Welcome to the official website for the Sand House, a unique and fascinating but little-known part of Britain’s heritage.
The Sand House was a prominent feature in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, from the 1850s until the Second World War. It was a mansion-sized dwelling carved from solid sandstone by Victorian businessman Henry Senior. As well as carving the house itself, which stood in a former quarry, Senior excavated into the adjacent ground and created a network of tunnels, decorated with fine and unusual carvings.
The definitive story of the Sand House is told by Richard Bell and Peter Tuffrey in their book ‘The Sand House – A Victorian Marvel Revisited’, available from Amberley Publishing at this link. Richard Bell is the owner and custodian of this website.
The main aims of this website are to:
- bring the Sand House to as wide an audience as possible;
- provide a way of gathering and sharing new information about the Sand House;
- promote events relating to the Sand House, such as illustrated talks and exhibitions.
In particular, we should like to draw your attention to a project taking place in Doncaster between 23 April and 29 June 2012. The
project is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and entitled ‘Sand House – The Elephant in the Room.’ It features an exhibition, the centrepiece of which is a re-creation of the iconic image of the Sand House tunnels, ‘The Elephant and Mahout.’ Please go to ‘The Elephant in the Room’ page for further details.
We hope that you enjoy finding out more about this Victorian marvel.
