A Gay Arbury Teenager in the 1980s

A Gay Arbury Teenager in the 1980s - Part 4

Arbury Road in the 1980s.
Badger's memories of life as a gay Chesterton and Manor School pupil and South Arbury teenager in the 1980s continue...

You know how 'straight' kids get crushes and puppy love? It was the same with me. There had been 1 boy who was quite what I called 'macho', but with beautiful, sensitive eyes, I really, really liked him while I was at Manor. I saw him once walking his family's dog on Arbury Town Park on a non-school day, and that was it, I was always hanging about there then. Usually, he was nowhere to be seen, but sometimes he showed up with the dog and we used to have a chat. He was a year below me at school, so I didn't see much of him there.

I had all the puppy love symptoms, I couldn't stop thinking about him, yet when he came in sight I had to control all that and say, ''Wotcha, mate, alright?' and keep my voice as deep and even as possible. All that was worth it just to see him.

In retrospect, nothing he said was of the remotest interest to me, it was a very football orientated thing and football is like watching paint dry to me, but I lapped up every word at the time because of the 'magic' of being near him.

It seemed magical to look up at the stars from my bedroom window in the early hours, and imagine my idol sleeping somewhere just beyond the other side of Arbury Road. I had it bad!

Somehow I contained things and didn't let it set me off kilter. My objective side was telling me, 'He isn't interested in you in any way other than straight,' and my unobjective side was saying, 'So, what! You never know and I just want to see him anyway and I will keep on seeing him!' The two somehow balanced each other and although I had a strong need to tell him I really, really liked him, I never did. It passed, slowly, but it passed.

A year or so after I left school, I passed someone in Brimley Road who said hello. It took me a moment to place him, but it was my 'first love' from school. The 'magic' had completely gone and although we had a chat I parted company from him without even a pang.

Backing up a bit in time again, I was surprised after the mock exams at Manor to find I was being entered for 4 O'Levels. These were GCE's, General Certificate of Education, Ordinary Level. There were 2 grades of exams, with CSE's, Certificate in Secondary Education, being the other. GCE's were the 'higher' attainment and both would be abolished in a couple of years for GCSE's.

I only really liked English and history and was astounded to find I'd been entered for maths, which I hated. The others were English Language, English Literature and history.

I passed, three B's and a C (maths), and it was time to leave school. My parents didn't suggest I went on to Sixth Form College and I didn't want to anyway. A lot fewer kids stayed on then.

By this time questions about girlfriends were rampant from the older generation, my parents, and when we visited family up North. I landed a job at a shop on Mill Road, and decided the time was right to tell my parents there would be no girlfriends.

I didn't plan it. One night, when we were watching TV, I just leapt in after EastEnders...

Part 5 is here.

Comments

A Tribute To Debbie - Much Loved Arbury Archivist

The death of Debbie Brett on Sunday has saddened us all deeply. Debbie was very much an 'outdoors person', she loved the countryside. She painted and drew in her spare time, and liked nothing better than being on a train going somewhere! She was always deeply moved by the beauties of nature and, sitting in her hospital bed at home a few days before she died, watching the sky deepen from light to dark blue as the evening set in and the lights appeared in the windows opposite, exclaimed: 'Isn't it beautiful?!' 'I wouldn't have noticed,' said her husband Andy. 'But when I looked, it was. She took great pleasure out of looking out of the window, noting all the flora and fauna. I'm so glad the NHS supplied a hospital bed and she was able to stay at home until the end.' Debbie was a very loyal and active member of the Arbury Archivists - as she said, she 'married an Arbury man' - hubby Andy has family links here back to the old farm days in...

Manor School Memories Part 1

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 lay of the land, complete with field names, at the Manor Farm in 1900. The Park Meadow contains the Manor School/Community College and North Cambridge Academy sites. The Manor Farm was established...

Exploring The REAL King's Hedges...

