'Cambridge Daily News', 1954: 'The Arbury' is underway. Well, South Arbury anyway. We think this is Brimley Road. Thanks to all that have written. First out of the postbag today is an enquiry from Sanj: Why does Wikipedia say work began on the Arbury in 1957? It was earlier than that because of the council houses going up in the 1954 newspaper article you published, and Arbury School opened in 1956. Good work on your site - it is a must-read for me now and has given me an interest in the district. Hi, Sanj - and thank you! Yes, you're quite right. 'The Arbury' began springing to life in the early 1950s. We think the error stems from the Victoria Histories article on the area, which used inaccurate independent research. These things happen. The Histories make no claim to be infallible, depending as they do on various sources and are a valuable resource - but the sources listed must be noted and checked. Wikipedia can also be quite problematic in our experie...

Photo captioned 'Flooding at North Arbury, 1970'. The children are having fun! Well, here's North Arbury in flood in 1970! We'll have more on this soon. Note the dear old Jenny Wren on the left - and we've got more on that too! Why 'Jenny Wren'? We'll have the details. South Arbury had the Carlton and the Snowcat public houses, which opened within a couple of weeks of each other in 1959, but for years North Arbury had only the Jenny. Until 1974 - in May the  Cambridge Evening News reported:  Residents of the North Arbury estate did not need a heat wave to remind them of their need for another pub and the opening of The Ship will meet with eager response. Campaigners for real  ale will be pleased to find that Wells of Bedford are making this their fourth Cambridge pub,  providing beer connoisseurs with their prize-winning bitter as well as a wide range of other beers, wines and spirits in spacious new premises... The opening of the Ship in Northfield Aven...

Imagine gazing down Campkin Road from Arbury Road. On the left, you see Arbury Town Park, the Arbury Community Centre and Nicholson Way; on the right you behold the houses and the old farm cottage and a row of lovely old trees, lining the pavement edge... It's almost as hard to imagine as the old Manor Farm cottages, standing in the roadway at the junction of the Arbury and Campkin Roads, but the trees were a part of the original vision for North Arbury, a bequest from the old Manor Farm days... Unfortunately, workmen digging trenches and foundations for the new development inadvertently cut through the trees' tap roots. Nobody realised at first but, within a few years, the trees were plainly dying and had to come down. Some other Manor Farm trees survived - including three in the garden of the Manor Farmhouse, two of which still stand today. Colonel Charles Bennett brought the seeds back from abroad for the garden. Looking down a frozen Manor Farm Drive towards Arbury Road in ...