RESIDENTS have launched a successful campaign to save a saucily-named underpass after they got an inkling a name change was being mooted to spare people's blushes. Planners wanted to change Tickle Cock Bridge to Tittle Cott Bridge as part of a regeneration scheme being filmed for a Channel 4 TV series.

The railway underpass in the town centre has been called Tickle Cock by locals for at least a century and dates back to Victorian times. It is thought the name refers to a "monkey run" where the lads and lasses of Castleford did their courting.

"Imagine the uproar nationally if some faceless committee decided to change the name of the Traitor's Gate in London. There would be an outcry."

Mr Lewis, a local historian who works for the Regional Development Agency, said: "The district council had instructed the architects designing the project that the bridge was called Tittle Cott and that appeared on the plans.

He added: "It dates back to the late 19th Century or early 20th Century and would function in the same way as any 'monkey run' where you paraded up and down trying to find a boyfriend or girlfriend.

This is cache, read story here