Arbury Carnival Poster Exhibition at Cambridge Regional College, Future Articles at Arbury Cambridge Archive, And An Albrach Appeal - Did It Exist?

Two topics today, firstly the Arbury Carnival Poster Exhibition, secondly Albrach - did it actually exist? 

First and foremost, the Arbury Carnival Poster Exhibition is at CRC, on King's Hedges Road, on 11 March! There will be music, and the winning poster art will be chosen! With entries from CRC, North Cambridge Academy, Castle School and Chesterton. 

This is the 49th anniversary of the Arbury Carnival, with its debut now wreathed in the mists of time (1977). 

'Doesn't seem that long ago to me,' says Andy, who is a bit sensitive about the passage of years as he marches into his sixties.

But the origins of the Arbury name are wreathed in much more mist - prehistoric times! 

Thanks to the Arbury Carnival Committee and all helpers and contributors, as always! There is a lot that goes into preparing our yearly day and we are very grateful to all those involved in the task. 

The Arbury Town Park in Campkin Road is, as always, the location.

Take a look at our maps for Arbury history details. If you get confused, remember that the majority of King's Hedges Road didn't exist until 1977, and we've marked on a few modern day landmarks for orientation.

We've superimposed the old Arbury Meadows, Furlongs and Corner onto a 1904 Ordnance Survey map. The Manor Farm, which covered many of the fields north of Arbury Road, did not exist before the 1840s. 

Our 1904 map also features the details from the 1840 enclosures map. The names Arbury and Harborough were variations on each other and interchangeable - although we've only come across the 'Harborough' form once. The 1840 Chesterton enclosures map used the 'Harborough' form, an 1839 newspaper article used the 'Arbury' form. 

The Arbury name is derived from the Old English for 'earthwork', the earthwork surrounding the iron age settlement at Arbury Camp Farm (now Orchard Park, originally Arbury Park). 

The earthwork, or at least part of it, was a landscape feature for around 2000 years, and the part of the outline seen on this map is incorporated into the design of Ring Fort Road. Arbury was. for many years, thought to have been an undefended site, the earthwork simply being to protect the animals kept by the settlers from wolves or thieves. But excavations in recent times indicate that it may very well have been a fort. 

Until the late 1970s, King's Hedges Road was a dead end, terminating at the original King's Hedges, a fifty-eight acre property, north of the modern day guided busway. In the late 1970s, the King's Hedges name was attached to a new road which joined the old road, redirected and extended across the Arbury Meadows/Manor Farm - and lopping off the original junction of the Histon/Cambridge Road and Arbury Road. Most of the modern 'King's Hedges Road' dates from the late 1970s.

The same map, but with the Manor Farm field names featured. The Manor, Hall and Arbury Camp farms were formed in the years following the 1840 Chesterton Enclosures.

We are lining up several new articles: Ms Rebecca Downham, step-daughter of Brian Downham, has supplied us with several photographs of rural Arbury and the Downham family at Manor Farm (Downham's Lane is named after William Downham, Brian's father, who farmed many acres of the Manor Farm smallholdings). Thanks again to Rebecca. We'd never seen these photographs before! Brian was very helpful too when Andy began the Arbury Archive back in the early 1980s and Andy remembers him with great affection.

We're going back to World War Two, when a bomb and incendiaries dropped on the Arbury fields. We're also looking at the grim realities and community resilience of wartime living in general, in the final part of Mrs Hinchcliffe's contributions to the Arbury Archive from the 1980s.

And we're going to take a look at the Grovebury Ladies of the Grove School, and feature more about the Arbury Adventure Playground on the Nuns Way playing field.

Fun at the Arbury Adventure Playground in the 1970s.

Albrach, Albrach, Wherefore Were Thou?

And now we come to Albrach. Can anybody help? We've come across this name, apparently an old name referring to the "original thirty four acres" of the historic fifty-eight acre King's Hedges (north of the Guided Busway), but have been unable to trace it to any maps or historic references in our studies. 

It is quoted in the Victoria Histories and British History Online, but the source is solely an independent research contribution to the Cambridgeshire Collection from the 1980s. And it's on Wikipedia. The link leads back to the Victoria Histories and British History Online. Which lead back to the independent research. Some other sites also quote it, including Cambridge City Council's North Cambridge Plan, without providing the source. This is not a ME linguistic term related to hunting warrens fields, or open land (which the warren was surrounded by). Where are the actual historic references to it? 

Once something makes it into the Victoria Histories and British History Online it does tend to get repeated, although both of them are wonderful resources, honestly stating their fallibility and sources - which are not always totally robust or simply contain small errors research-wise. Wikipedia amplifies things much more. 

'Albrach' certainly does not appear to line up with Middle English terminology which was the language of the time it apparently appeared (13th Century). If anybody can provide further details of the name we would appreciate it. 

We launched a full AI search for 'Albrach' in historic documents and maps and came up empty. Sources were all recent and pointed back to Wikipedia, Victoria Histories and, ultimately, the independent research at the Cambridgeshire Collection.

As things stand, we cannot include 'Albrach' as proven history. We wonder if it's a misread name for Arbury (Arbury Camp is referenced back then)? Old maps can be incredibly difficult to decipher.

If anybody does come up with definitive proof of Albrach's existence, we'd love to hear and write about it.

Thanks for all the support. We are amazed and delighted at the number of page views and enquiries. We are totally non-profit making, we draw on material from the Arbury Archive and memories and photographs contributed by readers in the modern day. We are simply dedicated to uniting a very historic area and celebrating its history and vibrant modernity!

The Arbury Carnival is our 'once a year day'. Here's the mythical kracken joining the celebration in 2023.

1980s fashion returns to Arbury Town Park in 2024.

And this year's theme... Madonna? Prince? The Beatles? Adam Ant? Tina Turner? Or somebody more modern? Who will YOU be?!