ON THE TRAIL OF THE OLD-TIME CADGERS

Scrutinising a map of my local area of Fife recently, I noticed that a bridge on a minor road bore an unusual name – namely, the Cadgerford Bridge. I was interested, first of all, in the ‘ford’ part of the name which showed that this had been a crossing for a very long time and that it was of at least local importance.

It was the ‘cadger’ part of the name that next aroused my curiosity and set me off on the trail of these old-time cadgers. Who and what were the cadgers who travelled that way? One meaning of cadger is a person who is habitually begging or borrowing from others. However, the cadgers who gave their name to the Cadgerford Bridge, I found, were travelling dealers who went around the countryside