Skip to main content

Posts

1977: A Dunkirk Boat For The Arbury Adventure Playground - The Arbury Noah's Ark!

Thanks to Mrs Summers who sent us this  Cambridge Evening News  article about an exciting addition to the Arbury Adventure Playground on the Nuns Way Playing Field from August 1977.  Veteran of Dunkirk Heads for Children's Adventure Playground A gallant little craft with a heart of gold is set to leave her peaceful retirement berth on the waters of the Cam. She is not exactly beautiful, but to shell-shocked troops on the wartime Dunkirk beaches she was the answer to a prayer. In 1940, Goldfin was one of the flotilla of little boats the nation took to its heart after that epic rescue. Now she is destined for another "battleground" - the Arbury Adventure Playground in Cambridge. Her owner, Mr Jeffrey Perkins, couldn't bear the thought of his former personal carrier suffering the indignity of nautical senility. He has spent much time and money restoring her over the last ten years. So he gave her to play leader Bob Asby to be brought back to life by the under-fives [unde
Recent posts

Mrs Hinchcliffe's Memories of Old Arbury, Chesterton & Vicarage Terrace - Part 9

The ninth part of the memories of Mrs Grace Hinchcliffe (1910-1998), contributed to the Arbury Archive in the 1980s. Mrs Hinchcliffe was Andy's grandmother and this is very much an insider's view of life in rural Arbury and Chesterton (with occasional insights into life in Vicarage Terrace) in the 1910s and 1920s. 'Aunt May had worked at Luke Eyres' [pronounced Eye-ers] knitting factory on the corner of Hale Street and always been bustling about. I remember when I stayed nights at the farm her getting on her bike to go to work in the morning - she never seemed tired. She was always on the go, but she gradually got worse and worse with the Sleeping Sickness. And Grandma went downhill and they weren't good times.  'Grandma and Grandad Brett's house at Arbury was very quiet with the illnesses going on there. I think Aunt May was frustrated as she was able to do less and less. She was becoming paralysed, slow but sure. It was awful. 'Aunt May had wanted a ho

Brimley Road, Essex Close, Durnford Way and the South Arbury Self-Builds...

In 1981, the Arbury is Where We Live! book revealed the story of the 1950s South Arbury self-build houses to the community: Mrs Heath talked about the building of Essex Close: I'm going to take you back to the beginning of 1950. One evening my husband was looking at the 'Cambridge Daily News' and he saw an announcement in it to say there was going to be a meeting for anyone who was interested with a view for people who were unskilled to get together to build their own houses. My husband thought what a good idea so he and his brother went along and when they came home they were so excited to tell us they had become registered members of what was to be known as the Cambridge Self-build Society. Thirteen men from all walks of life - someone who worked for the Local Authority, someone who worked in a shop, my husband who was a Post Office engineer - in fact from everywhere. There were three skilled men, two were plumbers and knew about building and an electrician. They went to

Picturing the REAL King's Hedges...

The original King's Hedges - and the original end of King's Hedges Road, disappearing into the original King's Hedges. How things have changed! Amazing what council planners' whims, plus extending a road and setting it on a course across Arbury can do, isn't it? VROOM! VROOM! Click on image for larger view - we've marked the train's location on our 1900 map. Local history researcher Jim, a good friend of the Arbury Blog, recently pointed us to a BFI film made by Edward Thorp of Leigh On Sea, who had a hobby of filming rail routes at weekends, accompanied by his wife, Edna, and their dog, Mickey. On one occasion, Mr Thorp recorded the shortly-to-close Cambridge to St Ives route. Much treasure there for Cambridge historians, including a sweep by King's Hedges. Yes, the original King's Hedges, the original fifty eight acre farm, north of the rail tracks (now guided busway) and now split in two by the motorway. Council plans were already in hand to exten

