Chaldon Church is thought to have been originally founded by Saxons, but little is known of an early church dating to the late 7th century. The present building is mostly from the late 12th and early 13th centuries, with a south porch added in the 16th and a tower in the 19th. Its most famous feature is the wall paintings on the west wall, dating from around 1200.
Historians tell us that this mural simply depicts the ladder of salvation, the seven deadly sins, and the horrors awaiting in hell, purgatory, and the weighing of souls. Basically, it’s all along the standard lines. But look at the plot shown in this mural differently, without the religious fantasies. Just look at the story literally and try to answer for yourself what is really going on there.
It’s surprising that this fresco has survived to this day, and not been destroyed like hundreds or thousands of other frescoes with similar subjects. A clue was given to us by the famous writer Herbert Wells in his novel The Time Machine, which was published in 1895.
All the answers lie on the surface. The whole real history of our world and our civilization. The only question is, do we want to know and accept it? Man thinks he is the pinnacle of evolution, the king of all life on this planet, but he is no king or pinnacle at all.
