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Showing posts from April, 2025

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...

1977: A Dunkirk Boat For The Arbury Adventure Playground - The Arbury Noah's Ark!

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...

Arbury Cambridge Video 2 - Over 2,000 Years in just over Two Minutes!

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.