Coppingford
Major Settlement in the Parish of Coppingford
Historical Forms
- Copemaneforde 1086 DB
- Coupmanneford 1146 Cottvii.3
- Copmanesford 1207 Abbr
- Copmaneford 1225 Pat 1248,1253 FF 1285 FA
- Copmanneford 1227 Ass 1273 FF
- Copmanford E1 BM 1303 FA 1308 FF 1327 SR 1351 Ipm 1353 Cl 1362 FF 1372 BM 1383 Cl 1428 FA 1444 IpmR 1501 Ipm
- Coupmanford 1286 Ass
- Copmansford 1290 Misc
- Copemanford 1316 FA
- Copmandesford 1382,1389 FF
- Coppemanford 1428 FA
- Coppyngford 1535 VE 1564 FF
- Copmanford al. Coppingford 1584 FF
Etymology
This is a curious hybrid name. The first part is clearly Late OE Coupmanna from ON kaupmanna , 'of the traders,' and the whole name means 'traders' ford.' Cf. a similar chypmanna ford in Wiltshire (BCS 879) from OE cīepmann , the corresponding native word. The ford must be that to the west of the village, rather less than a mile away. This ford does not seem likely ever to have been a very important one. A cart-track leads down to it and it is continued on the other side as a footpath which leads on by roads and cart-tracks through the Giddings to the valley of the Nen at Warmington. It is tempting to think that these 'merchants' used not the line of track just indicated but the ancient and well-known Bullock Road which branches off from Ermine Street, just to the south-west of Coppingford, skirts the village itself, and makes its way in a fashion closely similar to that of the road just described, to the Elton-Chesterton road, whence either the Nen could be crossed at Elton or the Ermine Street rejoined at Alwalton. The two roads run almost parallel throughout their course and it is just possible that both alike represent ancient tracks of importance and that we should be wrong in identifying the merchants with the Bullock Road alone. The fact that Henry of Huntingdon, the historian, held, as archdeacon, a local chapter at Coppingford (Croyland Cartulary) shows that the place was easy of access in the first half of the 12th cent.