Today I am going to take a look at reports of serpents or dragons in various parts of Sussex, which run right up to as recently as 1867. As I write I have just e-mailed Worthing library to ask if they have any cuttings within their large collection that continue the saga of the Fittleworth dragon/serpent beyond the late 1860s. In a strange coincidence, 1867 (May 9th, in fact) was the date of a shower of hazelnuts in Dublin. I`m sure there`s no connection! I first read about the Fittleworth monster about 15 years ago when I read Bill Cooper`s book After The Flood: The early post-flood history of Europe traced back to Noah. Whatever your opinion about Genesis, this is a fascinating book and mentions the Fittleworth creature thus:
'In 1867 was seen, for the last time, the monster that lived in the woods around Fittleworth in Sussex. It would run up to people hissing and spitting if they happened to stumble across it unawares, although it never harmed anyone' (1)
In an e-mail to me last November, Cooper said:
'Attached is a photo of a representation of the Fittlewoerth creature carved into a misericord in Chichester Cathedral…The misericord (this one dates from the Middle Ages and so pre-dates 1867 by several centuries) was reserved for the use of the Prebend of Fittleworth, and such representations nearly always featured local knowledge of something for which the user`s locality was famous.So it seems that the creature was reptilian and bipedal:
http://www.misericords.co.uk/chichester_des.html (2)
Cooper continues:
'During 187, at Fittleworth in Sussex, another snake-like animal was spoken of…one record does exist from Fittleworth of an, “…oudaciously large”creature which was said to have inhabited a lair near an overgrown pathway. The beast would never let anyone pass, but attacks on humans seem to have never taken place. (3)
The Foolish People – British Dragon Gazeteer web site describes the Fittleworth Dragon as a “worm” (4)
The late Clinton Keeling wrote me a rather amusing letter about the Fittleworth creature:
'The “Fittleworth Monster” – phew! After getting in touch with the local vicar and headteacher – totally without success, and contriving to rouse some sort of suspicion - I then drove the staff of the West Sussex Record Office to distraction…In point of fact, I`m interested to learn it (somewhat unlikely) lived near a path. There are many yarns like this in Sussex (where I used to live), and they were often made up and broadcast by smugglers to keep people away from the paths where they came along at night with their booty. To this day there are hundreds of such, now overgrown, tracks in the area, running north to south to and from the sea.
Anyway, that`s a drink you owe me sometime!' (5)
Sadly, Clinton died before I could buy him that drink.
Other Sussex dragons include – Lyminster, the Knucker was supposed to have inhabited a bottomless hole. A local lad named Jim Puttock “baked a poisoned pie so huge it needed a horse and cart to transport it to the Knucker hole. The dragon ate the pie, the cart, the horse, and subsequently died. Knucker is believed to derive from nikyr, Old Norse for water.
Monster. Bignor had a dragon story as did Cissbury, where there was supposed to have been a hidden treasure. “ In the 1860s the owner of the hall offered half the treasure to anyone who could clear out the tunnel and find the horde. Several people tried but were driven back by huge snakes that sprang hissing at them with open mouths. (7)
1. B. Cooper After The Flood (1995) p.135
2. E-mail from B. Cooper to R. Muirhead 17th November 2009
3. Ibid.
4. British Dragon Gazeteer http://www.foolishpeople.com/foolishpeople/2005/11/british_dragon_html
5. Letter from C. Keeling to R.Muirhead 30th October 1996
6. British Dragon Gazeteer website op cit.
7. British Dragon Gazeteer website op cit
Next week Part Two will continue the story of the dragons of Sussex.
Bob Dylan Political World
We live in a political world.
Love don`t have any place.
We`re living in times where men commit crimes
And crime don`t have a face
We live in a political world,
Icicles hanging down,
Wedding bells ring and angels sing,
Clouds cover up the ground…
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