Ask Arbury and Arbury Postbag - 3: Arbury Court Enquiry, Arbury Camp - Fort or Village? The Manor School, Arbury Meadows, Arbury Is Where We Live! 'Yarrers', & Arbury Community Centre At 50.

Adventures at the Arbury Adventure Playground on the Nuns Way playing field in the mid-1970s.

We're going to share a few more of our recent comments and queries. All questions receive answers via email or blog comments, so if you're wondering about anything regarding the historic Arbury area (Gilbert Road to King's Hedges Road, and Orchard Park) please don't hesitate to get in touch. 

Beginning with an enquiry which readers might be able to help with:

Trying to find information on a shop that I believe my Grandmother owned in Arbury court in the early days (Late 50s/60s) her name was Jane Norman - haven’t been able to find anything on line so far - thought you might be able to help😊

We have much Arbury material here, but so far have found nothing. Does anybody out there have any information?

And now, some ancient history. Paul W has written:

Very interesting site and I wonder was Arbury a village or a fort?

We're delving into modern archaeological findings (thanks to Jim Smith for some fascinating material on the subject), and it seems that it may well have been a fort. Certainly the earthwork road in Orchard Park (originally Arbury Park, and, before that, Arbury Camp Farm) is called Ring Fort Road. We'll publish more on this soon. Part of the Arbury earthwork outline is included in Ring Fort Road. This is very obvious from the air, which we think is wonderful. The outline marks the oldest known habitation in the district and the origin of the Arbury name.

A landscape feature from the iron age onwards, the remaining section of the earthwork has been incorporated into the layout of the Orchard Park (originally Arbury Park) development.

Ms S has written:

Cheers 4 featuring more about the Manor. It's amazing that we were into the environmental issues even back in the 1980s. I agree with you that the last photo looks very modern. I love the fact that the Manor name went back to the old farm and your stuff about the Arbury Meadows. I live in Northfield Avenue so I'm in those meadows! My favourite teachers were Mrs New, Mr Daw, Mr Radcliffe and Mrs Bowyer.

Thanks, Ms S. Those teachers' names bring back memories to more than one of us! Yes, the Arbury Meadows covered most of the land north of Arbury Road, together with the North Arbury Furlong (up by the original King's Hedges Road farm track), Arbury Furlong and West Arbury Corner by Milton Road. Andy's great-great and great-grandparents lived at the Manor Farm from the 1880s to the 1920s, and his great-grandfather continued to farm a smallholding there until his death in 1941.

"Preferred Pronouns: Large Person/The One" has written:

When you wrote about Yarrows, which had branches in South and North Arbury, being pronounced 'Yarrers' you took me right back there in my mind. It was a good feeling. I'm cheesed off with people being snobby about Arbury or calling it 'North Cambridge' or 'King's Hedges'. It's strange because Chesterton doesn't seem to be included in 'North Cambridge', yet Arbury history predates it. It's great to see somebody takes the history of the Arbury seriously. Not every district boasts an iron age settlement and a name derived from it.

Very true, Preferred Pronouns. Thanks for writing. Andy spent about four hundred years searching through the newspaper archives at the wonderful Cambridgeshire Collection for Arbury references in the decades before online newspaper archives (which are wonderful too). Here is a 1972 ad for 'Yarrers', Carlton Way, South Arbury, branch from 1972.

                     

Sarah writes:

I was a pupil at King's Hedges School when Arbury Is Where We Live happened. I wrote about the Arbury Carnival. It didn't get in the book, but was in the exhibition at the Manor School. I remember Arbury Adventure Playground at Nuns Way. The bloke that ran it had loads of patience and I always remembered him when I was bringing my kids up!

Thanks for writing, Sarah. The Arbury 1980 project and the 1981 book were wonderful community projects, bringing young and... er, not so young together! Sallie Purkis was brilliant.

Jaz says:

Fab to read about Councillor Alex Collis on here. One of the best North Arbury/"King's Hedges" councillors ever!

Lovely - very interested in the Arbury district as a real place with a history, and also down to earth and 'of the people'.

Arbury Boy has written:

Remember that the Arbury Community Centre is 50 this year. It would never of happened without the residents' effort.

We do! Terrific effort then - and continued terrific effort over all these years - has kept the Centre going as a real centre for the community. Our thanks to all those involved.

And finally, Mrs White has written:

May I just express my appreciation of your articles about Old Arbury from the transcribed conversations of people in the area years ago? They give a link to ways and days now long gone and the people that lived here then. I think they are wonderful.

Thank you very much, Mrs White. The articles are very popular and their origins go back to the Arbury 1980 project and the 1981 Arbury Is Where We Live! book, which inspired Andy to start the Arbury Archive. Some links to the articles: Mrs Hinchcliffe: here; Mrs Wiles: here; Mr Cardinal: here.

More soon!