Stedman Blower was founded in 1895 by Arthur Stedman (1868-1958), a son of Farnham and near contemporary of Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944). His career flourished in the country house boom up to the Great War, just as Ned Lutyens had, moving onto larger public works in the great expansion of municipal works projects in the interwar period at the end of his career. He had a delicate touch and established the credentials of the company then, as now, in the quality of the buildings and their designs. He completed a number of fine works in West Surrey, including his own offices and the Mackintosh Almshouses in Farnham and some lovely Edwardian country houses.

Arthur Stedman was born in Normandy, Guildford, in 1858, from a family of wheelwrights, apprenticing as an architect in the traditional way with a firm of Farnham builders and attending night classes at Farnham Art School. He finally set up his own office in 1895 at the age of 28 and was elected LRIBA in 1910 and a Fellow before the War. He was Guildford Diocesan Surveyor from 1925-1950 and taught at Farnham School of Art (now SIAD University College). He was also President of the South Eastern Society of Architects and Founding President of Farnham Cricket Club. He died in 1958 at the age of 90.

Leonard Stedman (1900-1980), took over from his father at the end of WW2, having been apprenticed as a pupil in Sir Edwin Lutyens’ offices in London as a young man. The period of his career matches that of another Farnham born architect, Harold Falkner, now recognized as a significant contributor to the revival of vernacular architecture in England during the period when Modernism held full sway. Leonard’s career was truncated by war and austerity and buffeted by the competing cultures of modernism and tradionalism, which seems to have confused rather than inspired him. He did however run a successful small general practice and completed some interesting buildings.

Leonard was born in 1900 and attended Farnham Grammar School and Cranleigh Boys School, after which he attended the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College, London. He spent his War years in the Royal Artillery, the Pay Corps and Garrison Engineer. He died in 1980 at the age of 80.

Michael Blower (born 1929) ran the practice from 1964 to 1995. Michael came to Stedman & Blower (as AJ & LR Stedman was renamed) to reconnect with traditional architectural forms and urban spaces. The office took on more conservation work and championed the vernacular architecture and heritage of West Surrey. He completed a number of fine restorations and sensitive alterations to historic buildings, receiving a Civic Trust Award and an RICS/Times Newspaper Award, while retaining a compact general architectural practice, with an almost exclusively Surrey-based clientele. He also worked on several projects with renowned architect, Roderick Gradidge (1929-2000), jointly winning the RIBA Award for Design Excellence.

R. Gradidge obituaries:
Independent | Guardian

Damien Sam Blower (born 1968) attended the Royal Grammar School, Guildford, before undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at the Bartlett School of Architecture (where Leonard Stedman had studied) and the Institute of Archaeology, University College, London, where he completed a Masters Thesis on the 'Social and Architectural Development of the Roman Palace'. In 1992, he moved to Los Angeles to study for a Master of Architecture at the renowned and avant-garde Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), where he taught in the Undergraduate School and was appointed Assistant to the Graduate Director. He then spent a year as an intern in Frank Gehry's offices in Santa Monica. He returned to England and Stedman Blower in 1996.

Robert Blower (born 1960), attended All Hallows RC School prior to undergraduate and postgraduate studies in Architecture & Engineering at Kingston, South Bank and Greenwich Universities.

Robert and Damien took over the practice on its hundredth birthday. In 2000, the company was renamed Stedman Blower and incorporated as a limited liability company (LLC). It is too early to talk of any legacy as yet, but the practice begins the 21st Century fitter and leaner than ever and the work produced in this first decade since 1995 beckons a future of great promise - since 1996 they have jointly won over 15 awards, been published in a half-dozen national titles and featured on Channel 4's Grand Designs.