IN the programme for The Knutsford Heritage Open Days, the Knutsford Promenades Community Association were claiming Canute as a “famous Knutsfordian” and inviting people to “follow in King Canute’s footsteps” in the ‘Canute Crossing’ on Saturday, September 10.

That morning I challenged this misinformation – which has been put out repeatedly over the past year – by setting up a temporary banner on the Moor.

This read:- Knutsford cherished traditions and tales regarding ‘King Canute and the River Lily’ are good fun, and to be celebrated; but it is also good to be aware that there is no evidence that Cnut the Great ever came to this part of the country or that the town took its name from him.

I erected the banner at about 10am beside the fine, official Knutsford Moor sign which simply and sensibly states that it is only a local tradition that Cnut ever came here, not historical fact.

The same statement is also made in the excellent exhibition at the Knutsford Heritage Centre.

A ‘Battle of the River Lily 2016’ nearly ensued.

People associated with the Knutsford Promenades Community Association, who were beginning to set up for the afternoon’s events, threatened to pull down the structure that I was putting up (potentially doing a little damage to it); but then they wisely desisted.

For an hour or so I sat under my banner playing tunes on an Anglo- Saxon lyre of the sort that Cnut himself may well have played.

There is a 12th century annal that claims that Cnut was a composer of many popular songs.

I took down my banner well before noon.

I hope that the town may be spared anymore misleading assertions about Cnut coming here in 1016 Michael Gibson A Knutsford Medievalist