Saint
Cuthman's Barrow
Where the rope broke, the church began.
See it clearly
- What's there
- Large Norman church with a statue of Cuthman outside
- Legend from
- Hagiography
- Tone
- Heartwarming
A shepherd, his mother in a wheelbarrow, and a rope that snapped exactly where a church was meant to go.
St Cuthman was a shepherd who had to look after his paralysed mother. When they were reduced to begging, he built a one-wheeled cart or wheelbarrow, with a rope from the handles over his shoulders, and pushed her eastward. When the rope broke he made a new one from withies and decided that when that one broke he would take it as God's sign to stop and build a church. The withy rope broke at Steyning. The church has a Cuthman chapel and a statue, and Steyning's town sign still shows him with the barrow.