Shardeloes
Encyclopedia
Shardeloes is a large 18th century country house located one mile northwest of Amersham
in Buckinghamshire
, United Kingdom
. . A previous manor house on the site was demolished and the present building constructed between 1758 and 1766 for William Drake, the Member of Parliament for Amersham.
, designs for interior decorations were provided by Robert Adam
from 1761. Built in the Palladian style, of stucco
ed brick, the mansion
is nine bay
s long by seven bays deep. It was constructed with the piano nobile
on the ground floor and a mezzanine
above. The north facade
has a large portico
of Corinthian
column
s. The terminating windows of the piano nobile are pediment
ed and recessed into shallow niches, as are the end bays of the east front. The roof, typically for the palladian style, is hidden by a balustrade. The original plans of the house by Leadbetter show a design closer in appearance to Holkham Hall
, with square end tower
s. Adam cancelled this idea, but embellished the front with the portico.
The interior of the house has fine ornamental plaster
work by Joseph Rose. The entrance hall by Adam has fluted Doric
pilaster
s and massive doorcases in the north and south walls. The dining room has stucco panels and an oval panel in the ceiling. The library was designed by James Wyatt
in a classical
style and has painted panels by Biagio Rebecca
. Nikolaus Pevsner
describes the staircase as "surprisingly small." Pevsner for once rather misses the point: as the house was designed, all rooms of importance, including the bedrooms, were on the principal ground floor; thus, there was no need for a grand staircase, as no grandee would ever need to ascend to the secondary floor above. Blenheim Palace
is another house with a small staircase for the same reason.
The house is flanked to the west by a service block and stable
yard
of the same period as the mansion, complete with clock tower. The stable yard is entered through five archways; the rectangular building has projecting wings and a pitched roof.
was commissioned to lay out the grounds in the classical English landscape
fashion, in the lee
of the hill upon which the mansion stands. Repton dam
med the River Misbourne
to form a lake
.
when the house was requisitioned as a maternity hospital, for evacuated pregnant women from London to give birth, some three thousand of them and the famous lyricist Sir Tim Rice
was amongst those born there in 1944, and the well-loved Thomas Willatt in 1943. Following the war the house seemed destined to become one of the thousands of country houses being demolished, until a local conservation
society
The Amersham Society assisted by the Council for the Protection of Rural England fought a prolonged battle to save the house: eventually a preservation order was put on the building preventing its demolition. Shardeloes today is a complex of private apartment
s and flats; the principal reception rooms are preserved as common rooms for the residents.
Amersham
Amersham is a market town and civil parish within Chiltern district in Buckinghamshire, England, 27 miles north west of London, in the Chiltern Hills. It is part of the London commuter belt....
in Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. . A previous manor house on the site was demolished and the present building constructed between 1758 and 1766 for William Drake, the Member of Parliament for Amersham.
Design and construction
The architect and builder was Stiff LeadbetterStiff Leadbetter
Stiff Leadbetter was a British architect and builder, one of the most successful architect–builders of the 1750s and 1760s, working for many leading aristocratic families.- Career :...
, designs for interior decorations were provided by Robert Adam
Robert Adam
Robert Adam was a Scottish neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam , Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him...
from 1761. Built in the Palladian style, of stucco
Stucco
Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...
ed brick, the mansion
Mansion
A mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. real estate brokers define a mansion as a dwelling of over . A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and tens of bedrooms...
is nine bay
Bay
A bay is an area of water mostly surrounded by land. Bays generally have calmer waters than the surrounding sea, due to the surrounding land blocking some waves and often reducing winds. Bays also exist as an inlet in a lake or pond. A large bay may be called a gulf, a sea, a sound, or a bight...
s long by seven bays deep. It was constructed with the piano nobile
Piano nobile
The piano nobile is the principal floor of a large house, usually built in one of the styles of classical renaissance architecture...
on the ground floor and a mezzanine
Mezzanine (architecture)
In architecture, a mezzanine or entresol is an intermediate floor between main floors of a building, and therefore typically not counted among the overall floors of a building. Often, a mezzanine is low-ceilinged and projects in the form of a balcony. The term is also used for the lowest balcony in...
above. The north facade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
has a large portico
Portico
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls...
of Corinthian
Corinthian order
The Corinthian order is one of the three principal classical orders of ancient Greek and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric and Ionic. When classical architecture was revived during the Renaissance, two more orders were added to the canon, the Tuscan order and the Composite order...
column
Column
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a vertical structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. For the purpose of wind or earthquake engineering, columns may be designed to resist lateral forces...
s. The terminating windows of the piano nobile are pediment
Pediment
A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...
ed and recessed into shallow niches, as are the end bays of the east front. The roof, typically for the palladian style, is hidden by a balustrade. The original plans of the house by Leadbetter show a design closer in appearance to Holkham Hall
Holkham Hall
Holkham Hall is an eighteenth-century country house located adjacent to the village of Holkham, on the north coast of the English county of Norfolk...
