From Volume Six, pages 454 and 455, of Regional Survey Of Warminster District, compiled by Victor Strode Manley during the 1920s and 1930s (unpublished by Manley):
KNOOK
Distance from Warminster, 5 miles.
Population 93 (1911).
St. Margaret’s Church.
Living annexed to Heytesbury.
Is this the Margaret who was swallowed by a dragon? (see below). She lived ?1045-93, was Queen of Scotland, born in Hungary, the daughter of Edward the Exile of England. M. Malcolm Canmore and did in Edinburgh Castle. Her head removed to Douay: her Gospel book in Bodleian Library.
A track to the south leads to Corton and beyond to the ‘Roman Road’, northwards to Knook Castle.
Place-Name. Knook or Knocke – Keltic, Gaelic dialect, Cnoc, a hillock or knoll.
Prehistoric – The hamlet is at a ford. Knook Castle is a square prehistoric camp, generally assigned to the Roman-British period, from which such remains have been found, but camps of this pattern are now generally dated to the La Tene period. (See volume 2 quoting ‘Antiquity’.) It is 2 miles north-east of Heytesbury on the Chitterne road at the top of Anstey Hill, sited just below the sky-line and so almost invisible. Knook Barrow is a little to the west of it. Connection seems to have been made with Upton Lovel. Q.v. “Further north is the Old Ditch which goes across the Plain in the direction of Tilshead, and along which various vestiges of prehistoric dwellings have been traced.†(Heath). – Devizes Museum Catalogue 1, no.14. – Neolithic celt, ground all over 8 5/8 ins. (K.C.) – no.27. – Bronze knife Dagger Barrow near Knook. – no.44. – Sandstone bead, R-Brit. 44a. Bead of green glass. K.Down. Cat. II. No.330a. – Bronze Brooch. Roman. R-B. village just outside Knook Castle. This site is the nearer to Knook Castle of the two British settlements mentioned by Hoare, Archaeology of Wilts, South, page 84 . . . here R.B. pottery, scratched out of the ground by moles, far from any track or spot, where it is likely to have been carried in recent times.†Text H.ii.p.372 mentions Roman brick flues at Knook. Old Ditch runs by from Westbury Leigh to Durnford.
Knook, see Bibliography. Appendix. Vol.8. Barrows, Church, Manor, Enclosure Act 1792.
The Church – near Heytesbury, hidden away at the end of a turning on the south of the main road, though tiny, is of great interest. On its south wall is a blocked-in doorway with pillars and cushion capitals of Norman design, as are the arches of the chancel arch. The tympanium of this door is a mystery. In a semicircle are carved two mythical animals resembling dragons but not both quite alike. They are entwined in circles of a conventional bramble, apparently, and there are other floral designs in the bottom corners including a fleur de lys. Their mouths are biting their entanglement and both face a flagon-like object in the centre as if they were attempting to reach it. The difference between the two animals is this – the left one is more like a dragon, a land animal judging by the legs, but the right leg looks webbed and the left has three toes, its tail long and thin and finishing in a floral expansion, whilst the shoulder has a sort of wing; the right animal is aquatic with a beaver-like tail and seal-like arm. (A dragon, of course, is an exaggerated sacred crocodile). This right animal is very similar to that shown in the Winchester brooch I have drawn here, and which is dated either to the late Saxon period 800-1220 or the period 1180-1220. It seems clear we have a Saxon design, as, perhaps adorned their ship figureheads. Apart from the artistic composition, I think there is some legend or myth illustrated. It reminds one of the ram caught in a thicket which Abram sacrificed, but had we the complete legend of St. Margaret’s adventure with the dragon, the mystery might be solved. The heads of both being like deer seem to prove that neither is related to the Keltic Welsh dragon which is of the griffin or wyvern species with a beak and it would not be till the late Saxon period that any stone churches would be built. Authorities seem agreed, too, that it is earlier than the Norman period, and as Stockton had its Irish princess saint, the origin of the design may be found in some Irish Christian idea coming along the ‘Roman Road’ from the Island of Saints. There is, I believe, an article somewhere in the Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine.
