Many would consider Amersham an unlikely place to find the model of ground-breaking British architecture which effectively launched the International Modernist style in Britain. Whilst those of us lucky enough to live here realise we have many architectural gems, few are aware of the international significance of High & Over.

The house created a stir when it was designed in 1929 by Amyas Connell. As a student, in 1926 he won a prestigious architecture award for a residency at the British School in Rome. The director at the time was the distinguished archaeologist Bernard Ashmole. He gave Connell his first commission; to build a Modernist Roman Villa on a hilltop overlooking the Misbourne valley.

Bernard Ashmole, a tall and handsome man, could easily be the model for a character in a Golden Age detective story. Well-travelled, cultured, and charming, he served as an infantry officer in WWI. He was badly wounded at the Battle of the Somme and was awarded the Military Cross for exemplary bravery.

After the war, while Ashmole was working in Italy his wife Dorothy remained in Oxford, but when he accepted the post of Professor of Classical Archaeology at London University, the family decided to move. They wanted a family home for their young daughters Stella and Sylvia. So in 1928 Dorothy bought 12 acres of farmland on the hill south of the station, from the Tyrwhitt-Drakes. She later named the house High & Over, after a hill, near Alfriston in Sussex, known to her family.

Their son Peter was born at High & Over, being delivered by his father in the bedroom when the midwife did not get there in time. The children were mainly educated at home and lived conventionally in an upstairs nursery, coming down for afternoon tea. However, there was nothing conventional about the rest of the house!

Now nearly 100 years old, the design still seems bold and exciting. The house was constructed by Watsons of Ascot and had a reinforced concrete frame with brick and block infill. Three wings radiate from a hexagonal hall, forming a Y-shape plan that is so distinctive from the air that pilots are said to have used it as a marker for their flight routes in WWII. The geometric design, horizontal clean lines, distinctive roof canopies, extensive use of glass and white façade make High & Over unique.

Built in such a prominent position, and without the trees that surround it today, High & Over was clearly visible from all the surrounding roads. The house and its equally striking water tower, used to supply water for the fountain, garden and circular swimming pool, was controversial from the start. It attracted wide media attention. In 1931 an article in Country Life raved: “Here is architecture pure and unalloyed by sentiment, reminiscence or claptrap.” The house even had its own slot in a Pathé newsreel when it was introduced as “The House of a Dream”. In 1932 it was one of only two buildings represented in the exhibition The International Style at the Museum of Modern Art in New York; an extraordinary achievement for such a young architect.

The house also featured in an episode of Agatha Christie’s Poirot. It was the home of film mogul Henry Reedburn, who was found dead in the library in The King of Clubs episode.

Sir John Betjeman later commented in his 1973 documentary Metro-Land: “All Buckinghamshire was scandalised by the appearance, high above Amersham, of a concrete house in the shape of a letter ‘Y’. It was built for a young professor by a young architect . . . ‘I am the home of the 20th century family’, it proclaimed, ‘that loves air and sun and open country’. It started a style called ‘moderne’.”

As well as collaborating closely with Connell on the design of the house, Ashmole constructed a geometric garden in a star shape which could be best admired from the roof terraces above. Four more reinforced concrete houses, known as the Sun Houses, were designed by Connell, and built on the hillside, presumably to offset some of the costs of the house and garden. A lodge was also added for George and May Marlow who were employed as gardener and housekeeper. Despite George losing a leg in a mowing accident, the Marlows worked for the family for many years.

When World War II was declared, Ashmole volunteered again, this time joining the RAF. He served in Greece and the Far East where he just managed to avoid being taken by the Japanese. He rose to the rank of Wing Commander before retiring and was awarded the CBE after the war.

Despite the problems of blacking out the glass staircase with plywood screens, Dorothy stayed at High & Over for most of the war. Many relatives and evacuees, including a family of 6 from the East End found shelter there. The water tower was used as a look-out post by the Home Guard, who camouflaged themselves with vegetation before appearing for duty! There is a rumour that the house was also camouflaged green and brown during the war to prevent it being so conspicuous.

After the war, Ashmole returned to the university and his role as Keeper of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum. In 1956 he succeeded his mentor, John Beazley, as the Lincoln Chair of Classical Art at Oxford and High & Over was sold to the illustrator and cartoonist, D L Mays.

In 1962 the architect Frank Briggs divided the property into 2 viable houses when it was threatened with demolition. Much of the modernist garden and the water tower was lost when the land was sold and developed by Comben and Wakeling (see Nostagia 17 May 2020) in the 1960s. Today, listed Grade II*, it is one house again, the original floor plans have been reinstated and the interior restored by the current owners, inspired by Dorothy’s extraordinary scheme of metallic silver and bronze.

More photographs and information can be found at amershammuseum.org High & Over | Amersham Museum