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| Arthur J Stedman FRIBA |
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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.
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| Leonard R Stedman ARIBA |
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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.
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Obituary
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| Michael J Blower AAdipl FRIBA FRSA |
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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
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Born in Brussels, Michael attended Douai
Abbey School and trained at the Architectural Association in
the 1950's on a County Scholarship, attending CIAM 10 as student
representative of the British delegation headed by Maxwell Fry.
After military service in the Royal Engineers at Singapore Garrison,
he was appointed Project Architect on the British Pavilion at
Brussels World Expo 1958. After a period in America, he joined
Scott Brownrigg Turner Architects as Associate, before joining
Leonard Stedman as Partner in 1964. During his career and for
over 20 years he had been active in local politics serving on
both Surrey County and Waverley Borough Councils. In 1995-6
he was elected as Mayor of Waverley BC. He is Vice-President
of the Farnham Society and President of the Farnham Trust. He
is married with 5 children and 11 grandchildren and lives in
Farnham.
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| Damien & Robert Blower |
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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.
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