Knook tympanium. The Shellal mosaic discovered between Gaza and Beersheba by Australian troops during the [Great] War v.Khali Diary, Vol.7.) of a Christian chapel circa 561 A.D. included a Greek amphora, branches and animals and birds, the motif being the True Vine and the Branches, and the animals probably represent pagan tribes converted. It was also suggested that the skeleton beneath might be that of St. George. This suggests the Knook design as representing the same symbolism, Chalice, True Vine and Branches, and pagan Dragons (i.e. chiefs) converted.
Knook Dragons – I had my sketch photographed by Mr. Till in October 1931 on which the title “The True Vine†occurs. The idea was supplied by the discovery in 1917, at Shellal, near Beersheba, of a mosaic featuring the same motif. (v. Khaki Diary, Vol.7.) This was described in “The New Zealanders in Palestine†(published 1922) page 114. It was discovered on top of a small, conical hill, among the ruins of a Christian chapel dated about 561. “The True Vine issues from a Greek Amphora . . . on either side a hare escaping from a hound – the soul escaping from temptation. All around the central idea are representations of animals . . . It may be possible that each animal represents some Eastern Race which had embraced Christianity.†The entanglement of the Knook Dragons may be considered in the prophecy of Ascalon:- “O man, savage, ferocious, brutal, what desolations thou hast wrought on the earth! They have stretched upon Ascalon the line of confusion and the stones of emptiness. Thorns have come up in her places and brambles in the fortresses thereof; and it is a habitation of Dragons and a court of owls.†Isaiah.
The mound and enclosed dolman at La Hougue Bie, in Jersey, is associated with a dragon, and on the mound a Christian chapel was erected. The dragon in this case is thought to have been a pagan chief who was overcome by Christians and the place of his cult occupied by them.
Re the Shellal hare, cf. Hare of Roman-British pavement at Bishopstrow, and hare legend of Cley Hill. The animal was one of the familiars of the corn spirit.
Re Knook, is the object which the dragons seem to be attempting to reach an amphora, and hence the entangling branches which frustrate them, the Vine, i.e. Christianity and the Blood of Christ frustrating paganism.
Knook “Dragons†copies of photos sent F. Stevens, Salisbury Museum and Rev. E.H. Goddard, Clyffe Vicarage, Swindon. Letter replied 3 October 1931:-
“. . . shall be placed in the Society’s Library. I hardly think, however, that the beasts here are intended as Dragons – I see that Romilly Allen, in his “Church Symbolism, page 285, cites Knook amongst several churches as having what he calls a “not uncommon subject†a Tree with a beast on each side of it.†Of course that subject in one form or another goes back to very remote antiquity – long previous to Christianity – but whether it is at Knook anything more than a conventional pattern to fill a tympanium with is another question. I do not think there is any amphora here.â€
Sundial. A census of church sundials is being undertaken by Frank Turner. At Knook there is a ‘scratch dial’ above the Norman capital on the left of the blocked-in door on the south side. This door is said to have been reserved for those living in the ‘monks’ house’ which it faces.
See article and correspondence, NC book ‘Archaeology’ pages 1-2. Text ‘Scratch Dials’ by Dom. E. Horne, F.S.A. (Simpkin Marshall) 2/6 1917). Re Somerset placed usually at the Priest’s door – some with only the Mass hours marked – Mediaeval Sundials usually small coverable by the hand – introduced by Normans – Complete Census being taken by Central Council for the Care of Churches. ‘We find them cut as part of the cap of the Norman pillar (at Bishampton etc.). – Predecessors were Saxon sundials with octaval system of time marking. No mention of these dials in the Mediaeval documents – Origin and use of Scratch Dials published T.W. Coles, 87 High Street, Wimbledon, 4d., 1936.
