A SIGN OF THE TIMES – THE WAGGON & HORSES, COTTENHAM

January 2025. Cottenham. The Fen Edge.

There aren’t many blogs which give you TWO Fen Edge pub visits in the first week of 2025. Actually, there aren’t many blogs which write about going to the pub AT ALL.

So here I am, stuck in Waterbeach while Mum gets used to her home help/carers who will hopefully allow us to have at least a day or two back in Sheffield, even if that trip to Moldova is a pipe dream.

Last week I popped in what I thought was neighbouring Cottenham’s only Proper Pub, only to find out that the real oddity had just re-opened that month. Time for a revisit.

Sadly, the Waggon & Horses looks nothing like it did 30 years ago, when that sign was last painted.

But that’s a novel sign (top), and how novel to see the opening times so clearly set out on a pub door.

That 9am is the giveaway; “Cafe vibe with sweet and savoury food literally front and centre on the bar” says What Pub,

which also mentions 8 keg taps. I think the highlight of those 8 is the Tetley Smooth.

I feel duty bound to try the cask. Not because it’s possibly Milton Brewery‘s nearest outlet (closer than Histon !) or that it’s a pre-emptive cert, but wouldn’t it be terrible if it was really good and I swerved it ?

No trade for the Pegasus, or anything else while I was there, and a pint not cool to the touch took a while to taste anything like a Milton beer. A harsh scorer would say NBSS 2.5, a gentler one, 3.

I’m not sure the soundtrack (Heart ’80s) has changed since my last visit, either.

With its mix of high and low tables and bright purple it’ll remind you of that Dodworth cafe-bar, or possibly the Fernwood one, and Cottenham definitely needed a place with a hissy cappucino machine and giant Scotch eggs, but it’s not pubby. Yet. The family group were in for the duration though, engaged in genealogy.

“And HIS son. And HIS son. And HIS son. He…”

History dominates your approach to the (spotless) loos,

and you can pause to consider the flow of names reaching their climax at…”Alveton Developments“.

I wish Alveton the best of luck; with a bit more local support (and it’s a growing village) that cask could go up a notch, and Mrs would like it.

But on the 1st Saturday in January, Cottenham is as still as the finials,

and the thatch,

and these endless chimneys.

In truth, it’s never recovered from 1981, when I left the Village College, having left an indelible mark on the ceiling of the science block with a bunsen burner.

And I see the chocolate dispenser still isn’t working…

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

9 thoughts on “A SIGN OF THE TIMES – THE WAGGON & HORSES, COTTENHAM”

  1. Good to see a pub re-opening, and from the photos it looks like a lot of money has been spent on it. Advertising the opening times is another good idea, something I’ve noticed quite a few pubs doing recently.

    Not sure though, about that rather sinister looking, over-sized gnome!

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  2. Those Nestlé machines were a delight.

    You’d find them on BR stations, and when I was a kid, for 4d you’d get a bar of chocolate far superior to a similar-sized Cadbury’s one costing 6d.

    I wonder when the last one stopped working? Or did it ever?

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  3. “left an indelible mark on the ceiling of the science block with a bunsen burner.”

    I’ve been through the blog at least twice, and I still can’t find a photo of this.

    Did David Bowie write a song about it? Isn’t there a blue plaque by now? How do you get the Bunsen burner near enough to the ceiling anyway? And has the science lab become a microbrewery tap, and if not, why not?

    I think your loyal readers deserve to get the full truth. (God knows we get enough of half truths and pure invention from other websites.)

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