p.68: SAMUEL EVERSHED

Samuel Evershed (1822-1899) had papers and correspondence published in the Sussex Archaeological Collections from 1866 to 1872. The “Legend of the Dragon-Slayer of Lyminster” is his only excursion into local folklore, although he did speculate that Nore Wood at Eartham, in West Sussex, might have been the site of the sacred grove dedicated to Nerthus (Mother Earth) described by Tacitus in his Germania. I think it likely that, as was the case with Rosemary Anne Sisson and Jon Williams, he absorbed some variant of the tale of the Knucker in his childhood, having been born and raised in Arundel.

p.73: W. W. SKEAT

In a letter composed in response to the publication of Canon Tatham’s “Dragon Folk-Lore in Sussex” in the previous month’s issue of the Sussex County Magazine, F. Fleetwood Buss writes:

“Surely, whatever may be the modern spelling of this word, the actual spot must originally have been known as the Nucker-Hole!”

He goes on to list a succession of biblical and folkloric dragons with watery habitats, and concludes:

“Cumulatively all these folk-tales, connecting dragons with wells, seem to emphasise the derivation of the Lyminster Knucker-hole from Nicor, the water-monster of the South Saxons, rather than from any Celtic word, knuck or knuckle.”

This is printed along with an editorial reply, in which it is reported that:

“The late Rev. W. W. Skeet [sic], Professor of Anglo-Saxon in the University of Cambridge, once informed me that in his opinion the correct spelling of the word is ‘Nucker’, which is from the Anglo-Saxon nicor, … as Mr Fleetwood Buss points out.”

Although this statement dates from twenty-eight years after the publication of Johnston’s article, and nineteen after the death of Skeat, it suggests that the latter was indeed aware of the Knucker Hole, and had formed the opinion on its etymology asserted by Johnston.

p.74: CHARLES G. JOINER

Charles G. Joiner makes five appearances in the Sussex County Magazine during the course of 1929, although I cannot find any trace of him elsewhere in its run. In the March issue, it is stated that he has won the first prize of one guinea in a competition, for sending in the best imaginary conversation “between Charles II. and his attendants during the historical ride over the Sussex Downs to Brighthelmstone”. He has letters printed in July, August and December: “The Knucker of Lyminster” is also published in the December issue, perhaps marking the culmination of his interest in the magazine. In the competition announcement, his address is given as Charlton House, Arundel, but he is not listed as an occupant there in either the 1921 Census or the 1939 Register. He evidently had family roots in West Sussex, as he writes of his great-grandfather holding land in Watersfield in his final letter.

p.77: JOHN BISHOP

John Bishop was born in Kemble, Wiltshire, on 25 May 1874, and was listed as resident in Lyminster in both the 1921 Census and the 1939 Register. He held dual occupations, as the village’s sub-postmaster and as a gardener, when each of these surveys was carried out. The census identifies his employer as Captain William Kemp of Lyminster House, and he would have been working for Rosemary Anne Sisson’s parents at Churchfield when she heard the story of the Knucker from him in the 1930s.

Bishop was living with his family at the post office in 1921. His wife Caroline was assistant postmistress, and their two younger children also had jobs with the GPO. The post office itself was located at 253 Church-Road (now Church Lane): although it has been converted into a private dwelling, mail is still deposited into and collected from the Ludlow wall-box built into its frontage. By 1939, he and Caroline had moved two doors further east along the street, to number 251: the GOV.UK website shows that this remained his address until his death on 25 January 1951.

He is buried in the graveyard of Saint Mary Magdalene’s Church. Caroline was subsequently laid to rest in the same plot, and the Sissons are interred close by: Churchfield, where they had made their home, and where Bishop had once tended the garden, is situated just across the lane from his grave. The epitaph carved upon his headstone reads: “The birds sang for him, / and under his hand / the flowers bloomed.”

I had wondered if Bishop might have proved to be the single source of both Joiner and Sisson’s tales, but he is not a good match for Joiner’s hedger, if the portrayal of the latter is based upon a genuine informant. While the hedger had “lived at Toddington all my life”, Bishop cannot have settled in Sussex before the age of thirty, as the two elder children named in the census were born in Acton and Amersham respectively: his youngest son was born in 1905 in Coldwaltham, less than ten miles from Lyminster.

p.84: SAINT MARY MAGDALENE, LYMINSTER

A return visit to the church in 2026 yielded two further images of the Knucker.

1

A fabric collage, made by pupils at the local primary school in the early 1960s, relocates the Knucker Hole to Saint Mary Magdalene’s Churchyard. The circular pool is set directly upon the path leading across the churchyard, as though the earth has abruptly dropped away to create it, while the Knucker itself is balanced on top of the water, casting a darker blue shadow upon its surface.

The Knucker is subjected to a twofold assault. A serenely praying angel, hovering in the sky, shoots three golden rays towards its back. Evidently bothered by this intervention, the Knucker twists its head around to retaliate, breathing out thin curling flames. There is an element of pathos to its response, as there appears to be absolutely no possibility of the flames reaching their target. Even as the Knucker is distracted by the angel, a wild-looking Jim strikes at its extended neck with his scythe.

A princess stands among the gravestones, gazing towards the combat. She is clad in a long purple overgown, its sleeves edged with gold embroidery, with a conical and veiled hennin perched on top of her incongruous blonde bob. A line of nuns, unperturbed by the events taking place around them, file along the path towards the church.

2

The Knucker appears again upon a canvaswork kneeler hung from the back of a pew. Here it is depicted with its forelegs braced upon the grass at the edge of a pool that scarcely seems large enough to contain it. Even as it raises itself onto the bank, it puffs out fire from a beak-like mouth. My partner Bridget remarked that this hand-stiched monster would have looked quite at home among the pixelated glories of Jon Williams’s game.

ADDITIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

[Beckett, Arthur,] “Imaginary Conversations – 1st Award”, Sussex County Magazine, 3 (1929), 144.
Buss, F. Fleetwood, “The Knucker-Hole”, Sussex County Magazine, 5 (1931), 768.
Evershed, Samuel, “Eartham”, Sussex Archaeological Collections, 18 (1866), 187-188.
“Samuel Evershed in 1822”, Find My Past,
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=TNA%2FRG4%2FBAP%2F704164&tab=this, accessed 5 Jun. 2026.
“Samuel Evershed in 1841”, Find My Past,
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=GBC%2F1841%2F0014689302&tab=this, accessed 5 Jun. 2026.
“John Bishop in 1921”, Find My Past,
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=GBC%2F1921%FRG15%2F05081%2F0231%2F01&tab=this, accessed 4 Jun. 2026.
“John Bishop in 1939”, Find My Past,
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=TNA%2FR39%2F2635%2F2635H%2F002%2F15&tab=this, accessed 4 Jun. 2026.
Joiner, Chas. G., “‘Along the Roman Road’”, Sussex County Magazine, 3 (1929), 880.
Joiner, Chas. G., “The Derivation of ‘Lydes’”, Sussex County Magazine, 3 (1929), 504.
Joiner, Chas. G., “The Roman Road: Chichester to Portslade”, Sussex County Magazine, 3 (1929), 588.