Manor School Memories - Part 2

Lads from the Manor Boys' School in 1960. D. Claton, M. Farrow, R. Mitchell, C. Peck, I. Skeels, R. Potter and G. Paine are present. Do any readers remember who is who? School's back in - Manor School/Community College on Arbury Road that is (now North Cambridge Academy). Here is the second part of our series on Manor Memories - Part 1 is here . Pupils' foreign holiday, 1960: the first Manor girls to go on a joint foreign holiday with Manor boys: G. Anderson, J. Barnes, C. Blackwell, H. Brown, S. Budd, L. Carter, A. Clarke, L. Doggett, C. Doughty, P. Drake, S. Hardy, E. Harradine, B. Kaspar, D. Miller, J. Parker, L. Phillips, J. Reeves, J. Spencer, J. Symonds, with headmistress Mrs Firman. Note the Manor Schools' caretaker's house can be seen in the background, and the trees of the old Manor Farm orchard. October 1960, and here is a view of the Manor Boys' and Girls' schools from the car park at the Snow Cat public house (now the Cambridge Gurdwara). A view

Our Arbury Cambridge YouTube Video...

We love receiving your enquiries, but please remember our Arbury Cambridge YouTube video, which answers a lot of questions about the historic Arbury district. There are more videos in the pipeline (this was our very first effort, so please forgive any rough edges!) but if the historic Arbury district interests you, we think you'll find the video useful. From the iron age site to the Carlton Arms, from the Roman settlement to Arbury Court, from the Arbury Community Centre to the Arbury Adventure Playground, from Manor Farm to Campkin Road - it's all there...

Arbury Road: From a 1923 Traffic Census to a Pressing Need for a Zebra Crossing in 1969...

One of the local history displays at the Arbury Court shopping centre. The origins of Arbury, of course, pre-date those of Chesterton by centuries. The display also mentions the Roman finds in the old Arbury Meadows/Manor Farm fields, including a Roman villa. More were found last year, including a plesiosaur bone - perhaps a prized curiosity of a Roman resident. The original Arbury Road connected the Milton (or Ely) Road to the Histon/Cambridge Road until the late 1970s, when the dead end King's Hedges Road, which led north of the guided busway to King's Hedges, a fifty-eight acre farm (what we term here the REAL King's Hedges), was redirected and expanded across the old Arbury/Harborough Meadows/Manor Farm and lopped off the end of Arbury Road as part of the A14 motorway development. Before Manor Farm, the meadows north of Arbury Road were known as the Arbury/Harborough Meadows. These are now the site of the Pulley play area, Buchan Street, the Arbury Community Centre, Arb

More About Arbury Terrace, Milton Road...

Take a look at this map of North Cambridge from the late 1950s. We've used it to indicate all the Arbury-named locations we could find in the city and its environs, past and present. Most of the locations are north of Arbury Road in the fields by the Arbury Iron Age settlement or fort, once known as the Arbury Meadows. This area, with the fields south of Arbury Road, is historically the most Arbury area in Cambridge - and, for new readers, not King's Hedges at all, not even King's Hedges School. Importing the 'King's Hedges' name into the historic Arbury area was, apparently, the council planners' whim of the 1960s and 1970s.  Read all about the real King's Hedges here .  The Arbury name is derived from the ancient earthwork at Arbury Camp, the oldest human landmark in the area. In the Arbury Meadows beside it (much of the land from Arbury Camp to the Milton or Ely Road) were found many iron age and Roman structures and artefacts (more were discovered la

Manor School Memories...

The Manor School on Arbury Road was one of the main focuses of life for North and South Arbury for decades. With its evening classes and youth centre, and various community activities - like the annual Christmas party for the elderly and the annual school play in the 1980s ( Annie Get Your Gun and Dracula Spectacular spring to mind) - the Manor opened as separate boys' and girls' schools in 1959 (the girls had to share the boys' buildings at first as their own were still under construction). The school later became co-ed.      An aerial view of t he Manor Schools - Boys' and Girls', around 1960, with a section of Arbury Road and Arbury Court. Note Arbury Court was yet to gain its library and large supermarket building, and Campkin Road was still the Manor Farm Drive. The side of the Manor School 'new block', built in the early 1970s, the tower block and boys' gym beyond. The school was built in the Park Meadow of the old Manor Farm - which is how the &