions made to the south-east front of Cornbury House around 1850, of which only photographic records remain. John Belcher's work on Cornbury House between 1901 and 1906 likely included the summerhouse and the former pergola. William Talman was employed at Cornbury by the Earl of Clarendon in 1689, and the garden wall to the rear of the terrace probably dates from this time, either wholly or in part. The wall features stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops.