An Off Licence In South Arbury Many Years Ago?

An enquiry from Ray:

I find this blog a great resource. I have some ideas and will email you again ASAP. In the meantime I have a question. My Nan, who died six years ago, used to speak about going to an off licence in South Arbury when she was a young woman many years ago, and I don't think it was in the Carlton Terrace shops.

Have you any idea where it was?

Answer: Hello, Ray! Thanks for getting in touch. Quite right about Carlton Terrace - there was no off licence there years ago, but there was one at the Carlton Arms. It was through a door between the bay windows at the front of the pub. It had a lovely bell 'ting' as you entered - very full and melodic!

One of us Arbury Archivers remembers being taken there by his mother in the late 1960s/early 1970s to buy fizzy pop, crisps, and something for Mum. He used to wonder where the person behind the counter used to appear from, not realising that the pub's bars were connected and the person was working behind them.

Our Archiver's grandparents' empty Guinness bottles could also be taken there - and the small refunded deposit on each bottle used to buy Black Jacks and Fruit Salads at Stop's newsagent's ('Stopsiz') - with Gran and Grandad's blessing, of course!

Please do send us your ideas. Glad you're enjoying the blog!

UPDATE: 19/04/2022:

Just found this photograph of the Carlton Arms in 1959, its opening year - complete with off-licence. One of our Arbury Archivists was overcome with nostalgic tears at the sight!😢

Copies of many of the photographs featured on the blog can be obtained from the Cambridgeshire Collection at Cambridge Central Library. This wonderful resource also contains huge amounts of other material, and we recommend that anybody undertaking Cambridgeshire history research makes the Collection one of their first ports of call.

Comments

What Did The Romans Ever Do for Arbury? Jim Smith

Our trusty old Arbury map showing location details before the Manor Farm was established. The red line, inserted by Jim Smith, indicates the course of the Roman road - Akeman Street or the Mere Way. The land north of Arbury Road was the Arbury or Harborough Meadows, Arbury/Harborough furlongs and Arbury Camp, King's Hedges was in its original position, north of the railway (now guided busway) and Arbury Road ran from the Ely/Milton Road to the Histon/Cambridge Road - as it did until the late 1970s. Introduction - by the Arbury Archivists Jim Smith is a local history researcher and a good friend of the Arbury Cambridge Blog. He has been researching Roman finds in the historic Arbury area and has written this article for us. We are most grateful! He follows the adventures of those who scraped away centuries of soil to reveal ancient findings beneath. Of course, as always, we deal with historic Arbury here, not council planners' estates or electoral wards, which are both prone to

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 Down Your Street 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. 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 contributed to t

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 - 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 the Arbury fields of Manor Farm. It has absolutely nothing to do with King's Hedges at all. And King's Hedges was never a district. Land no

Search This Blog