Three cats enjoy the sunshine outside of the Sandham Memorial Chapel

            This modest red-brick building tucked away in a quiet corner of Hampshire houses an unexpected treasure – an epic series of large-scale murals, by the acclaimed war artist Sir Stanley Spencer.  Sandham Memorial Chapel is in the village of Burghclere, Hampshire, England. It is a Grade I listed 1920s decorated chapel, designed by Lionel Pearson as a memorial to Lieutenant Henry Willoughby Sandham, who died at the end of the First World War. 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. It is now run by the National Trust and is open to the public.

Built to honour the 'forgotten dead' of the First World War, who were not remembered on any official memorials, the series was inspired by Spencer’s own experiences as a medical orderly and soldier on the Salonika front, and is peppered with personal and unexpected details. The paintings took six years to complete in all, and are considered by many to be the artist’s finest achievement, drawing such praise as 'Britain’s answer to the Sistine Chapel'.

The chapel was built to accommodate a series of paintings by the English artist Stanley Spencer that were inspired by his own experiences during the First World War, in which he served as an orderly with the Royal Army Medical Corps, first at Beaufort Hospital in Bristol, and then in Macedonia, where he was subsequently transferred to the infantry. He was influenced by Giotto’s Arena Chapel murals in Padua. He wanted to paint murals too, but the environmental conditions were not appropriate. The subsequent paintings were commissioned in 1923, Spencer moved to Burghclere in 1926, and the series was completed in 1932. It is dominated by the Resurrection 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"

The chapel still holds services three to four times a year, the most important of these being the annual Remembrance Day event.

Sadly in 2012 there was no service in the chapel to mark Remembrance Sunday and because of copywrite issues you are unable to take pictures. If you are passing on Spring or Summer weekend and you have 30 minutes to spare pay the National Trust a fiver and enter the Chapel and enjoy.

Taken in: United Kingdom / England / Burghclere (show map)

Taken on: November 11, 2012

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Groups appears in: • NATIONAL TRUST and all great houses(inside and outside) and the • National Trust more » • Architecture and Buildings • architectural photography • Architecture / 建築 • Architecture UK • *Hampshire, Berkshire, Surrey & Dorset (England, UK)* • Architecture and Other Edifices • County of Hampshire • Architecture in Europe • IMAGE`S OF BUILDINGS - OLD AND NEW • Hampshire Churches • English Landscape • Architecture of Days Gone By • Brick & Stone Architecture • Architecture Directory • Listed Buildings (England) • Small English Landscapes • (Officially) England's Best Buildings • Edwardian Architecture • British Architecture • England's Thousand Best Churches • Landscape Beauty ! • National Trust - Time Well Spent • National Trust properties in the UK • National Trust Outdoors • Project Weather • National Trust Autumn • Sacred architecture • Architecture of church buildings • Interesting Buildings Worldwide « less

Camera: Nikon D800E, f/3.2, 1/2500 sec, 35mm, ISO 160 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D800E
Lens:	AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.4G
Aperture:	f/3.2
Exposure Time:	1/2500 sec
Focal Length:	35mm
ISO:	160
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Scene Capture Type:	Landscape
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Aperture 3.4.2
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