Wicken Lode Cock-up Bridge and the Fen Droves
In the autumn of 1995, a new Cock-Up Bridge was built over Wicken Lode near Upware, to replace the old bridge which was in a very sad state of repair. Following representations from local people, Cambridgeshire County Council consulted with the Parish Councils of Burwell, Swaffham Prior and Wicken, and all agreed that the new bridge should be a replica of the original. Even though only pedestrian public rights were recorded over the bridge, the new bridge was built to be suitable for use by horse drawn vehicles and Cambridgeshire County Council invited local users to submit a claim for higher rights.
Why is the bridge called a Cock-Up Bridge? Like the "cock horse" going to Banbury Cross, 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. Bill Coppin, formerly of Upware, can remember working with a "cock" horse, helping to pull carts along the Swaffham Prior fen droves and crossing the River Cam by chain ferry at the "No Hurry".
For centuries the chain ferry at Upware provided a very important link between the communities either side of the River Cam before the Military Bridge was built. 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. 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.
In February 1993 part of the old road to the ferry at Upware, only designated as a public footpath, was upgraded to byway following a Public Inquiry held in Wicken. Later that year the residents of Waterbeach went to a Public Inquiry to establish another section of the through route on the other side of the Cam. Black Drove was designated as a byway in July 1993.
Bill Pedley has lived in the fen all his life, and can clearly remember when the fen droves, the Cock-Up bridges at Burwell and at Upware, and the chain ferry were all part of a network of busy thoroughfares. When he heard that another part of the through route between Burwell and Upware was under threat of closure, and remembering how the old road at Upware had been claimed, Bill made a Formal Application to Cambridgeshire County Council to record HarrisonŐs Drove, Burwell and the through route to Upware as a byway. There will be a Public Inquiry at the Gardiner Memorial Hall in Burwell on Tuesday 9 September 2003.
If you have memories of using Harrison's Drove or the route to and over the Wicken Lode Cock-Up Bridge in any way over the years, Bill and his supporters would like to hear from you. We would particularly like to hear from fishermen who used all or part of the claimed route. Perhaps your parents or grandparents used the route? We'd like to hear about that too! Please contact Joy Fuller.