Burghclere chapels paintings on show elsewhere during renovations
The work of Cookham war artist Sir Stanley Spencer (1891 to 1959) to honour the fallen of the First World War, the series of 19 murals in the Sandham Memorial Chapel will be removed during the work to the Grade-I listed building, owned by the National Trust.
The chapel closes on September 30 for 10 months and the paintings will meanwhile feature in the exhibition ‘Stanley Spencer, Heaven in a Hell of War’ at Somerset House, London, from November 7 to January 26, and then at Pallant House, Chichester, from February 15 to June 1.
They will return to the Burghclere chapel when it re-opens to visitors at the end of July next year.
Planning approval for the conservation work was approved on August 12 and will include work on three windows to improve the chapel’s weathertightness.
The trust plans to submit further planning applications to improve access to the chapel for disabled visitors, to create a small parking area on land opposite and also install a refreshments kiosk and toilets within almhouses next to the chapel.
Sandham chapel steward Alison Paton said: “Up until now, the facilities available to ourselves and our visitors have not done justice to this incredible building.
“But, with the support we have received so far, and our fundraising appeal, we hope to be able to create a wonderful experience for those coming to this place of remembrance and spirituality.”
The trust is also hoping to enlist help from partners such as the Wiltshire-based Tedworth House – a rehabilitation centre for injured service personnel, funded by the charity Help for Heroes – and other members of the local community, who will contribute personal stories and comments to the chapel’s new visitor facilities, possibly through recorded testimony, bringing contemporary voices to the chapel’s story.
Servicemen and women from the charity could also be involved in the creation of a garden of commemoration and hope at the chapel.
Ms Paton added: “We are also looking at how we can display and share some of the archive materials relating to the chapel, such as Stanley Spencer’s original sketches.”
The chapel was commissioned in 1926 by John Louis Behrend and his wife Mary, of Burgh-clere, to commemorate the life of Mrs Behrend’s brother, Lt Henry Willoughby Sandham, who died in 1919 as a result of an illness contracted during the Macedonian campaign in the First World War, in which the artist also served as a medical orderly.
Because of the conservation work at the chapel, this year’s Remembrance Day service in November is likely to be held outside.
