Ask Arbury: From Randy, Rippett and Raft and Swinging Cats to a 1970s Road and a Manor School Diary...

Every so often we like to upload some of the questions posed by readers via email. Here's another selection.
I got to thinking after your article with the Manor School diary. Do you remember a series that ran in the 'Manor Banner' school magazine called 'Randy, Rippett and Raft'? It was a spoof on the boys' PE teachers.

We do, and at the top of the post is the first part from the Manor Banner, summer, 1983. The comic strip was drawn by pupil Adrian Tompkins. The teachers in question were Mr Radcliffe, Mr Tippett and Mr Daft. They were good sports about the spoof (good sports, geddit, PE teachers?! Oh never mind...) and in the second part got into terrible trouble with Mr Raggs (Mr Gaggs), the headmaster.

The 'spooky wordsearch' is a reference to Dracula Spectacular, the school play that year. We love the inclusion of the word 'teachers' under the spooky heading!

We recall a lot of excellent comradeship between pupils and teachers at the Manor in those days, and some teachers were excellent at helping children who were experiencing problems outside of school - we speak from personal experience. So much better than these days of 'outstanding' schools, heavily populated by pupils from areas with natural academic leanings - and that's all that counts. Just our opinion, but in those days the Manor truly was outstanding...

Next question, please...

Great to see the old Manor School diary. I remember them very well and I wonder if we could have a peep inside?

Yes, we'll upload more scans of the diary soon.

Next - our most oft asked question of all, best summed up by: 'When is historic King's Hedges not historic King's Hedges? Answer: When it's historic Arbury...

I enjoy the blog, but are you seriously telling me that the majority of King's Hedges Road is late 1970s, and that the area around it wasn't King's Hedges historically, not even King's Hedges School?

We are constantly answering this question. Sorry, but yes. King's Hedges School is historically in Arbury or Harborough (Harborough was a variation on the Arbury name), and the majority of King's Hedges Road has nothing to do with King's Hedges either, but an awful lot to do with historic Arbury, running right by the ancient earthwork which gave Arbury its name, and lopping off the end of the original Histon end of the historic Arbury Road. It is theorised that the original Arbury Road's course was based on the alignment of an iron age track, running from Arbury Camp to the river in what is now Chesterton, so it's been treated pretty shabbily by planners.

King's Hedges was never a district, you see - but a small farm north of the guided busway, covering fifty eight acres. And King's Hedges Road was a dead end farm track leading to it from Chesterton, terminating at the farm, north west of the busway site.

The 'King's Hedges' name appears to be derived from a royal hedged hunting warren. The king would come over from Cambridge Castle and watch his tenants from his box near the hedges as they pursued and killed various wild animals - deer, etc, in medieval times. King's Hedges later played host to more 'sport' - boxing matches attended by large numbers of town and gown folk.

Northfield Avenue was named as the famous Roman villa with underfloor heating was discovered in a North Arbury field.

Much of King's Hedges Estate/King's Hedges Ward is also historically Arbury - although it extends into Chesterton now. Of course, the historic Arbury part is also known as North Arbury and was part of the original Arbury electoral ward.

A lot of people are startled by the historic facts, particularly those who don't know the area well or who do not remember the vast King's Hedges Road expansion and redirection in the late '70s as part of the A14/Cambridge Northern Bypass development. Many others just call the district North Arbury (a far more legitimate name historically) or 'The Arbury' - lumped in as one estate with South Arbury.

North Arbury (we recognise the existence of a 'King's Hedges' sub-district within it, but that's all) is one of the most Arbury of Arbury areas historically. Check out our trusty old maps, and the modern misinformation display and 1977 road building photographs below.

We've annotated this 1904 Ordnance Survey map to include the earlier details of the Arbury/Harborough Meadows, furlongs and Corner. Manor Farm was established some time after the 1840 Chesterton Enclosures.

The Arbury district in 1904.

Misinformation on a modern outside 'local history' display. The Roman villa referred to was near the ancient Arbury earthwork, which pre-dated it - and the area was known as the Arbury/Harborough Meadows. King's Hedges was a small farm elsewhere. For 'Roman Landscape at King's Hedges' just substitute 'Arbury' for the final two words. We hope the display wasn't financed by public funds. Local history is local history. This is inaccurate.

