Shardeloes, Amersham, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.  

An 18th century landscape park and woodland with work by Nathaniel Richmond and Humphry Repton, surrounding an 18th century country house, with remains of a formal early 18th century layout in the park, possibly by Charles Bridgeman.

DESCRIPTION

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Shardeloes lies in the Chiltern Hills. The house stands 1 kilometre west of Amersham, the park boundary being adjacent to the west end of the town, and 1 kilometre south-east of Little Missenden, the park boundary being adjacent to the east end of the village. The site, which occupies about 390 hectares, is bounded to the west by Mop End Lane, and on the other sides by agricultural land and woodland. The land is hilly, particularly the area north of the house which runs north down to the valley of the River Misbourne, continuing uphill beyond the lake, over the A413 dual carriageway (formerly the 18th century Aylesbury to Amersham turnpike) to the woodland at the northern boundary. The setting is largely agricultural and wooded, although both Amersham and the dual carriageway are prominent in views east from the house and north parkland. The Aylesbury to Marylebone railway crosses the woodland at the northern end of the park, but, being set in a cutting, is largely unseen.

REFERENCES

Published material

T Badeslade and J Rocque, Vitruvius Britannicus IV, (1739)

Country Life, 34 (5 July 1913), pp 18-26

D Stroud, Humphry Repton (1962), p 172

P Willis, Charles Bridgeman and the English Landscape Garden (2001), pp 63,434, pl 72a

G Carter et al, Humphry Repton (1982), p 148

N Pevsner and E Williamson, The Buildings of England: Buckinghamshire (1994), pp 617-619

Shardeloes: Inspector's Report, (English Heritage 1990)

Shardeloes, Buckinghamshire Outline Restoration Plan, (Colson Stone Partnership 1992)

Maps

J Rocque, Map of Berkshire, 1761

Plan showing Shardeloes Park on the Aylesbury to Uxbridge road, 1790-1810 (Buckinghamshire Record Office)

Map showing the diversion of the highway around Shardeloes Park, 1804 (Buckinghamshire Record Office)

OS Surveyor's Drawing, 1812

OS 6" to 1 mile; 1st edition published 1885

    2nd edition published 1900

    3rd edition published 1925

OS 25" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1881-1882

    2nd edition published 1898

Description written: July 1997

Amended: July 1998; April 1999; June 2005

Edited: September 2000