[MR] Wikipedia: Clattern Bridge and Cucking Stools

Garth Groff via Atlantia atlantia at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org
Thu Feb 2 02:16:28 PST 2017


Noble Friends,

Please excuse the obvious sexist implications of this post. It is part 
of our middle-ages heritage, and is also very interesting.

One of today's featured Wikipedia articles concerns Clattern Bridge in 
the Kingston section of greater London. This bridge is said to be the 
oldest intact bridge in England, and in its original form dates to 1175. 
The original bridge has been spansonned out twice with brick sections as 
traffic grew. That it still carries modern automobile traffic is 
testament to its solid construction: 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clattern_Bridge .

The story mentions that the bridge was used as the goal in an annual 
foot ball (yes, the space is intentional; that's how it is usually 
described in historical documents) game played on Shrove Tuesday. It 
also mentions that the bridge was the site where scolds were ducked.

Now, this is the sexist part. Scold ducking, or cucking, was a minor 
punishment visited upon women for gossip or other unruly conduct, and 
occasionally men as well. The offender, or victim, was bound into a 
chair and carried through the town to shame them. In its most extreme 
form, the chair was dunked into a river or pond. Special cucking-stools 
attached to long poles were used in some locations, and several survive 
in British museums. Cucking is mentioned in various documents from the 
middle ages including PIERS PLOWMAN. You can read more about this form 
of punishment and see examples of the chairs at 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cucking_stool .

Yours Aye,


Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge



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