however, claims have since been made that pickingill was not a cunning man or involved in folk magic at all. local canewdon historian sylvia webster expressed her view to howard that tales regarding pickingill's magical practices had been invented by the locals of canewdon to impress maple. supporting this position, she highlighted that there was no evidence to suggest that pickingill was a cunning man prior to maple's publications. similarly, richard ward argued that the contemporary obituaries and interviews conducted with pickingill had shown no evidence of any magical activities, when such might have been expected. ward suggested that many of the stories regarding pickingill's magical activities were adapted from those of a genuine essex cunning man, james murrell. hutton responded critically to ward's claims, highlighting his own investigations into the local folklore and his interview with taylor to express the view that there "seems little doubt" that pickingill was a cunning man, although "there are still questions over what sort of one he was". at the same time, hutton also accepted the possibility that some of the legends associated with murrell had come to be associated with pickingill, although stated that this seemed to be "incapable of solid proof". in his counter-response to hutton, ward accepting that pickingill could have been associated with "some apparent supernatural control or knowledge of horses" as taylor had claimed, but that this did not automatically make him a cunning man, for which there remained no contemporary historical evidence.