Frankly, the rise of King's Hedges Road from a dead-end farm track leading north of the guided busway to a fifty eight acre farm called King's Hedges, and on to the modern day major road looping around the prehistoric Arbury Camp and lopping off the end of the original Arbury Road, is amazing!
King's Hedges was never a district.
The motor car has led it to stardom.
While King's Hedges Road was a dead end farm track leading to a named property until the late 1970s, Arbury Road was a public highway. There is conjecture that Arbury Road follows the alignment of a pre-Roman track, leading from Arbury Camp to the river in what is now Chesterton. The fact that Arbury Camp is now believed to have been an iron age fort, not the era's equivalent of a village, lends credence to the notion.
Hey, just where is King's Hedges? Probably not where you think... Nowadays, the Council's electoral ward is all over the historic Arbury Meadows/North Arbury, and in East Chesterton. We have inserted the earlier details of the Arbury Meadows/North Arbury Furlong, etc, on this 1900 map. 'Harborough' was a variation on the Arbury name and the two were used interchangeably.
That area has nothing to do with King's Hedges historically. And, as previously stated, most of King's Hedges Road, the part across the historic Arbury area, dates from the late 1970s.
The name has truly been driven by the 'infernal combustion engine' - as my grandmother always called it!
Amazing. How many wards/areas of Cambridge can say that?
Not so sure about the environmental implications, but still...
The notion of King's Hedges Road being extended as part of a new Cambridge ring road stretches back to at least the 1930s.
Between the original fifty-eight acre King's Hedges and Impington Park was the Roman road, 'Akeman Street' or 'The Mere Way' (left of the farm on the map). Not the Mere Way in South Arbury, although it is a continuation of the same Roman road on the course Carlton Way follows. It used to be a nice walk. I wonder what it's like now?
The council-concocted King's Hedges seemed rather odd, but OK and not terribly well defined as part of Arbury, a sub-district, as Arbury is the historic truth. But discovering the roots of the King's Hedges name, a hedged hunting warren for the king's tenants to chase animals into and then kill them for 'sport' under the king's gaze, makes us cold. We're not into blood sports.
When one considers that a lot of the modern King's Hedges ward and 'King's Hedges Road' is in what was the Arbury/Harborough Meadows and Furlongs and has nothing to do with the historic King's Hedges site... well, where is the logic? Having been formed out of the northern part of Arbury Ward, one of the most historic Arbury areas in Cambridge, 'King's Hedges' has also been eating into East Chesterton.
King's Hedges School is dearly loved by many of us, we treasure it, but those in the know accept it's not actually in any historically meaningful King's Hedges district, and the site had nothing to do with King's Hedges. The school was named by the council in 1968, which then had a bit of an obsession with the name. King's Hedges School pupils and teachers made many contributions to the Arbury 1980 project and the 1981 Arbury is where we live! book.
Electoral wards and council planners' fancies should not dictate areas. Even the council cannot totally revise the history of where we live at a whim, however it tries. It initially misleads local historians, and then puzzles them as they investigate the truth, having done things like look for the 'king's hedges' on Arbury Road - where there never were any.
And as for the later history of the real and actual King's Hedges... in the 18th Century, huge crowds from Town and Gown used to gather to watch local pugilists knocking 'seven bells' out of each other in organised matches.
The name's associations are so much more important, classy and downright fascinating than prehistoric Arbury, aren't they?
We think not.
Promoting the 'King's Hedges' name seems to have been something of a hobby horse for some councillors and Cambridge people.
But names do not dictate social problems and crime rates, as a look at crime stats across the Cambridge City electoral wards proves.
We believe attempting to throw out the Arbury name has been a snobbish and epic mistake of Hyacinth Bucket proportions. The name is a link back to prehistory, and should be used to help create a sense of pride in the area.
History will out. Arbury is where we live!
King's Hedges Ward is a big phoney. We get these awful councillors coming round saying 'We're so happy to be part of the King's Hedges community,' and I think: 'Well, as this isn't really King's Hedges, I'm really pleased for you!' The Council thinks it's God.
ReplyDeleteHilary Cox Condron is OK I think. She never accuses men of privilege and cares about Arbury ward and has regard for the original Arbury estate. Shes very enthusiastic about the Arbury Carnival.
ReplyDelete'King's Hedges' is not a name I can warm to. It sounds grandiose and somehow also militaristic. I think that's why the Arbury name sticks, quite apart from the historical facts.
ReplyDeleteSome of the councillors round here are nauseating. If you watch them on Twitter they always seem to be saying 'oh well done (hashtag) so-and-so' and 'oh thats super' and 'thats because we're women!' and 'I do emotionally heart wrenching work' and 'somebody said I have a lovely voice'. It reminds me of what it be must like to bum yourself up constantly and follow all the trendy agendas but be as empty as air.
ReplyDeleteKing's Hedges was originally a warren of hedges to confuse and trap animals in to kill them for sport back in the days of the Royal Manor of Chesterton. Not a nice name at all, but very posh-sounding in a ridiculously Hyacinth Bucket sort of way.
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