The Church of St. George at Trotton is well known to lovers of old churches, for within its rather barn-like walls are great treasures. Apart from the tower, which is earlier, it dates from about 1300, and was built thanks to the generosity of one of England’s great families, the Camoys, who held the manor for more than two centuries. Their tombs remain: a beautiful brass to Lady Margaret, who died in 1310 and the magnificent table tomb of Lord Thomas Camoys, hero of Agincourt, and his wife Elizabeth, in front of the altar. The west wall of the church is part of a picture book, such as all church walls were before the Reformation. King Henry VIII and his successor, the boy king Edward VI ordered that all painted images and sculptures should be destroyed or painted over, and so they were hidden from view until they were accidentally discovered in 1904.

The painting, carried out in simple earth colours, depicts a simplified version of the last Judgement, or Doom. Christ sits on a double rainbow at the top, whilst two angels bring two souls, one blessed and one cursed, into his presence. Below sits Moses, with the tables of the Law.

On our left, below the cursed soul, is the 9 ft. high figure of Satan, nude and full frontal, surrounded by the Seven Deadly Sins: Pride, Gluttony, Avarice, Wrath, Lust, Sloth and Envy. The best preserved is Gluttony, drinking from a large jug, with an empty flagon beside him.

Many years ago I was told the story, probably apocryphal, of how these paintings were discovered. News that something was hidden under the limewash had been made known, and one Sunday afternoon the Vicar’s daughter took her trowel and decided to investigate further. Of course, so the story went, she uncovered the very part of the nude figure that no young lady, let alone a Vicar’s daughter at the start of the last century, should have seen, and it caused great scandal, leading to the vital parts being obliterated. And so they remain to this day.

Corresponding with the figure of Satan on the other side, and below the blessed soul, is a modestly clad man with long hair and a beard, in an attitude of prayer, the equivalent of Good Deeds in the Morality Play, Everyman. He is supported by scrolls bearing the names of the Cardinal Virtues: Fides, Spes and Caritas (Faith, Hope and Charity.) Surrounding him are seven medallions containing the Seven Works of Mercy, all excellently preserved: Clothing the Naked, Feeding the Hungry, Giving Drink to the Thirsty, Harbouring the Stranger, Visiting the Sick, Visiting the Imprisoned and Burying the Dead.

Particularly interesting are two on the left of the figure, as we look at it. In Feeding the Hungry a woman stands in the doorway of a multi-gabled building offering sustenance to two callers, whilst immediately below a woman bends over a man in bed, holding his left wrist, whilst another figure stands at the head of the bed. It is rare to find this subject painted on the west wall of a church, although there is another at Chaldon, in Surrey, and one can easily imagine its powerful effect on our mediaeval forbears. Making their way home after their devotions, it would have been impossible to leave the church without confronting its moral lessons.

Tom Muckley, May 2006

This article was originally published by the Petersfield Post

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