Royal Victoria Country Park Chapel

Royal Victoria Country Park is a beautiful shore-side park by Southampton Waters and near Netley Abbey. From 1863 until 1966, the park was home to the Royal Victoria (or 'Netley') Military Hospital. For its early life, the hospital gave over a section of its premises to accomodate the army's first ever purpose-built military asylum and also served as a base for the Army Medical School, training civilian doctors for army services. In both World Wars, the hospital errected huts on the back of the site and was used to treat the tens of thousands of injured returning from the battlefields. In the mid 20th century, the hospital had fallen into disrepair and due to lack of use or resources for restoration, was closed in 1958. In 1963, a large fire damaged the hospital and so in 1966 the remains were demolished, with the exception of the chapel which now remains as a heritage centre. The council took over the site in 1969, re-opening it as a public space in 1970. The park has a range of hauntings to its name - the sounds and spectral images of previous patients have been reported, an invisible horse and carriage has been heard taking the back path from the site of the old hospital to the still present cemetery, and most famously, visitors have heard and spotted the 'replay' of a nurse who supposedly threw herself from the top of the chapel building after a patient in her care died.