Like the Maze, the Snake Terrace was designed by Denis Fisher (the then Comptroller), using wedge-shaped stone taken from Paxton’s old Lily House, and with the serpent motif (the crest of the Cavendish family) picked out in pebbles taken from the beach at Eastbourne.
The terrace was linked to Paxton’s Case by the Laburnum Arch (1974) which from late spring is a mass of yellow scented racemes. The leaves, flowers and seeds of laburnum are poisonous.