At the very heart of Gamlingay, both geographically and socially, the Cock has been quenching local thirsts since at least 1588. It has been suggested that by then the Cock had already been an inn for more than a century; but 1588 is on public record as the year that John Russell, a landlord of the Cock who had earlier been convicted of fornication and slander, died. Manners here have improved somewhat since then, you'll be glad to hear, and the Cock today is a genuinely welcoming and friendly pub whose warm heart is aptly symbolised by the enormous inglenook fireplace that dominates the lounge bar. And even that slanderous fornicator John Russell, as it turns out, wasn't as bad as his record suggests: not only did he leave money to charity, he also commissioned the surely unique plaster tablet on the gable end depicting “convivial emblems” including flask, glass, pipe, and corkscrew. It's a rambling old jigsaw of a place, the Cock. The front rooms have been tentatively dated to the 1560s, and the alarmingly sloping ceiling in the public bar (within living memory let separately as a tailor's shop) is testament to its age. But the roof was replaced in the late 17th or early 18th century, which is also the date of the scalloped ornamental plasterwork on the façade; the three dormers with their carved lion's heads are thought to be 19th century; and the dining room at the back was added as a clubroom probably in about 1900 or slightly before.

A blocked-up door behind the public bar appears to lead nowhere.The forest of beams in the lounge bar should give clues to the original layout but are such a jumble that one wonders how many of them are actually in their original positions. where; there's a mysterious ivy-covered chimney stack at the back which seems never to have had a fireplace; and above the front door is a tiny window lighting an equally tiny room which has been bricked up for longer than anyone can remember. Originally a farm, the Cock has lost all its outbuildings but has managed to retain a large part of its long, narrow, medieval burgage plot. That means there's plenty of room for a charming patio with comfortable smoking shelter, ample parking, and a big garden with picnic sets, petanque court, and well-equipped children's play area that fills to bursting with family parties whenever the sun deigns to shine. Every village deserves a pub as well-found, as all-embracing, and indeed as well-run as the Cock, and it's a great pity that so many villages don't have one. Its philosophy, which should perhaps be the philosophy of all pubs, is to provide something for everyone – an ambition in which it succeeds admirably. The only people not wanted here, in fact, are slanderers and fornicators. Well, slanderers. One wouldn’t want to be too judgmental, would one...?

Ted Bruning  from Cambridgeshire's Best Pubs