Free for members
Sandham Memorial Chapel is a modest red-brick building in the Hampshire village of Burghclere that holds one of the great works of 20th-century British art: 19 oil paintings by Stanley Spencer covering three walls, which took him six years and which he called his Holy Box. Commissioned by Louis and Mary Behrend in memory of her brother Lieutenant Harry Sandham, who died of malaria after Salonika and, being demobbed, was left off every official war memorial, they draw on Spencer's own war as a medical orderly at the Beaufort Hospital in Bristol and on the Salonika front, showing the everyday life of the ranks beneath the altar wall's Resurrection of the Soldiers. Outside, the 1920s orchard and the Garden of Reflection look across to Watership Down. Dogs on a short lead are welcome in the garden and orchard, with only assistance dogs inside the chapel and exhibition. The Trust's easy 2.5-mile walk in Spencer's footsteps circles the village from the chapel. Reviewers praise the volunteers, the film on the Salonika campaign and the pop-up tea room where you make your own drink for a donation. One tip: the car park opposite is locked 15 minutes after closing.
Accessible parking is available at the rear of the Chapel. Please call 01635 278394 if you have any access needs.
Chapel
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Dog friendly
2.5 miles (4km), easy, 1 hour 30 minutes, circular from the chapel on Harts Lane (grid ref SU463608) around Burghclere to the places where Spencer lived and worked.
