One of the local history displays at the Arbury Court shopping centre. The origins of Arbury, of course, pre-date those of Chesterton by centuries. The display also mentions the Roman finds in the old Arbury Meadows/Manor Farm fields, including a Roman villa. More were found last year, including a plesiosaur bone - perhaps a prized curiosity of a Roman resident. The original Arbury Road connected the Milton (or Ely) Road to the Histon/Cambridge Road until the late 1970s, when the dead end King's Hedges Road, which led north of the guided busway to King's Hedges, a fifty-eight acre farm (what we term here the REAL King's Hedges), was redirected and expanded across the old Arbury/Harborough Meadows/Manor Farm and lopped off the end of Arbury Road as part of the A14 motorway development. Before Manor Farm, much of the land north of Arbury Road was known as the Arbury/Harborough Meadows, North Arbury/Harborough Furlong, West Arbury/Harborough Furlong, etc. A swathe of land sout...

Pondering on Arbury... things that make us go hmm... on Arbury we do sit and ponder... On the Arbury Estate, we archivists often think that the older we get, the more nonsensical life becomes. We decided we'd share a few of the things we find distinctly odd - and, sometimes, downright annoying... It's odd that the Council takes our council tax from us, decade after decade, without once uttering 'PROVE YOU ARE WHO YOU SAY YOU ARE!', but as soon as somebody is ill and needs help paying, various forms of ID are needed... a passport? Chance would be a fine thing! A recent bank statement? But I was pressed to go paperless to save the planet - and you've been receiving payments from my bank account for over thirty years anyway - without question! My birth certificate? Yes, I have it - somewhere! But WHERE?! Shall I fork out for a new one? These sort of nitpicking things can contribute greatly to stress at times of illness, as one of our Arbury Archivists is discovering. H...