From 'Cambridge Street Names -Their Origins And Associations' by Ronald Gray and Derek Stubbings, 2010:
The only street-name in Cambridge that has connections with prehistoric times is ARBURY Road. The name is spelled Herburg, Ertburg and similar in thirteenth-century documents, and means earthwork. It used to be thought that Arbury Camp, at the north end of the road, was a fort like the one at Wandlebury or the War Ditches at LIME KILN Hill, south of the reservoir (now destroyed) but it is today regarded as an undefended site. A low circular bank and ditch about 100 metres in diameter, it was almost certainly an iron age enclosure for keeping animals safe from wolves and robbers. (See Alison Taylor: 'Prehistoric Cambridgeshire', 1977, and Sallie Purkis, 'Arbury Is Where We Live!', EARO, The Resource Centre, Back Hill, Ely, 1981.)
The book is highly recommended for anybody interested in Cambridge history.
Times change, and modern archaeological digs have indicated that Arbury probably was an iron age fort, rather than the equivalent of a village, and of considerable importance in the area.
Arbury Camp is now occupied by Orchard Park (formerly Arbury Park and, before that, Arbury Camp Farm, and before that, Arbury Meadows) and the road following the circular route of the earthwork is called Ring Fort Road. The orchards at Arbury Camp Farm, after which Orchard Park is named, belonged to Chivers Jam Factory at Histon.
From the Arbury Court local history displays. It is believed that Arbury Road follows the alignment of a pre-Roman trackway, from Arbury Camp down to the river in what is now Chesterton.The course of Arbury Road before the late 1970s when the A14 was built. At that time, King's Hedges Road ceased to be a dead-end leading to the original King's Hedges, a fifty-eight acre farm north of the guided busway, and was redirected across the old Arbury Meadows, lopping off the original end of Arbury Road where it linked to the Histon/Cambridge Road.
Historically, the 'King's Hedges' name has no place there, nor in the land north of Arbury Road up to the railway line/guided busway. The land was called Arbury or Harborough Meadows, North Arbury/Harborough Furlong, etc. Harborough was a variation on the Arbury name, but Arbury was the most commonly used.
King's Hedges, of course, appears to refer to the King's hunting warren in the old Royal Manor of Chesterton, a hedged warren to which animals could be herded, chased and killed as 'sport'. The name obviously appealed to the Brakyn family, and first appeared in print as 'Kinges Headge' in 1588. In those days, hunting was considered a great sport by the upper classes and the added royal distinction would probably have seemed very attractive.
It's very easy to be judgemental about the past, and we don't particularly like the origins of the King's Hedges name , but we must remember that there are sure to be things we do now that will cause future generations to exclaim in disgust.
For the earlier 'Albrach' name, apparently used for thirty-four acres of the King's Hedges site, which has been quite widely quoted, we can only find one source - a 1980s submission to the Cambridgeshire Collection, no historical maps, deeds or other records. So, we cannot add it as verified information.
The Manor Farm was established in the years following the 1840 Chesterton Enclosures. Like King's Hedges, it was sold to Cambridgeshire County Council in 1909, and became smallholdings, building land, university field laboratories and a sports track for Magdalene College.
Arbury Road, 1962: the window cleaner's on his way and children are cycling home from the Manor School. The tops of the trees which lined the Manor Farm drive are visible to the left of the school tower block. Unfortunately, it was soon discovered that the tap roots of the Manor Farm drive trees had been cut through when trenches were being dug for North Arbury, and the trees had to be chopped down.
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