SHAR-dee-lows

England

Buckinghamshire

Amersham

51.676868

-0.60726

1758-60

Fully Extant

Grade I

Grade II*

No

C. IVth. pls. 100, 101, 1739.

Vol. I, p. 248, 1852.

XXXIV, 18 plan, 1913. LXXIV, 506 [Furniture], 1933.

No

Flat Owners Company (aka Condo Association)

Flats

Today owned by Sharadeloes House Ltd., a corporation of the resident owners

Montagu Garrard Drake, early 18th century. William Drake, 18th century.

The current house replaced an earlier one on the same site.

William Drake

The House is of stuccoed brick one and a half stories high, nine bays by seven, with a top balustrade and giant pedimented portico of stone with Corinthian columns and Corinthian pilasters against the house wall. The ground floor windows in the end bays have pediments and are set in shallow niches. The rooms on the ground floor are eighteen feet high, with immensely thick walls requiring double doors to the rooms, with standing space between. The stone came from Headington Quarry, and was brought from Oxford to Hedsor Wharf by river. The Westmoreland slate came up the Thames from London to Eton, costing £3 5s 0d for a consignment of 13 tons, and £6 10s 0d to carry it overland thence to Amersham. 436,500 common stock bricks at 6s 9d per 1000 were used, with the large bricks for the front costing 7s 9d per 1000. A bricklayer was paid 2s 8d per day and a laborer 1s 2d. The total cost of the house in 1766 was £19,129 19s 4d. Luckily, Mr. Drake was one of the wealthiest commoners in England. In 1773 his rents amounted to £8,098; (c.f. a half year rental in 1672 of £1,030.). Designed originally by Stiff Leadbetter of Eton, Robert Adam made some alterations to the exterior and took over the interior decoration. The Hall at Shardeloes is one of his earliest schemes and has some heavy detailing. There is much greater use of real materials, more carving and less composition ornament than he used later, with an immense quantity of wood carving in the enriched skirtings, dado rails and cases to the door and window openings. The doors are made of magnificent mahogany. At Shardeloes Joseph Rose did the plasterwork and was paid £1139 18s 0d for his work between 10 October 1761 and 19 February 1763. As well as the Hall ceiling- "an ornam'd ceiling as per Estimate delivered to Mr. Adam" - the grotesque panels in the dining-room were executed by Rose, with their urns, sphinxes and graceful arabesques. These are the earliest examples of the single most significant contribution to English decoration that Adam made. Adam employed the brothers Benjamin and Thomas Carter as stone-carvers. Out of a total bill of £212 13s 0d, they were paid £96 14s 0d for carving the ornament to the dining Room chimneypiece -"a tablet of boys and 2 pieces of frieze with laurel leaves... 2 pieces of ornaments on trusses and foliage, all richly carved and polished". The background of the frieze is red, the rest white. The door furniture was by Thomas Blockley, ironmonger, who also supplied brass bolts, 3 feet 6 inches long, for the bookcases in the Library at 10s each. The Library was first modified in 1763, when brickwork was cut away to enlarge recesses in Library in order to execute Mr. Adam’s plan; the other walls of the room are entirely lined for two thirds of their height with white deal casings and wire panel doors showing the books behind. The detailing was carved by Alken and Lawrence. The joiners took 46 days to make alterations in the Library to receive Bookcases in order to execute Mr. Adam’s plan, also altering Mahogany doors by Mr. Adam’s order --- putting on wires to bookcase doors and gluing pieces to edges of shelves to make them Wider. The chimneypiece was supplied by Carter at a cost of £147 19s 8d, and Rose charged £133 7s 10d for the ceiling, which included £25 3s 4d for the cornice. By 1775 the Library was again altered, when Wyatt was employed by the Drakes. He cut off the arches of Adam’s recesses and substituted a decorative scheme of painted grisaille panels by Biagio Rebecca, who was paid 50 guineas for his trompe l’oeil work. He also worked on the ground floor Boudoir. In the Second World War, Shardeloes was used as a maternity home for London mothers. By 1953, uninhabited and neglected, Shardeloes was bought by a property company headed by Sir Ian McTaggart, hoping to demolish the House and redevelop the site. The newly-formed Amersham Society, with help from the Council for the Protection of Rural England, and other interested bodies, fought a long battle until a preservation order was put on the building, preventing its demolition; it was eventually listed Grade I. The mansion was converted into flats and the Stables into flats and houses. It is now owned by Shardeloes Houses Ltd, which in turn is owned by the residents of the apartments. (We are very grateful to Bridget Clarke for providing this history of Shardeloes).

The Stables were built for Montagu Garrard Drake in 1724-27, by Francis Smith of Warwick. The Formal Gardens of early 18th century are probably by Charles Bridgman. There is evidence that Nathaniel Kent gave advice on the Romanticized gardens of late 18th century. A Red Book and evidence of some planting were left by Humphrey Repton. (We are grateful to Bridget Clarke for providing information on the Park and outbuildings).

"The Duke Wore Jeans" (1958). "Jason King" (1972 - TV, episode 1.23, "Chapter One: The Company I Keep," as the Villa near Gorizia). "The Shooting Party" (1985 - estate scenes).