The Arbury district, circa 1904. Various farm and field names have been inserted, including the 58 acre King's Hedges. Although King's Hedges was a farm, it always appears simply as 'King's Hedges' on maps. While Arbury Camp Farm became a poultry farm and an orchard for Chivers of Histon, King's Hedges housed some much older trees, as did the neighbouring Impington Park, which was an entirely separate property. Lovely email to the Arbury Cambridge  site today. Thanks to the sender: When I was a kid in the 50's and 60's, we often used to play in Kings Hedges woods. It was a lot of fun. I came on this site to try and find out why the woods were just done away with, which is a shame. There used to be cuckoo's there and numerous wildlife. How destructive to just get rid of it Valuable oak, elm and ash trees (timber) were recorded on the sales particulars for the historic King's Hedges acres in the 1909 sales particulars for the 58 acre farm. They are...

In 1981, the Arbury is Where We Live! book revealed the story of the 1950s South Arbury self-build houses to the community: Mrs Heath talked about the building of Essex Close: I'm going to take you back to the beginning of 1950. One evening my husband was looking at the 'Cambridge Daily News' and he saw an announcement in it to say there was going to be a meeting for anyone who was interested with a view for people who were unskilled to get together to build their own houses. My husband thought what a good idea so he and his brother went along and when they came home they were so excited to tell us they had become registered members of what was to be known as the Cambridge Self-build Society. Thirteen men from all walks of life - someone who worked for the Local Authority, someone who worked in a shop, my husband who was a Post Office engineer - in fact from everywhere. There were three skilled men, two were plumbers and knew about building and an electrician. They went to...

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...

This edition of 'Arbury Artefacts' is a bit different as we're focusing on one small plot in the Arbury landscape - the Park Meadow at Manor Farm. This, of course, later became the site of the Manor School/Community College and is now the site of North Cambridge Academy. Join us as we flip from Manor Farm to Manor School for some fascinating findings from the old days, and a tie with knots in. First off is the cover of a 1983 Manor Banner, newsletter of the Manor Community College on Arbury Road. The school was preparing for its annual play, and 1983's was Dracula Spectacular. Geography teacher Ken Harker wrote a very witty piece to publicise the preparations. The play itself was spiced with local references. A thunderous knocking at the front door of Dracula's Castle brought forth Dracula's resigned comment: 'Not Janet Jones with more leaflets?' Ms Jones was then the Cambridgeshire County Councillor for the original Arbury electoral ward, which covered ...

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...

Back to the Cambridge Weekly News , 1987, to discover more of the story of an ordinary Arbury farming family from the 1880s to the 1920s. The 20th Century has begun, and Richard and Amelia Brett are concerned for their children in a rapidly changing world. The old order changes tremendously at the Manor Farm, as it is sold to Cambridgeshire County Council. But nobody can predict just how much the world is going to change, and 1918 finds the Brett family mourning a son lost in the trenches... The wedding of Louisa Brett to Walter Ashman on 12 September, 1908 (see Part 2), was a grand occasion. In 1986, their daughter, Mrs Muriel Wiles, told me: 'They looked as if they owned the Earth in the photograph! But they didn't. Grandad was a very hard worker and kept the family in as much comfort as he could.' This week's instalment. Click on the image for a readable view and download if wanted to keep. Cambridge Daily News, 1919: memoriam notice for Alfred Brett. Sales particula...