In the biography of the saint in the Acta Sanctorum which was preserved at the Abbey of Fécamp in Normandy[note 1] it is said that he was born about 681, either in Devon or Cornwall, or more probably at Chidham, near Bosham, about 25 miles from Steyning.

[2] According to one legend, Chanctonbury Ring near Steyning was created by the Devil who became so angry at the conversion of England thanks to 'apostles' like Cuthmann that he decided to dig a channel by night to let in the sea and drown the Christians of Sussex.

This can be seen most clearly in a c. 1450 German engraving of him with his "cart" by Martin Schongauer, and the inclusion, transcription (from an anonymous source) and printing of his Life in the saints' lives collected in 1658 in the Bollandist Acta Sanctorum, giving his feast day as 8 February.

There is also a choir seat carving at Ripon Cathedral dating from a few decades after 1450 (with him and a three-wheeled wheelbarrow) and at his birthplace of Chidham there was a Guild of St Cuthman, subject to a tax in 1522 under Henry VIII.

[3] The church also has a Cuthmann chapel and a statue of him outside by artist Penny Reeve, while a picture of him with his wheelbarrow also continues to be Steyning's logo on its town sign.