The Arbury Community Centre on the Arbury Town Park in Campkin Road, was campaigned for by the Arbury Community Association and other community members, and took years to become reality. The year 2024 marked fifty years of the Centre. The beginnings were fraught with financial difficulties, and even in May 1974, shortly before the official opening, nothing was secure. Arbury Ward councillor Peter Cowell, and others, stated that the centre needed more financial input from the Council.  Said Mr Cowell:  'It looks like being a white elephant before we even get it off the ground.' However, the centre survived and does to this day. But 1974 also brought more problems - this time with the centre's original signage: From the Cambridge Evening News , May 14, 1974: Residents see red over community centre sign Residents living opposite the new Arbury Community Centre, in Campkin Road, are seeing red - in more senses than one. The centre's temporary corrugated iron end-wall is fin...

The Manor School on Arbury Road was one of the main focuses of life for North and South Arbury for decades. With its evening classes and youth centre, and various community activities - like the annual Christmas party for the elderly and the annual school play in the 1980s ( Annie Get Your Gun and Dracula Spectacular spring to mind) - the Manor opened as separate boys' and girls' schools in 1959 (the girls had to share the boys' buildings at first as their own were still under construction). The school later became co-ed.      An aerial view of t he Manor Schools - Boys' and Girls', around 1960, with a section of Arbury Road and Arbury Court. Note Arbury Court was yet to gain its library and large supermarket building, and Campkin Road was still the Manor Farm Drive. The lay of the land, complete with field names, at the Manor Farm in 1900. The Park Meadow contains the Manor School/Community College and North Cambridge Academy sites. The Manor Farm was established...

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 ...

The Cambridge and St Ives Branch railway line is now the Guided Busway. Where was King's Hedges historically? How did the name come about? Why is the majority of King's Hedges Road no more historic than late 1970s - and nothing to do with the course of the original road? What have council planners of the 1960s and 1970s and the needs of motorists got to do with the King's Hedges presence in the historic Arbury district? All will be revealed... We're going to leave Arbury briefly and go to King's Hedges. No, not King's Hedges Ward/King's Hedges Estate (AKA North Arbury) - that area is, in reality, one of the most Arbury of Arbury areas in Cambridge historically, but the REAL King's Hedges. North of the Guided Busway. You see, the land north of Arbury Road is the site of the Arbury Camp, the Arbury/Harborough (a variation on the Arbury name) Meadows and Furlongs and the Arbury fields of Manor Farm.  It has absolutely nothing to do with King's Hedges at...

The tremendous community spirit of Arbury was very much in evidence in 1983 as residents gathered to save their senior school, adult education and youth centre, the Manor Community College... In October 1983, a Cambridgeshire County Council working party recommended closing the Manor Community College in 1987. Coverage from the 'Cambridge Evening News'. A very rare item - the first newsletter of SACC - Save Arbury's Community College, 1983. Some of the (huge amount of) protest letters featured in the 'Cambridge Evening News'. To quote one woman from Campkin Road:  Our main concern is to keep this school going, and like the Prime Minister we can also say "There will be no U turns" but a fight straight away to keep this part of Arbury alive. '... the people of Arbury will make this their campaign and fight to save their school,' said Councillor Janet Jones, chair of the Manor governors.  Vice chair of the governors, Councillor Peter Cowell, said: ...