Arbury Court - 'the centre of the massive Arbury housing estate' - December, 1977. Lorraine P. has sent us a suggestion for an Arbury seasonal hymn title: We Three Kings (hedges) of Arbury Are. Love it, Lorraine. A suggested next line:  8pm and we're all in the bar... A very interesting e-mail and lovely Christmas e-card from Mr Peter Wilson: I like your site but I think community spirit has died down a lot everywhere because everybody's always messing about with computers and mobile phones. The Arbury is lucky to still have its carnival and community centre. I've been amazed at how much you know about the Arbury's history, it's amazing but I don't think you'll bring back the old community spirit, like the Arbury is where we live book. I could be wrong but I don't see it happening. Best thing is the Carnival, so Arbury is still special. My best wishes to you all for Christmas and the coming New Year. Thanks, Mr Wilson. The same to you! We would l...

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...

Photo captioned 'Flooding at North Arbury, 1970'. The children are having fun! Well, here's North Arbury in flood in 1970! We'll have more on this soon. Note the dear old Jenny Wren on the left - and we've got more on that too! Why 'Jenny Wren'? We'll have the details. South Arbury had the Carlton and the Snowcat public houses, which opened within a couple of weeks of each other in 1959, but for years North Arbury had only the Jenny. Until 1974 - in May the  Cambridge Evening News reported:  Residents of the North Arbury estate did not need a heat wave to remind them of their need for another pub and the opening of The Ship will meet with eager response. Campaigners for real  ale will be pleased to find that Wells of Bedford are making this their fourth Cambridge pub,  providing beer connoisseurs with their prize-winning bitter as well as a wide range of other beers, wines and spirits in spacious new premises... The opening of the Ship in Northfield Aven...

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 ...

Thanks for all the emails to Arbury Cambridge . We appreciate the questions and feedback and have replied to all. This is the second of our Ask Arbury articles, in which we highlight some readers' comments and questions. Mr Reid has written: I remember the pictures of Andy and Florrie Capp at Turners Fish Locker in Arbury Court. Do you remember Andrew McCulloch's video library in the 1980s and 1990s? We do! VCRs became affordable and widespread during the 1980s, and Andrew McCulloch was very much into the new technology. Delicious! A 1978 'Cambridge Evening News' advertisement for Turners Fish Locker in Arbury Court. Mos has written: I have been reading here since you started. It is excellent to know the history of  Arbury and where everything was. I don't think historic areas are considered to be that important now, simply as election wards which are not in the right areas in Arbury. Everybody only talks about being in Central Cambridge or North Cambridge or Great...

Our latest Arbury 'bits and bobs' feature - thanks to all readers for contributing! 'Cambridge Daily News', 1954: the Arbury Road housing estate is under construction... Our picture shows part of the latest development at the Arbury Road housing estate. Private houses and those built for the corporation are going up in three stages and at present work is being carried out on the first and second stages. Over 1,200 houses are to be built which are at present costing between £1,200 and £1,500 each. Lighting has been installed on the Arbury Road and other roads have been built with sewers ready to be connected as soon as the houses are erected. Lighting on these roads will be installed when the houses are ready. It looks as though it might be Brimley Road on South Arbury to us. Anybody know for sure? Here's a lovely aerial view of the Manor Schools, Arbury Road, Alex Wood Road, the Manor Farm Drive and Arbury Court around 1960. Note that the future site of Budgen's...

Wonderful to mix, merge and match old maps of the historic Arbury area with modern aerial views. The planners at Orchard Park (originally Arbury Park) were rather ingenious to include the outline of the earthwork of the iron age Arbury Camp in their plans - this is called 'Ring Fort Road'.  Arbury was believed by archaeologists to have been an undefended site, an iron age settlement within a circular ditch in which people lived, for many years. The ditch was believed to have been for keeping the animals belonging to the settlers safe from wolves and robbers. But other, more recent, excavations on the site indicate otherwise - that Arbury was a defended site - a fort. We'll take a delve into all this soon. The earthwork outline looks great from above - a real indication that people have lived in the area for over two thousand years, and of the origin of the Arbury name. A broader view of the historic Arbury district. The Arbury/Harborough Meadows. Furlongs and Corner, north ...

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...