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 recorded as resident in Lyminster in both the 1921 Census and 1939 Register. He is shown as having a dual occupation, as the village’s sub-postmaster and as a gardener, in each of these surveys: the post office is given as the address for himself and his family in 1921, but by 1939 he is living with his wife at 251 Church Road, which is actually located in the neighbouring village of Rustington. His gravestone, in Saint Mary Magdalene’s churchyard, gives the date of his death as 1951, and is inscribed as follows: “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 listed 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.

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.