SHARDELOES, MISSENDEN ROAD, AMERSHAM, BUCKS. HP7 0RL and HIGH AND OVER, AMERSHAM, BUCKS.

Work to build the present house at Shardeloes for William Drake began in 1758 to the Palladian plans of Stiff Leadbetter, Surveyor of St Pauls. Leadbetter died before the work was finished and the project was redesigned in the new neo-classical taste and completed in 1766 by Robert Adam – the first country house commission where he worked both inside and out. The original furniture and furnishings were supplied by Linnell but pretty much all dispersed in sales from the 1880s to the 1950s and the house itself was only narrowly saved from the wrecking ball by being the first notable country house to be converted to flats in 1959.

FHS member Edward Copisarow has the Drawing Room, Library and Dressing Room within his apartment and by entering through The Hall, our visit will take in four of the five fine rooms in the house.  The Library bookcases were altered in 1775 to designs of James Wyatt but have not changed since and also from the eighteenth century, the drawing room window cornices are now back in situ on kind loan. Otherwise,  Linnell drawings from the V&A, Adam drawings at Sir John Soane Museum and the RIBA archive along with photos from Country Life, The Connoiseur and family albums dating from the 1870s to the present day, will all be displayed to show the way in which each room’s furnishings have evolved over the last 250 years.

The current contents include a mixture of Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian furniture, a collection of 18^th and 19^th century board and table games in the library and a 1979 dining suite by John Makepeace in the dressing room.

On the same day we shall visit a strongly contrasting house, the modernist pioneer building, High and Over, also in Amersham, built by Amyas Connell for Professor Ashmole, a professor of Classical Archaeology, in 1921 and completed in 1931. The white stuccoed house sits high up, with three wings joined by an hexagonal central hall. The house now belongs to Mr and Mrs Paolo Guidi and we are very grateful to them for allowing us access to this stylish and forward-looking building.

Cost: £40                               

Limit: 20 members

Closing Date for applications: 17 June 2016