Sandham Memorial Chapel
Encyclopedia
Burghclere
Burghclere is a village and civil parish in the Basingstoke and Deane district of Hampshire, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 1,138...
, Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It is a Grade I listed 1920s decorated chapel, designed by Lionel Pearson as a memorial to the memory of Lieutenant Henry Willoughby Sandham, who had died at the end of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. It was commissioned by his sister and her husband, Mary and Louis Behrend. The chapel is surrounded by lawns and orchards, with views of Watership Down
Watership Down, Hampshire
Watership Down is a hill, or down, at Ecchinswell in the civil parish of Ecchinswell, Sydmonton and Bishops Green in the English county of Hampshire. It rises fairly steeply on its northern flank , but to the south the slope is much gentler . .The Down is best known as the setting for Richard...
. It is now run by the National Trust
National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty
The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
and is open to the public.
The chapel is famous for its series of paintings by the English artist Stanley Spencer
Stanley Spencer
Sir Stanley Spencer was an English painter. Much of his work depicts Biblical scenes, from miracles to Crucifixion, happening not in the Holy Land but in the small Thames-side village where he was born and spent most of his life...
which were inspired by his experiences during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, during which he served as an orderly with the Royal Army Medical Corps, first at Beaufort Hospital
Beaufort Hospital
Beaufort Hospital was a military hospital in Stapleton district of Bristol during World War I. Before the war it was an asylum and after the war it became a psychiatric hospital....
in Bristol, and then in Macedonia, where he subsequently transferred to the infantry. He was influenced by Giotto’s Arena Chapel murals in Padua
Padua
Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. Spencer had also wanted to paint mural
Mural
A mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other large permanent surface. A particularly distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture.-History:Murals of...
s, but the environmental conditions were not appropriate. The subsequent paintings were commissioned in 1923, with Spencer moving to Burghclere in 1926; they were completed in 1932, and are dominated by the Resurrection scene behind the altar, in which dozens of British soldiers lay the white wooden crosses that had marked their graves at the feet of a distant Christ. The series, which chronicles Spencer's everyday experiences of the war, rather than any scenes of action, is considered to be amongst his finest work. 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".