Chaldon Church - Farthing Downs - Surrey

Chaldon Church is of Saxon Foundation and is recorded in the Charter of Frithwald, dated 727 AD. It came under the overlordship of the King of Mercia who founded Chertsey Abbey in 666 AD.
Chertsey Abbey was the first religious settlement in Surrey and was run by Benedictine monks. Little is known of the early church buildings, possibly a wooden structure, dating from 675, but there are no remains of them. The Normans set up the Manorial System in England and in 1085 made the Great Survey which resulted in the Domesday Book in which Chaldon is recorded as "Chalvedune, being of two hides (200 acres) and a church". Tollsworth Manor and Chaldon Manor both came under the Charter of Chertsey and remained so until the Dissolution of the Monasteries by King Henry VIII.

The present church was started in the late 10th or early 11th century, before the Normans came. It consisted originally of a rectangular nave, 27 feet long and just over 17 feet wide with high walls probably having an apse at the east end, characteristic of Saxon church building. The west wall is of traditional flint construction and is almost certainly original, and the wall containing the chancel arch may also be. The aisles were opened up by simple Early English arches into the similar high walls, - the south aisle in the early 13th century, and the north aisle perhaps 50 years later. The pair of arches of the south aisle have a simple chamfer, while those of the north aisle have a double chamfer, and the capitals of the piers confirm the age.

The chancel arch is also Early English, an enlargement of the original archway. Originally there were arches from the chancel to extensions of both aisles, but the northern arch is walled-up, (and revealed in the 1869 restoration). The east window of the chancel contains scenes of Christ's Nativity, Crucifixion and Ascension, by Powell, and dates from 1869, erected in memory of John Pickersgill of Netherne House died 11th November 1865. There is an Easter sepulchre on the north side with quatrefoils and blank shields from the 15th century.

Next to this on the same wall is a renaissance tablet, with ornate pilasters and pediment, dated 1562, with a face resembling a flaming sun, bearing the easily readable inscription.

R
I 1562 E

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