Shardeloes, Amersham, England

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

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

Shardeloes manor was acquired by the Drake family in the early 17th century. Sir William Drake inherited the estate from his uncle (also Sir William) in 1669, developing gardens around the house towards the end of the 17th century. In 1726 Montague Garrard Drake paid Charles Bridgeman (d 1738) £50, although little else is known about Bridgeman’s involvement at a time when the stables and outbuildings were being rebuilt, and it was intended to rebuild the house to plans by James Leoni. Drake died in 1728, and work stopped until his son, William (d 1769), commissioned Stiff Leadbetter to produce new plans in 1758, involving Robert Adam (1728-1792) during the 1760s, when the house was substantially rebuilt. The formal landscape, presumably Bridgeman’s - around the old house is shown in an engraving by Badeslade and Rocque (1739), with an extensive geometric layout including a straight canal ending in a circular pond aligned with the north-east entrance to the house, avenues on the main axes, angular woodland blocks and formal gardens behind (to the south of) the house and to the north-west in the valley. By 1761 (Rocque) the naturalistic lake had been created from the formal water elements, but the geometric layout still existed south of it. Nathaniel Richmond was employed from 1763 to 1770, with his foreman Henshaw, Richmond being paid £1000 and Henshaw £1300 for work at Shardeloes, during which time it seems that the formal layout was transformed into an informal scheme. This was probably one of Richmond’s most important commissions (David Brown pers comm, June 1997). As illustrated in the Red Book for Shardeloes in 1794, Humphry Repton (1752 1818) produced a scheme for improvements, designed largely to enhance the landscape north of the lake. This seems to have been partially implemented. The Drakes continued to live at Shardeloes until the Second World War, when the house was used as a maternity hospital and the park ploughed for arable. The house and attached buildings were subdivided into flats in about 1960, when the rest of the estate was divided and sold.