Let's hear it for Cuthmann

Did somebody mention heritage?  Well, what follows could, at a pinch, be considered part of the heritage of Sussex.

Cuthmann is generally supposed to have lived in what is now the small town of Steyning and he was a devoted son.  It is said that when his mother became too frail to walk, he pushed her around in a wheelbarrow.  I would have thought that quite an uncomfortable mode of travel but wheelchairs had not then been invented, Cuthmann having lived from about 681 until some time in the 8th century.  Cuthmann was responsible for building St Andrew's church in Steyning where King Ethelwulf of Wessex was buried in 857.

But the story I am about to relate is not to be found in official documents and, indeed, having been passed down the generations by word of mouth, there are several variations of it.

As well as looking after his paralysed mother, Cuthmann would drop by an elderly anchorite lady who lived on top of the South Downs.  One day he was on his way to visit the old lady when he sat on the top of a hill to catch his breath and admire the view, especially liking the number of church towers and spires he could see in the Low Weald in front of him.  Suddenly, the Devil appeared beside him and announced his intention to reclaim Sussex by drowning all the inhabitants.  To do this foul deed, he would dig a trench through the Downs to allow the sea to flow through.

Cuthmann challenged the Devil, saying that if he could dig the trench before the next dawn, he (Cuthmann) would not call upon his Lord to stop the Devil in his work.  It is, of course, well known that the Devil likes a challenge and so he set to work at once.  Cuthmann, meanwhile, walked on to visit the elderly lady.  He suggested to her that she should pray all night in darkness but that an early hour she should place a lighted candle in her window.  The lady agreed and Cuthmann wandered back to watch the Devil at work.

At three o'clock in the morning, the Devil spotted the lighted candle.  Mistaking it for the first hints of dawn, he threw down his shovel and fled the scene, leaving behind him the deep valley now known as the Devil's Dyke.  And to this day the Devil has never been seen again in Sussex.