Upware is a hamlet in Wicken

Wicken, Cambridgeshire

Wicken is a small village on the edge of the fens near Soham in East Cambridgeshire, 10 miles north east of Cambridge and 5 miles south of Ely. It is the site of Wicken Fen National Nature Reserve.-History:...

 civil parish

Civil parish

In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

, part of East

East Cambridgeshire

East Cambridgeshire is a local government district in Cambridgeshire, England. Its council is based in Ely....

 Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, lying on the east bank of the River Cam

River Cam

The River Cam is a tributary of the River Great Ouse in the east of England. The two rivers join to the south of Ely at Pope's Corner. The Great Ouse connects the Cam to England's canal system and to the North Sea at King's Lynn...

.

History

Situated in the isolated south-west corner of the parish of Wicken, the hamlet of Upware is believed to have existed, and indeed been known by its present name, since at least the 10th century. Its situation on a navigable stretch of the River Cam would have been essential to its survival, and its name probably derives from a fishing weir on the river at the time. It was recorded as inhabited in both the 13th and 15th centuries, and there were 10 houses in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Analysis of an earthwork near the river found a brick base surrounded by a 40-foot moat and linked to a former wharf on the Cam. It is believed to be a Civil War

English Civil War

The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

 fortification from the 1640s.

A chain ferry that carried people across the river at Upware was still in use in 1910.

Village life

Upware had its own public house to serve river traffic by the 1760s. Originally named the Black Swan, it became the Lord Nelson in 1806, and from around 1850 was popularly known as the "Five Miles from Anywhere: No Hurry". The white thatched building was rebuilt in 1811, but closed by the 1950s and demolished following a fire of 1955/6. The present building dates from around 1980 and opened again as a pub in 1995 as the Five Miles from Anywhere Inn, largely serving passing leisure boats.

In the 1850s the pub was the meeting place of the Upware Republic, a society of up to 300 undergraduates of the University of Cambridge

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

, who would meet to fish, boat, shoot and skate. In the 1860s the pub was the residence of R. R. Fielder, known as the "King of Upware", who occupied himself with drinking and fighting boatworkers.

Upware has a branch of the Cambridgeshire Environmental Education Service housed in the former primary school.

The hamlet is served by the church in Wicken. Services were formerly held in Upware in a wooden mission hall, built in 1883.