In Tales from the Fens (1963), W. H. Barrett gives a story told by an old Fenman called Chafer Legge concerning the origin of Littleport. Chafer claimed that his family name used to be Legres, and that his ancestors had ruled the Littleport Fens.
According to Chafer, the eldest son of the family was always called Canute, because a King of that name had once come to stay in Ely.
He’d been sent for because the monks, seeing the river brim full of water, thought that if the King was on the spot he might know what to do if the banks busted. Well, before he left Ely, the King took a punt and poled himself about the waters because he’d promised his wife to bring her back a few eels.
But a storm came up and blew the punt ‘all over the place’ until it ran aground on the edge of a hill. The king went to a nearby hut and knocked at the door. A man came out and gave the King a warm by the fire and a horn of ale. The King learned that the man’s name was Legres, a serf of the abbot of Ely.
When the King asked what the place was called, the man said it had no name. So the King said the hill was to be called Punts Hill, and the part round about it Littleport, because it had been a port to him in a storm.
After supper, finding the water too rough to return to Ely, Legres took the King to the Grange (the monastery farm) to ask for a bed. The monk answering the door said they were too busy feasting and told the King and Legres to clear off or he would set the dogs on them.