, with square end tower
Tower
A tower is a tall structure, usually taller than it is wide, often by a significant margin. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires....
s. Adam cancelled this idea, but embellished the front with the portico.
The interior of the house has fine ornamental plaster
Plaster
Plaster is a building material used for coating walls and ceilings. Plaster starts as a dry powder similar to mortar or cement and like those materials it is mixed with water to form a paste which liberates heat and then hardens. Unlike mortar and cement, plaster remains quite soft after setting,...
work by Joseph Rose. The entrance hall by Adam has fluted Doric
Doric order
The Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of ancient Greek or classical architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian.-History:...
pilaster
Pilaster
A pilaster is a slightly-projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. Most commonly flattened or rectangular in form, pilasters can also take a half-round form or the shape of any type of column, including tortile....
s and massive doorcases in the north and south walls. The dining room has stucco panels and an oval panel in the ceiling. The library was designed by James Wyatt
James Wyatt
James Wyatt RA , was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the neoclassical style, who far outdid Adam in his work in the neo-Gothic style.-Early classical career:...
in a classical
Classicism
Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for classical antiquity, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. The art of classicism typically seeks to be formal and restrained: of the Discobolus Sir Kenneth Clark observed, "if we object to his restraint...
style and has painted panels by Biagio Rebecca
Biagio Rebecca
Biagio Rebecca was an Italian painter, active mainly as a fresco decorator in England. Born in Rome, his apprenticeship is unknown. In England, he was known for neoclassical scenes from mythology, often collaborating with Robert Adam for example at Harewood House and at Kedleston Hall. He also...
. Nikolaus Pevsner
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, FBA was a German-born British scholar of history of art and, especially, of history of architecture...
describes the staircase as "surprisingly small." Pevsner for once rather misses the point: as the house was designed, all rooms of importance, including the bedrooms, were on the principal ground floor; thus, there was no need for a grand staircase, as no grandee would ever need to ascend to the secondary floor above. Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace is a monumental country house situated in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England, residence of the dukes of Marlborough. It is the only non-royal non-episcopal country house in England to hold the title of palace. The palace, one of England's largest houses, was built between...
is another house with a small staircase for the same reason.
The house is flanked to the west by a service block and stable
Stable
A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals...
yard
Yard
A yard is a unit of length in several different systems including English units, Imperial units and United States customary units. It is equal to 3 feet or 36 inches...
of the same period as the mansion, complete with clock tower. The stable yard is entered through five archways; the rectangular building has projecting wings and a pitched roof.
Grounds
Humphry ReptonHumphry Repton
Humphry Repton was the last great English landscape designer of the eighteenth century, often regarded as the successor to Capability Brown; he also sowed the seeds of the more intricate and eclectic styles of the 19th century...
was commissioned to lay out the grounds in the classical English landscape
Landscape
Landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land, including the physical elements of landforms such as mountains, hills, water bodies such as rivers, lakes, ponds and the sea, living elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements including different forms of...
fashion, in the lee
Lee waves
In meteorology, lee waves are atmospheric standing waves. The most common form is mountain waves, which are atmospheric internal gravity waves...
of the hill upon which the mansion stands. Repton dam
Dam
A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...
med the River Misbourne
River Misbourne
The River Misbourne rises in a field on the outskirts of Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, and flows down the Misbourne valley to join the River Colne just north of where the latter is crossed by the A40 Western Avenue....
to form a lake
Lake
A lake is a body of relatively still fresh or salt water of considerable size, localized in a basin, that is surrounded by land. Lakes are inland and not part of the ocean and therefore are distinct from lagoons, and are larger and deeper than ponds. Lakes can be contrasted with rivers or streams,...
.
Recent history
The mansion remained the ancestral home of the Tyrwhitt-Drake family until World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
when the house was requisitioned as a maternity hospital, for evacuated pregnant women from London to give birth, some three thousand of them and the famous lyricist Sir Tim Rice
Tim Rice
Sir Timothy Miles Bindon "Tim" Rice is an British lyricist and author.An Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Tony Award and Grammy Award-winning lyricist, Rice is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus...
was amongst those born there in 1944, and the well-loved Thomas Willatt in 1943. Following the war the house seemed destined to become one of the thousands of country houses being demolished, until a local conservation
Architectural conservation
Architectural conservation describes the process through which the material, historical, and design integrity of mankind's built heritage are prolonged through carefully planned interventions. The individual engaged in this pursuit is known as an architectural conservator...
society
Society
A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations...
The Amersham Society assisted by the Council for the Protection of Rural England fought a prolonged battle to save the house: eventually a preservation order was put on the building preventing its demolition. Shardeloes today is a complex of private apartment
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
s and flats; the principal reception rooms are preserved as common rooms for the residents.