Meeting at Trotton, Sussex

The autumn General Meeting at Trotton on 15 October 2022 was a most enjoyable day, with interesting talks; a chance to view two nationally important brasses; a very helpful parish, who made us extremely welcome; and a magnificent tea with homemade cakes by one of our members.

Almost 70 members and guests were present, including descendants of some of those commemorated on the brasses in the church.

The programme commenced at 2.00p.m. with Nigel Saul speaking on The Camoys family, the church and the brasses. Anne Curry, Emeritus Professor of Medieval History at the University of Southampton with a special interest in the Hundred Years War and especially the Battle of Agincourt, then spoke on Thomas Camoys and the Hundred Years War. Tea and an opportunity to view the brasses, monuments and spectacular wall paintings followed. The afternoon concluded with a talk by Florence Eccleston on Sin and Salvation: the wall paintings at Trotton.

Trotton is an unusual church, all one build of the early 14th century and not enlarged or altered since. Nigel Saul suggested that it had been built for wall paintings rather than for burials. If so, the original paintings will have been overpainted by the wonderful paintings that now remain, which he suggested were commissioned by Thomas Lord Camoys after he moved to Trotton in 1386.