Newspaper Cutting (unnamed and undated):
Sir, I hope your correspondent, Mr. E.P. Timmens, will not mind my pointing out that the dial he describes as a “Mass clock†on Saintbury Church, Gloucestershire, and calls it “the finest example that has come under his notice,†is not a Mass dial at all. It is an ordinary Saxon sundial, and it told the time for all the hours of the day, by the system then in use. It was not specially marked for the Mass hour, as an ordinary scratch dial is. There is another even finer specimen of a Saxon sundial at Daglingworth, in the same county. As the method of marking the mass hour was brought into this country by the Normans, we should not expect to find it on Saxon dials, which were made to be ordinary time-keepers, such as our clocks are now. I am afraid I have also to differ from your correspondent’s statement that on scratch dials “only the hours of the Mass are indicated.†I had examined the walls of 500 churches before bringing out my little book on “Scratch Dials,†and in only two cases have I found the Mass line the only line on the dial. The vast majority mark for vespers as well as for Mass. Yours faithfully, ETHELBERT HORNE, F.S.A. Downside Abbey, Bath.
Newspaper Cutting, unnamed and undated:
Sir, I am glad to learn that a systematic census is to be taken of ancient sundials. There must be many examples in existence which are not yet recorded. I have photographic records of two “scratch,†or Mass, dials in this county of Hertfordshire, both being in a fair state of preservation. One is on the tower of North Mimms church, the other occupies a position near the main door of the ancient church at Bengeo, Hertford, which is said to date from Norman times. This church is now seldom used for services, but it is one of the few churches in this county that boasts an apsidal chancel.
Two years ago, when holidaying at Cromer, in Norfolk, I visited the fine old church of All Saints, Beeston, which stands on the cliffs a mile or two from Cromer, on the way to Sheringham. Here a fine “scratch†dial, fairly low down on a buttress, s to be seen. I was pleased to see that the stone was carefully protected from the elements by having a glass placed over it.
Should any of your readers know of further examples of dials in Hertfordshire, I shall be glad of any information they care to give. I am, Sir, yours, etc., C.L. STEVENSON, Hon. Secretary, The Barnet and District Record Society. 36 Ravenscroft Park, Barnet, Herts.
Knook – The Church was restored in 1882.
The Manor House – Fortunately this did not escape the eye of W.H. Hudson, who wrote in his “A Shepherd’s Lifeâ€, chapter xiii, paragraphs 7-8:- “The manor house which most interested me was that of Knook, poor little village between Heytesbury and Upton Lovell. Its ancient and towerless little church with rough, grey walls is, if possible, even more desolate-looking than that of Tytherington. In my hunt for the key to open it I disturbed a quaint old man, another octogenarian, picturesque in a vast white beard, who told me he was a thatcher, or had been one before the evil days came when he could not work no more and was compelled to seek parish relief. “You must go to the manor-house for the key,†he told me. A strange place to look for the key, and it was stranger still to see the house, close to the church, and so like it that but for the small cross on the roof of the latter one could not have known which was the sacred building. First a monk’s house, it fell at the Reformation to some greedy gentleman who made it his dwelling, and doubtless in later times it was used as a farm-house. Now a house most desolate, dirty and neglected, with cracks in the walls which threaten ruin, standing in a wilderness of weeds tenanted by a poor working-man whose wages are twelve shillings a week, and his wife and eight small children.†Hudson said it was the cheapest manor house in England, the rent being eighteen pence a week. – I visited it in 1924 when it was empty and the roof fallen in. My next visit was in 1927 when I found it recently repaired without any outward despoiling, and tenanted.
On 3 June 1716 it was Dyke of Knook who shot the highwayman, Baldwin, on West Lavington Sheep Downs, as related under Imber (History of Warminster, page 86.)
Here again, did the Commissioners of Ed. VII, circa 1553, reserve the church plate “for the King’s use.†– H.ii.123.