How Cock-Up bridge in the Cambridgeshire Fens got its name - Cambridgeshire Live

2022-05-14 20:22:18 By : Ms. Sylvia Xiang

Although the name is an homage to the fens history, we still think it's pretty funny

Sign up to our free email newsletter to receive the latest breaking news and daily roundups

The Cambridgeshire Lodes, a series of man-made waterways, believed to be Roman in origin, are beloved for their beautiful nature and landscape. But there is one bridge in particular that stands out from the others in the funniest way possible.

Cock-up Bridge has been standing in the Cambridgeshire Fens for a couple hundred years and was replaced with a newer version in 1995, as the original was in a very sad state of disrepair. It was built as a complete replica to the last one in order to keep history alive.

Read more: Lavenham: Harry Potter's childhood home is just short drive from Cambs - and it's just as magical as you'd expect

But where does its strange and quite humorous name actually come from? Well it's not as strange as you might think. If you've ever heard of a cock horse then you're on the right path already.

'Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross' or the Cambridgeshire Lodes. Like the nursery rhyme, a cock horse is a trace horse - as would be used for towing or "haling" boats on the Lodes, or hitched in front of a shaft horse to give an extra pull along the fen droves. Back in the day, a "cock" horse would help to pull carts along the Swaffham Prior fen droves and crossing the River Cam by chain ferry.

It turns out that this bridge would have actually been very busy on the daily. Horses and carts regularly crossed the river on the ferry, as did people on foot or with bicycles. Children from Waterbeach Fen attended the school in Upware, and cart loads of grain crossed by the ferry on the way to the mill at Soham.

Read more: Terrifying witch trial involving Oliver Cromwell's grandparents spread panic in the Cambridgeshire Fens

Carriers carts came back and forth, and the baker from Waterbeach visited the outlying farms on Swaffham Fen. There were cattle pens at Burwell station, and cattle arriving from the north of England would be driven along the fen droves, some being taken across the river by the ferry to reach the summer grazing on the other side.

All the bridges at the Cambridgeshire Lodes were part of a network of busy thoroughfares and this history with its strong link to working horses is honoured through its name.