The Knucker Of Lyminster

My mother’s family come from Littlehampton, and many years ago there was a big get-together of all my mum’s cousins; as there were four brothers who each had children who each had children it was quite a jolly gathering.

While we were there we looked around the area where our ancestors lived and went to the village of Lyminster where several of our family are buried. We wandered into th church and I picked up a booklet as I always do (I did pay for it!) and as well as it telling all about the history of the church, it also told about the legend of the Dragon of Lyminster, or the Worm, or the Knucker. The Knucker was a mighty serpent who lived in the ‘bottomless’ Knuckerholes, and terrified the neighbourhood. As you can imagine there are various legends about the Knucker and how it eventually met its fate, including one about a brave and cunning local man called Jim Puttock or Jim Pulk, who chopped off its head after poisoning it.

There really is a Knuckerhole, a pool fed by a deep underground stream which never dries up. The word knucker is of Anglo-Saxon origin, nicor, and means water serpent , and water dragons, nicoras, feature in Beowulf. It is interesting that there are similar words in Scandinavian languages, and in Iceland there is a nykur which is a water-horse – a little like the Scottish kelpie.

I have never seen a knucker, but I did see this dragon racing across the sky!