The Site
The Bawdsey Manor Estate is located in an area of outstanding natural beauty on the Suffolk Coast with spectacular views over the River Deben Estuary. There are 150 acres for you to explore which includes Historic Parkland, formal gardens and surrounding Maritime Environment of cliffs, woodland, heath, marsh, beaches and river frontage. The site also has by far the largest available exposure of red crag (an SSSI) and is rich in marine molluscs offering the potential for studies of non-glacial Pleistocene environments. The cliffs are protected by a shingle beach, which you have direct access to from the grounds.
The shingle beach in front of the manor
The beach is a good site for a longshore drift study (linked beach profile project). Old groynes can be seen in the distance.
Bawdsey Manor viewed from Felixstowe
The beach in front of the beach house accommodation
Open woodland on site
One of the open fields on site
The playing field in front of the manor
The round pond in winter.
The manor gardens
The formal gardens, which lie to the south and west of The Manor House, were laid out in the 1895 by Lady Quilter and are currently being restored to the original scheme. The South Terraces have an elaborate central stairway and Jacobean-style Gazebo designed by the architect William Eade. As in the past, herbaceous borders are a riot of colour throughout the year. The Secret Garden, protected from the Suffolk winds but open to the sound and smell of the sea, lies in the footprint of Martello Tower V surrounded by Pulhamite rockeries, grottoes and tunnels, one of which leads on to the Italian Garden with lily pond and rose pergola the perfect place for sculpture. A noble stone gateway, also by William Eade, frames the entrance to the Walled vegetable Garden with the exquisite neo-classical Lemonry beyond.
The Italian garden.
This is a great area for a maths project. Adult supervision required to access this area.
The secret garden accessed through a tunnel!
(Adult supervision required to access this area)
