Church in the Wood on Bramdean Common, c.1940.
This picturesque chapel dates from the year 1883, when it was erected in just 5 weeks under the instigation of the Revd Alfred Caesar Bishop who at that time lived at Bramdean House. It was accordingly constructed so that the elderly and infirm population (including others) of Bramdean Common would not need to walk a long distance to the Parish Church at Bramdean.
The church was built on land owned by Magdalen College in Oxford, and was later passed into the hands of Mr Ormond Theyer (who was the proprietor of a vast part of now private land on Bramdean Common).
In the 1980s, the church was in danger of demolition, and was subsequently saved by the Bramdean Society, which at that time was headed by Mr Terry Norman.
Image & caption displayed courtesy Thomas Carpenter - Bramdean Archives