Foundations for garden retaining wall

[paul1966]

I'm in the process of knocking down and rebuilding a retaining wall thats seen better days, it's holding back 0.8M of soil/hardcore. I have removed nearly all the wall now and was hoping to reuse the existing foundations but now I'm not sure they are sufficient enough for the new wall. I was thinking of rebuilding using concrete blocks laid flat and either rendering or using a row of facing bricks in front, the height of wall would be 1 metre high. 

I plan to remove about a metre of soil/hardcore from the back of the wall as i know it would need improved drainage. I'm open to any advice or suggestions as to how to proceed.

[cwr]

Having a read through the relevant pages of the pavingexpert.com website would be a good starting point, if you haven't already. 

I was going to post a link,  but can't seem to get onto that site right now for some reason...