ChichesterHistory

By local historian Andrew Berriman

Lyminster church

Lyminster is on the busy A284 road from the A27 down to Littlehampton. Actually that road is soon to be replaced by a much straighter £7.3m Lyminster Bypass. It is already in operation at its southern end and will be a single-lane dual carriageway, which sounds an odd concept, but means that there is some physical separation between the two lanes. The settlement of Lyminster was first mentioned in AD901 when King Alfred, in his will, bequeathed ‘Lullyngaminster’ to his nephew Osfred. Within a few years a nunnery was founded here. There are no remains of it, but this may explain why it is called Nonneminstre in Domesday Book (1086). By then the nunnery had been re-founded just south of the church near the present yard of Church Farm. Down the years Lyminster has had no fewer than nine variants on its name, which does seem rather excessive for such a small settlement. In Kelly’s Directory (1867) it is still called Leominster. It is worth spotting two gaps in the brick wall of the garden on the corner of Lyminster Road and Church Lane. They were used by WW2 Bren Gunners, giving them a clear line of sight down the road to the coast. WW2 Bren Gun slot, Lyminster House garden wall The Church of St Mary Magdalene is located on a slight spit of rising ground on the edge of the Arun flood plain. Looking towards the north-east from the church there are stunning views across the flat water-meadows to the mainline railway, river Arun, and in the distance the Hogwarts skyline of Arundel itself. The church dates to about 1040 and originally consisted of chancel, chancel arch and nave, with no aisles. It was lofty (20ft), long (63ft), narrow (21ft) with thin walls (2ft 7in.), all characteristic of a Saxon minster church with a number of clergy based there. The length-breadth ratio of 3:1 is typically Saxon. The nuns would have worshipped in the chancel, and the parish in the nave, with a wooden partition between them. The nunnery was an ‘alien’ community, a priory of the Norman Abbey of Almeneches, so it was often seized by English forces during periodic wars with France. This is no doubt why it was eventually suppressed in 1414 during the reign of King Henry V. It is good to note a close connection between the village church and rhe village pub. The church has a ring of six bells, cast at the famous Whitechapel Bell Foundry, the first two in 1759, so it is for that reason that the local, down the road, is called The Six Bells. Actually it is outside the parish boundary, whereas just within it is Arundel Railway Station, located some way away from the town of Arundel itself, as the Duke of Norfolk didn’t want it too near his Castle. Up at Crossbush is the Convent of Poor Clares behind a screen of trees, with its narrow spire just visible, so the tradition of nuns in the locality endures. These nuns came to national attention in 2020 when their CD album of religious music, ‘Light for the World’, topped the classical music charts, and brought comfort to many in those dark early days of the Covid pandemic Lockdown. Also dark and mysterious is the Black Ditch, a once-navigable watercourse which still forms the southern boundary of the parish. Even more mysterious is the Knucker Hole, a round, blue, very deep pool of icy water just north of the church, alongside the footpath to Arundel. According to local legend its supposed occupant was a dragon (or Niccor, the old Anglo-Saxon word for sea-monster) who preyed on local folk and animals until he was poisoned and chopped up by farmer’s son Jim Pulk. Jim celebrated his deed with ale, presumably at the Six Bells, but tragically wiped his bloodied hands over his damp mouth….and promptly died from the same poison. It all sounds slightly silly, doesn’t it, or am I just being an old sourpuss? For local silliness I much prefer the strange sight of the nearby McDonald’s fast-food outlet all alone in a field up near the A27 roundabout. Do the cows really fancy munching a Big Mac?