A view across Arbury Court, looking towards Arbury Road, in 1976. Arbury Court is part of the 'centre' of the original Arbury Estate in Cambridge. The Court, with its pub, supermarket, hardware store and post office, chip shop, newsagent, TV shop, greengrocer, hairdresser, chemist, supermarket and branch library, is part of the 'hub' of the estate. The historic Arbury district. The Arbury or Harborough (the names were variations on each other and interchangeable) Meadows and Furlongs covered land north of Arbury Road, and included a swathe of land south of the road. Arbury Road ran from Milton Road to the Histon/Cambridge Road until the late 1970s. The Manor Farm was formed in the years following the 1840 Chesterton Enclosures. Orchard Park (originally Arbury Park and, before that, Arbury Camp Farm) features the outline of part of the Arbury prehistoric settlement at Ring Fort Road. We've inserted the sites of Arbury Court, Arbury Town Park, the Guided Busway, and t...

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...

We recently uploaded our second Arbury Cambridge YouTube video, another whirlwind tour of Arbury from the Iron Age right up to the North Cambridge Academy! We included a couple of quotes from the oral history contributions to the original Arbury Archive and much more, and we're very happy with it. We've also included a tribute to our sadly missed Arbury Archivist Debbie Brett to close on. Thanks so much for all the support we've received, many terrific comments and lovely e-mails. We are now averaging around 4,000 page views per month, so our dream of having a positive Arbury space online, and re-establishing exactly where Arbury is, are attracting interest. We're hoping Andy, Debbie's husband, the creator of the original Arbury Archive back in 1983 (inspired by the writings of teacher and historian  Sallie Purkis  in  History Today  magazine, the Arbury 1980 project and the 1981 book,   Arbury Is Where We Live! ) will be back with us soon.

The excellent 'Arbury 1980' primary schools project led to one pupil from King's Hedges School writing: We have reasons to be proud to live in Arbury with such a rich history. People have lived here for thousands of years. The project swept pupils back to the iron age Arbury Camp, through the Roman invasion, and on through the history of the Arbury farms, Hall and Manor, the building of the estate, and life in 1980 for the pupils of the (then) present day. In 1981, the book Arbury Is Where We Live! was published and in 1983 one of the great powers behind the project, Sallie Purkis of Homerton College, schools officer of the Oral History Society and the general editor of the Longman Books series,  Into The Past ,   detailed the project in History Today magazine. It was a real Red Letter Day for the original Arbury Estate. Sallie believed in Arbury as a place on the map, and was a great encouragement to me when I began to delve into my family's pre-estate Arbury history...

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, much of the land north of Arbury Road was known as the Arbury/Harborough Meadows, North Arbury/Harborough Furlong, West Arbury/Harborough Furlong, etc. A swathe of land sout...

It all happened in 1983, when Andy was busy setting up the Arbury Archive. He heard that Mrs McCulloch, mother of Andrew McCulloch, who owned the TV shop in Arbury Court, might have some memories of the area in years gone by. He went to the shop and spoke to her. Mrs McCulloch was very helpful. Yes, she did know the Arbury well, but she had a friend who knew much more and would speak to her and find out if she could help. Andy left his address. He wasn't 'on the phone' at the time, and even basic analogue (and hugely expensive) mobiles ('yuppie toys'!) were still two years away. He hoped for a letter from Mrs McCulloch's friend. It was a week or so later that an elderly lady cycled up to Andy's front door.  'I do hope this will be of some help,' she said, handing over a small white envelope. This was Mrs Osland. She explained that she lived in Cockerell Road, and was delighted at the interest in Arbury history which had resulted from the 'Arbury ...