Sandham Memorial Chapel is in the village of

Burghclere Burghclere is a village and civil parish in Hampshire, England. According to the 2011 census the village had a population of 1,152. The village is near the border of Hampshire with Berkshire, four miles south of Newbury. The closest settlement ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

, England. It is a Grade I listed, 1920s decorated chapel, designed by

Lionel Pearson Lionel Godfrey Pearson (29 October 1879 – 19 March 1953) was a British architect, best known for the Grade I listed Royal Artillery Memorial, which he designed with the sculptor Charles Sargeant Jagger. Biography Pearson was educated at Ma ...

. The chapel was built to accommodate a series of paintings by the English artist

Stanley Spencer Sir Stanley Spencer, CBE Royal Academy of Arts, RA (30 June 1891 – 14 December 1959) was an English painter. Shortly after leaving the Slade School of Art, Spencer became well known for his paintings depicting Biblical scenes occurring as if ...

. It was commissioned by Mary and John Louis Behrend (1881–1972) as a memorial to Mary's brother, Lieutenant Henry Willoughby Sandham who died of illness contracted in Macedonia after the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. The chapel is surrounded by lawns and orchards, with views of

Watership Down ''Watership Down'' is an adventure novel by English author Richard Adams, published by Rex Collings Ltd of London in 1972. Set in Hampshire in southern England, the story features a small group of rabbits. Although they live in their natur ...

. It is run by the

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

and is open to the public.

Paintings

Spencer's series of seventeen paintings was inspired by his own experiences during the First World War, in which he served as an orderly with the

Royal Army Medical Corps The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) was a specialist corps in the British Army which provided medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. On 15 November 2024, the corps was amalgamated with the Royal Army De ...

, first at

Beaufort War Hospital Beaufort War Hospital was a military hospital in Stapleton, Bristol, Stapleton district, now Greater Fishponds, of Bristol during the World War I, First World War. Before the war, it was an Lunatic Asylum, asylum called the Bristol Lunatic Asylum ...

in Bristol, and then on the

Macedonian front The Macedonian front, also known as the Salonica front (after Thessaloniki), was a military theatre of World War I formed as a result of an attempt by the Allied Powers to aid Serbia, in the autumn of 1915, against the combined attack of Germa ...

, where he was subsequently transferred to the infantry. He was influenced by

Giotto Giotto di Bondone (; – January 8, 1337), known mononymously as Giotto, was an List of Italian painters, Italian painter and architect from Florence during the Late Middle Ages. He worked during the International Gothic, Gothic and Italian Ren ...

’s

Arena Chapel The Scrovegni Chapel ( ), also known as the Arena Chapel, is a small church, adjacent to the Augustinian monastery, the ''Monastero degli Eremitani'' in Padua, region of Veneto, Italy. The chapel and monastery are now part of the complex of ...

murals in

Padua Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of 20 ...

. He wanted to paint

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

es too, but the environmental conditions were not appropriate. Upon being commissioned to paint the murals for the chapel, Spencer was heard to exclaim “What Ho, Giotto!” The subsequent paintings were commissioned in 1923, with Spencer moving to Burghclere in 1926 to work ''in situ''. The series was completed in 1932. It is dominated by the

Resurrection Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions involving the same person or deity returning to another body. The disappearance of a body is anothe ...

scene behind the altar, in which dozens of British soldiers lay the white wooden crosses that marked their graves at the feet of a distant Christ. The series chronicles Spencer's everyday experiences of the war rather than any scenes of action. When the art historian R. H. Wilenski saw the recently completed sequence, he wrote of his sense "that every one of the thousand memories recorded had been driven into the artist's consciousness like a sharp-pointed nail".

Name

The Chapel is consecrated as The Oratory of All Saints and only became officially recognised by its colloquial name Sandham Memorial Chapel following the National Trust's takeover of the property. Spencer would refer to it as his "Holy-Box", whilst the architect and patrons would privately refer to it as Spencer's "God-Box". Meanwhile, John and Mary Behrend's children pejoratively called it the "biscuit factory", in response to its "municipal" characteristics.Bromwell (2014). ''The God-Box of Burghclere'', p. 58.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * Bromwell, Tom (2014). ''The God-Box of Burghclere''. National Trust Historic Houses and Collections Annual, Apollo Magazine

External links

Images of the Sandham Memorial Chapel artworks at Art UK
{{Coord, 51.34467, -1.33622, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Chapels in England Church of England church buildings in Hampshire Grade I listed churches in Hampshire Grade I listed museum buildings Murals in England National Trust properties in Hampshire Tourist attractions in Hampshire War paintings Museums in Hampshire Art museums and galleries in Hampshire