The Story So Far...Andy has been driving Debs and her wheelchair all over the original Arbury Estate ('Stop, chauffeur, in need of fish n' chips!' she said at one point), looking at the area, remembering the past, and having a good day of it. Starting in North Arbury at Arbury Town Park, the pair have visited the Arbury Community Centre in Campkin Road, the old Manor School site, North Cambridge Academy, Nicholson Way and Walker Court. Then it was over to South Arbury for Arbury Court and the Carlton Terrace shops and Carlton Arms in Carlton Way.
Sadly, they were too tired to get up to the North Arbury Chapel and Arbury Kebab van in Cameron Road, and the site of the legendary Arbury Adventure Playground on the Nuns Way playing field. They're now finishing off with a look at Carlton Way...
Now, READ ON!
The 1950s council-built houses in Carlton Way always say 'Arbury' to us, even when we see similar in Cherry Hinton...
The Arbury Primary School made its debut as the Arbury Infant and Junior Schools in 1956. Along with the Grove, St Laurence's and King's Hedges, the school participated in the 'Arbury 1980' project, which resulted in the 1981 book, 'Arbury Is Where We Live!'
The Kingsway. Plans for an eleven storey block of flats here were put forward by the Council in 1962. The plan was rejected. Andy remembers the garages here years ago - when he was a child - which were rather 'creepy' and made exciting echoes if you stood at the entrance to them and shouted!
The Kingsway Kebab van - an important South Arbury institution. Andy never knew what a kebab was when he was a child - and the idea of getting hot food on the Arbury Estate anywhere outside of the kitchen or Turner's Fish Locker in Arbury Court would have seemed incredible.
The Kingsway Kebab gent was preparing for opening and had a chat with us. This is something we find time and time again in Arbury: we know many people and Andy has family here, but perfect strangers will stop and talk. It's a very friendly place, whatever the 'Great and Good' of Cambridge might say. On this trip round, we chatted about Arbury history to two North Cambridge Academy students outside the Academy, and two more in Nicholson Way, a lady in Campkin Road and a gent outside the shops in Carlton Terrace. We also experienced very friendly service in Budgens, the Anchor Fish Bar and Dorrington's. Arbury has great community spirit. You notice it particularly when you're in, or pushing, a wheelchair. We even had a gent in a van stop to allow us to cross the road in Mere Way.
Our final stop before going home for a cuppa was Andy's beloved Kingsway block by Rutland Close. Here, Andy and other South Arbury kids of the early 1970s gathered to play klackers and chant their rhymes. We'd share some of those rhymes with you, but they might offend sensitive 21st Century sensibilities. The early 1970s were a very different world.
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