The South Terrace, Cliveden Archaeological Investigations 2013-17

Cliveden is both a Grade I listed mansion and a Grade I registered park and garden. It
is a site of national heritage significance which has been home to members of the Royal
family, the aristocracy and some of the wealthiest families in the world. It has also been
associated with notorious scandals and prominent national events.
The South Terrace is among the most significant surviving elements of the site as it is
the only structure which is believed to substantially survive from the great mansion
that the Duke of Buckingham began to layout in the 1670s, reputedly for his lover the
Countess of Shrewsbury. The house has twice been destroyed by fire and then rebuilt
but the magnificent terrace, which provides distant views towards the south, has
remained a key element of each complex.
Since 2012 the South Terrace has undergone a series of phases of conservation, repair
and remedial works to improve the drainage and each of these phases has included
archaeological recording and investigation. The investigation has considerably
enhanced our understanding of the structure and also shown that it has had a more
complex history than previously believed.
Trenching works largely relating to new drainage has uncovered foundations from a
series of very large brick walls, some almost 1.5 m wide, which must survive from the
Duke of Buckingham’s original building phase in the later 17th century. It has long been
believed that this phase involved works to move vast quantities of earth from the north
of where the house now stands southwards to create the step for the terrace and the
current project has exposed apparent evidence of the scale of the associated building
works for the terrace. Several sections of what appears to have been a great brick
plinth have been exposed beneath the front wall of the terrace (which itself is believed
to be from a mid 18th-century partial rebuild) and it is interesting to note that this
seems to have extended westwards beyond where the West Fernery now stands.
Several metres to the south of this plinth the foundations of another huge east-to-west
wall have been revealed which it is assumed extended across the full front of the
terrace and there is strong possibility that this was intended to be part of a second
lower terrace.
Towards either end of the terrace the foundations of similarly sized north-to-south
walls have been found, aligned with the outer ends of the ferneries, which may have
been intended as parts of ramps or long straight staircases to frame each end of the
terrace. Such an arrangement is suggested in an early 18th-century plan of Cliveden by
Claude Desgot and it is interesting to note that this would have had strong similarities
to a terrace laid out at Powys Castle in the 1680s by William Winde, the architect who
is believed to have been responsible for the Duke of Buckingham’s works at Cliveden.
The choice of Winde is interesting due to his military background and experience of
military engineering at sites such as Gravesend Reach. The scale and nature of the walls
found at Cliveden are strongly reminiscent of military fortifications.
The foundations exposed to the south of the terrace must have been intended for a
very large group of landscaping structures and the fact that there is so little evidence
of these other structures on views and plans from the early 18th century is intriguing.
This may well suggest that they were part of a grand scheme which was abandoned
unfinished or possibly even that it was pulled down before completion. There has
always been uncertainty over the extent to which the Duke ever completed his works and although it has sometimes been assumed that the house was the main unfinished
element it may actually be that there was an extravagant proposal for the terrace which
was unfinished. There is also an intriguing quote included in a letter written by the
Duke of Buckingham in 1677 while he was incarcerated in the Tower of London in which
he complains that he may have to pull down some recently erected structures at
Cliveden due to a mistake by his builder. The Duke put the cost of this at £10,000 which
would suggest that the structures concerned must have been very extensive. We do
not know whether the Duke actually carried this out but there is clearly a possibility
that the foundations recently uncovered were the remains of structures built in error
and then pulled down by the Duke.
In addition to the overall form of the terrace apparently being a scaled down version
of the Duke’s original vision it is also likely that the character of the current blind arcade
is also considerably plainer than the front originally planned. This arcade strongly
appears to have been constructed in the 1760s-1770s due to structural issues with the
Duke’s original more elaborate front.
The original front, comprising a series of niches, is shown in drawings contained in
Colen Campbell’s Vitruvius Britannicus and although in the past there has been
considerable doubt as to whether this was ever actually constructed recent works
behind the blind arcade have revealed some evidence of these former niches.
Comparing historical views from the 1750s and 1770s also appears to confirm that the
front wall was rebuilt during this period.
The drawings in Vitruvius Britannicus show remarkable staircases at either end of the
terrace, on the footprints of the ferneries, and although little clear evidence of these
has been found in the recent works there has been evidence to confirm that at least
the East Fernery was a secondary addition. This evidence comprises the trace of curved
niche-type features which must have pre-dated the front wall of the fernery.
The removal of plaster from within the Sounding Chambers at the centre of the terrace
has uncovered two remarkable funnel-shaped features extending up to the terrace
surface and it is assumed that these were principally light wells although they may also
have been intended to be sound funnels carrying music up to the terrace. The plaster
removal has also exposed a blocked doorway in the east side of the Sounding Chambers
which may have led to a staircase up to the mansion.
The investigation has confirmed that the staircase at the centre of the terrace was a
secondary addition, probably constructed in the 1720s and evidence exposed in the
recent repair works have suggested that it is a structure that has been remodeled on a
number of occasions, at least one of which appears to have been after the fire in 1795.
Among the many other features which the current works have exposed have been
further walls relating to the outer courtyards which were located either side of the
original mansion.