The Cambridge and St Ives Branch railway line is now the Guided Busway. Where was King's Hedges historically? How did the name come about? Why is the majority of King's Hedges Road no more historic than late 1970s - and nothing to do with the course of the original road? What have council planners of the 1960s and 1970s and the needs of motorists got to do with the King's Hedges presence in the historic Arbury district? All will be revealed... We're going to leave Arbury briefly and go to King's Hedges. No, not King's Hedges Ward/King's Hedges Estate (AKA North Arbury) - that area is, in reality, one of the most Arbury of Arbury areas in Cambridge historically, but the REAL King's Hedges. North of the Guided Busway. You see, the land north of Arbury Road is the site of the Arbury Camp, the Arbury/Harborough (a variation on the Arbury name) Meadows and Furlongs and the Arbury fields of Manor Farm. It has absolutely nothing to do with King's Hedges at...

Arbury Court - Part Of The 'Centre' Of The Original Arbury Estate...

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...

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 ...

Ask Arbury: The Roman Villa in Arbury

E-mail to Arbury Cambridge blog: Was a Roman villa found at King's Hedges? I recently saw an outside display in North Arbury/King's Hedges Ward called 'The Roman Landscape in King's Hedges' which claims there was one. And is King's Hedges Road Roman? We've seen that display. Electoral wards are not historic areas and local historians really do need to be mindful of that fact. The answer to your questions regarding the Roman villa and King's Hedges Road is no. The Roman villa was found on the site of King's Hedges School, which is not part of the historic King's Hedges acres. Historically, King's Hedges was simply a named property, a farm, of fifty eight acres, and is now north of the guided busway. It was never a district. King's Hedges School is dearly loved by many of us and we treasure it, but those in the know accept it's not actually in any historically meaningful King's Hedges district, and the site it was built on ha...

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. If you would like to read Mrs Hinchcliffe's recollections in order, from the beginning, a link to Part 1 is here . '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 s...

Things Called Arbury In Cambridge...

How many things that are, or have been, called 'Arbury' in Cambridge and its immediate environs can you think of over the years? Most 'Arbury' things are clustered north of Arbury Road - one of the most historic Arbury areas in Cambridge, although, nonsensically, part of the "King's Hedges" electoral ward. Check out King's Hedges on the map. That's right. It's north of the guided busway/railway line and was a fifty eight acre farm. A lot of the land north of Arbury Road, and a swathe of land to the south, were known as the Arbury or Harborough Meadows, North Arbury/Harborough Furlong, etc. Harborough is a variation on the Arbury name. We put our thinking caps on, and came up with: 1) Arbury Road: This road connected the Milton/Ely Road with the Histon/Cambridge Road until the late 1970s when a new road was built across the Arbury Meadows/Manor Farm by the iron age Arbury Camp at the time of the A14 development. The new road connected Arbury Ro...

Main Streets of Arbury: Campkin Road - Part 1

Left: work begins on Campkin Road in 1961. Numbers 1 and 2 Manor Farm Cottages have been demolished, but the intention is to preserve the old trees lining the old Manor Farm Drive. Right: a similar view in more modern times, with the Arbury Town Park and Campkin Road. In 1982, Campkin Road was described as the 'Hauptstrasse of North Arbury' by local journalist Sara Payne. Ms Payne's local history articles in the Cambridge Weekly News were hugely popular and, for each one, Ms Payne visited a street in Cambridge and talked to the residents, collecting their memories for publication and producing a fascinating series of 'Then and Now' style articles. 'Cambridge Weekly News', 1982. Down Your Street followed in the footsteps of a similar series in the local press in the early 1960s - by Erica Dimmock - and both now make fascinating reading. We're starting our look at Campkin Road with material from the 'Arbury 1980' project and accounts from locals...

Ask Arbury: "King's Hedges Woods"

The Arbury district, circa 1904. Various farm and field names have been inserted, including the 58 acre King's Hedges. Although King's Hedges was a farm, it always appears simply as 'King's Hedges' on maps. While Arbury Camp Farm became a poultry farm and an orchard for Chivers of Histon, King's Hedges housed some much older trees, as did the neighbouring Impington Park, which was an entirely separate property. Lovely email to the Arbury Cambridge site today. Thanks to the sender: When I was a kid in the 50's and 60's, we often used to play in Kings Hedges woods. It was a lot of fun. I came on this site to try and find out why the woods were just done away with, which is a shame. There used to be cuckoo's there and numerous wildlife. How destructive to just get rid of it Valuable oak, elm and ash trees (timber) were recorded on the sales particulars for the historic King's Hedges acres in the 1909 sales particulars for the 58 acre farm. They are...

Search This Blog