'Cambridge Daily News', 1954: 'The Arbury' is underway. Well, South Arbury anyway. We think this is Brimley Road. Thanks to all that have written. First out of the postbag today is an enquiry from Sanj: Why does Wikipedia say work began on the Arbury in 1957? It was earlier than that because of the council houses going up in the 1954 newspaper article you published, and Arbury School opened in 1956. Good work on your site - it is a must-read for me now and has given me an interest in the district. Hi, Sanj - and thank you! Yes, you're quite right. 'The Arbury' began springing to life in the early 1950s. We think the error stems from the Victoria Histories article on the area, which used inaccurate independent research. These things happen. The Histories make no claim to be infallible, depending as they do on various sources and are a valuable resource - but the sources listed must be noted and checked. Wikipedia can also be quite problematic in our experie...

A fascinating mix of old and new in this view of the Manor School for Boys, Arbury Road, in 1959. Some Manor Farm buildings are still in existence, and will be until 1960. The Manor was built using the highly modern 'intergrid' system, which was later reviled by some. Many years later, Principal Ben Slade described it as looking like a 'grim 1960s car park'. Well, to be honest, nobody could call the original Chesterton Community College building of 1935 an architectural show piece (the view down Bateson Road hardly reveals an aesthetically pleasing structure), and as one Arbury Archivist said at the time of Mr Slade's comment: 'With headmasters like that, who needs enemies?' Mr Slade was, however, campaigning for improvements to the school. During his reign it became an 'academy' of the performing arts. Some locals expected to find pupils dancing on the tops of cars in legwarmers in Arbury Road, like the kids from Fame , but this never came to pass. ...

Part of Badger's walk to school: "Goodbye, World! I hope I see you again!" Warning - caution advised - some readers may find what is to follow overly distressing. If you are of a sensitive or nervous disposition, please consider before reading. Badger is a regular writer to the Arbury Cambridge Blog , and recently contacted us with his recollections of life as an Arbury teenager and a Chesterton Community College pupil in the 1980s. Badger is gay and prefers to remain anonymous: 'I know things are pretty good now, but it's a habit I find hard to break!' He's written this for us. I lived on South Arbury in one of those nice little terraced places... it was all right... I went to Arbury School and I was happy, I suppose. But from the age of about I suppose 9, I knew I was different. I was going off sci-fi on TV and getting into soap operas, this was in the days before the trendy youth soaps like 'Brookside' and 'Neighbours', and I'd never...