The bulk of the collection consists of letters written by William, Percy and Sydney Spencer, three of the brothers of Stanley Spencer, the artist, mostly written to their sister Florence Image (aunt of Pamela, to whom they ultimately descended). Percy and Sydney write extensively of their wartime experiences on the Western Front. William, who lived in Germany and Switzerland, where he worked as a music teacher, writes on a variety of artistic and spiritual topics. His correspondence continues until his death in 1954. All three write vividly and fluently, and altogether some 500 letters are included, amounting to in excess of 200,000 words.
The collection also includes a smaller group of letters and papers of Stanley Spencer himself (though mostly he appears in the papers at second hand in the letters written by his parents and siblings) and of his father, William senior, together with occasional writings by other siblings and by his daughter Unity.