'Cambridge Evening News', 1969: the Roman villa and other findings in the North Arbury field. This is why Northfield Avenue was so named. The name 'King's Hedges' was imported by council planners in the 1960s and 1970s who seemed to be rather fixated with it.

The new King's Hedges Road comes into being in the late 1970s, lopping off the original end of Arbury Road.

And finally (humorously, we think...)

When you wrote there wasn't room to swing a cat at Yarrow's in Carlton Way, wasn't that a bit anti-catist?

Heavens, yes thanks for that. Our bad. Let's just say there wasn't room to swing a pair of flared trousers.

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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, although the Arbury form was more common) 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 and, before that Arbury Meadows) features the outline of part of the Arbury prehistoric settlement at Ring Fort Road. We've inse...

Exploring The REAL King's Hedges... And Albrach? Did It Exist?

The Cambridge and St Ives Branch railway line is now the Cambridgeshire 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/King's Hedges Estate (AKA North Arbury) - 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 Furlongs and the Arbury fields of Manor Farm. It has absolutely nothing to do with...

Arbury's 1980s 2: 1981 - A Bus For The Railway Tracks?

From the Cambridge Citizens' Guide, 'Cambridge Evening News', January 1980. Bus routes in the city way back then. The old Cambridge and St Ives Branch railway line, which ran between North Arbury to the south, and Impington Park, the original King's Hedges acres and Rectory/Trinity Farm to the north, had been closed to passenger trains in the Beeching era of the late 1960s. Today, of course, it is the Guided Busway. It may surprise some that buses on the tracks were being mooted by local ecologists as far back as 1981... The Arbury area in 1900, with the Cambridge & St Ives Branch railway line - now the guided busway. 'Cambridge Evening News', 15/5/1981: Cambridge ecologists are planning a demonstration to prove that a bus which can run on railway lines is the solution to transport problems in 15 local villages. The aim is to borrow the prototype bus in early July, and run it from Cambridge's city centre to Huntingdon - and use British Rail's tracks ...

Manor School Memories Part 1

The Manor School on Arbury Road was one of the main focuses of life for North and South Arbury for decades. With its evening classes and youth centre, and various community activities - like the annual Christmas party for the elderly and the annual school play in the 1980s ( Annie Get Your Gun and Dracula Spectacular spring to mind) - the Manor opened as separate boys' and girls' schools in 1959 (the girls had to share the boys' buildings at first as their own were still under construction). The school later became co-ed. An aerial view of t he Manor Schools - Boys' and Girls', around 1960, with a section of Arbury Road and Arbury Court. Note Arbury Court was yet to gain its library and large supermarket building, and Campkin Road was still the Manor Farm Drive. The lay of the land, complete with field names, at the Manor Farm in 1900. The Park Meadow contains the Manor School/Community College and North Cambridge Academy sites. The Manor Farm was established...

A Tribute To Debbie - Much Loved Arbury Archivist

The death of Debbie Brett on Sunday has saddened us all deeply. Debbie was very much an 'outdoors person', she loved the countryside. She painted and drew in her spare time, and liked nothing better than being on a train going somewhere! She was always deeply moved by the beauties of nature and, sitting in her hospital bed at home a few days before she died, watching the sky deepen from light to dark blue as the evening set in and the lights appeared in the windows opposite, exclaimed: 'Isn't it beautiful?!' 'I wouldn't have noticed,' said her husband Andy. 'But when I looked, it was. She took great pleasure out of looking out of the window, noting all the flora and fauna. I'm so glad the NHS supplied a hospital bed and she was able to stay at home until the end.' Debbie was a very loyal and active member of the Arbury Archivists - as she said, she 'married an Arbury man' - hubby Andy has family links here back to the old farm days in...

