From the Cambridge Citizens' Guide, 'Cambridge Evening News', January 1980. Bus routes in the city way back then. The old Cambridge and St Ives Branch railway line, which ran between North Arbury to the south, and Impington Park, the original King's Hedges plot and Rectory/Trinity Farm to the north, had been closed to passenger trains in the Beeching era of the late 1960s. Today, of course, it is the Guided Busway. It may surprise some that buses on the tracks were being mooted by local ecologists as far back as 1981... The Arbury area in 1900, with the Cambridge & St Ives Branch railway line - now the guided busway. 'Cambridge Evening News', 15/5/1981: Cambridge ecologists are planning a demonstration to prove that a bus which can run on railway lines is the solution to transport problems in 15 local villages. The aim is to borrow the prototype bus in early July, and run it from Cambridge's city centre to Huntingdon - and use British Rail's tracks b

The eighth part of Mrs Grace Hinchcliffe's memories of rural Arbury, Chesterton and Vicarage Terrace in the early 20th Century, contributed to the Arbury Archive in the 1980s. 'One day, I was on my way to Arbury to see Grandma Brett and Aunt May at Manor Farm. They were both ill and it was a lovely, blowy spring day with blue sky and chilly winds. I was about twelve or so. At that age, you're full of life and I was going up Milton Road and I said something like: "Please blow Grandma's and Aunt May's illnesses away!" - something like that. And as I went up Arbury Meadow Road I almost felt like it might work. It was such a glorious spring day. But when I got to the farm, Aunt May was sitting in her armchair still and Grandma was upstairs in bed and nothing had changed. Of course, you couldn't get rid of Sleeping Sickness and TB by wishing! 'I prayed for them too, but I believe now God knows when our time is up and that's that. We all have our day

  Thanks to the small and amazingly dedicated committee who steered this year's Arbury Carnival into being. It was a wonderful success. Thanks so much to that dedicated band! We were amazed at what they achieved and very grateful to them and the many others who volunteered their help and gave us all a brilliant day at Arbury Town Park.  We were also grateful to all those who took part in the procession and made us feel that wonderful sense of community spirit Arbury Carnival day has created since its inception in 1977. Hilary Cox Condron, former Arbury electoral ward county councillor, unleashed the kracken across the old Arbury/Harborough Meadows at the Carnival, and the mythical creature was a major success as it swirled from Minerva Way to the Arbury Town Park in Campkin Road as part of the Carnival's annual procession. The Arbury landscape is steeped in history, from the Arbury iron age village and the roman villa erected nearby, to the Manor and Hall Farms and the building

Andy met and interviewed Mrs Dora Long, née Sale, in 1983. She lived at No 1 Manor Farm Cottages as a girl, and played with Andy's great Aunt Lil at the farm. Her 1972 letter to the local press is above, and we thought it might be interesting to link the letter with some of the interview content. Mrs Long's home is now in the middle of the Arbury Road junction with Campkin Road, at the original entrance to the Manor Farm Drive, and traffic passes over the spot. The spot where the photograph was taken is marked with a red spot on our old faithful Arbury 1900 map below. Below is a brief round-up of some of the memories recalled for the Arbury Archive by Mrs Long in 1983. They reach back to a time now almost 120 years ago. More will follow.