Ask Arbury: The Roman Villa in Arbury

E-mail to Arbury Cambridge blog: Was a Roman villa found at King's Hedges? I recently saw an outside display in North Arbury/King's Hedges Ward called 'The Roman Landscape in King's Hedges' which claims there was one. And is King's Hedges Road Roman? We've seen that display. Electoral wards are not historic areas and local historians really do need to be mindful of that fact. The answer to your questions regarding the Roman villa and King's Hedges Road is no. The Roman villa was found on the site of King's Hedges School, which is not part of the historic King's Hedges acres. Historically, King's Hedges was simply a named property, a farm, of fifty eight acres, and is now north of the guided busway. It was never a district. King's Hedges School is dearly loved by many of us and we treasure it, but those in the know accept it's not actually in any historically meaningful King's Hedges district, and the site it was built on ha...

Manor School Memories - Part 2

Lads from the Manor Boys' School in 1960. D. Claton, M. Farrow, R. Mitchell, C. Peck, I. Skeels, R. Potter and G. Paine are present. Do any readers remember who is who? School's back in - Manor School/Community College on Arbury Road that is (now North Cambridge Academy). Here is the second part of our series on Manor Memories - Part 1 is here . Pupils' foreign holiday, 1960: the first Manor girls to go on a joint foreign holiday with Manor boys: G. Anderson, J. Barnes, C. Blackwell, H. Brown, S. Budd, L. Carter, A. Clarke, L. Doggett, C. Doughty, P. Drake, S. Hardy, E. Harradine, B. Kaspar, D. Miller, J. Parker, L. Phillips, J. Reeves, J. Spencer, J. Symonds, with headmistress Mrs Firman. Note the Manor Schools' caretaker's house can be seen in the background, and the trees of the old Manor Farm orchard. October 1960, and here is a view of the Manor Boys' and Girls' schools from the car park at the Snow Cat public house (now the Cambridge Gurdwara). A view ...

What Arbury Means To You...

We thought it would be good to invite comments (or emails - arburyestate@btinternet.com) from readers about what Arbury means to you. Of course, many have already made their views plain on here, but we like the idea of a dedicated blog post. Please be aware that we are referring to the original, historic Arbury area here, the area between Gilbert Road and King's Hedges Road, not modern electoral wards/misnamed apparently 'separate' housing estates. From 'Arbury is Where We Live!' (1981): Community action has always been important in Arbury. The first Arbury community groups were formed with the building of South Arbury in the 1950s, and North Arbury has seen many fantastic community efforts - resulting in the likes of the Arbury Adventure Playground, Arbury Carnival, Arbury Community Centre and the Arbury Town Park. So, what does Arbury mean to YOU? How long have you lived here? Are you interested in Arbury history? What do you like about Arbury? What do you dislike...

Things Called Arbury In Cambridge...

How many things that are, or have been, called 'Arbury' in Cambridge and its immediate environs can you think of over the years? Most 'Arbury' things are clustered north of Arbury Road - one of the most historic Arbury areas in Cambridge, although, nonsensically, part of the "King's Hedges" electoral ward. Check out King's Hedges on the map. That's right. It's north of the guided busway/railway line and was a fifty eight acre plot. A lot of the land north of Arbury Road, and a swathe of land to the south, were known as the Arbury or Harborough Meadows, North Arbury/Harborough Furlong, etc. Harborough is a variation on the Arbury name. We put our thinking caps on, and came up with: 1) Arbury Road: This road connected the Milton/Ely Road with the Histon/Cambridge Road until the late 1970s when a new road was built across the Arbury Meadows/Manor Farm by the iron age Arbury Camp at the time of the A14 development. The new road linked the formerly...

Arbury Archaeology and History: Part 1

Imagine an iron age settlement. It is surrounded by a circular earthwork. People live here. There are houses, and pens for animals within the enclosure. Until recent years, it was not believed to be a fort. The settlement is larger than some, but believed to be very much the equivalent of what we now call a village - the earthwork simply to defend it from wolves and animal thieves. The earthwork is filled with water, and reeds and rushes grow there. Despite the naming of the Arbury earthwork as 'Ring Fort Road' in the Arbury Camp Farm Arbury/Orchard Park development, the original height of the earthwork and its enclosed area were not believed to indicate that Arbury was a fort (compare to Wandlebury), and the findings of archaeologists from Cambridge and London from the early 1960s to 1970 discounted the notion. Comment from Arbury Camp, Cambridge, A Preliminary Report on Excavations - by John Alexander and David Trump, 1970: The excavations therefore tend to confirm earlier s...

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