A view across Arbury Court, looking towards Arbury Road, in 1976. Arbury Court is part of the 'centre' of the original Arbury Estate in Cambridge. The Court, with its pub, supermarket, hardware store and post office, chip shop, newsagent, TV shop, greengrocer, hairdresser, chemist, supermarket and branch library, is part of the 'hub' of the estate. The historic Arbury district. The Arbury or Harborough (the names were variations on each other and interchangeable) Meadows and Furlongs covered land north of Arbury Road, and included a swathe of land south of the road. Arbury Road ran from Milton Road to the Histon/Cambridge Road until the late 1970s. The Manor Farm was formed in the years following the 1840 Chesterton Enclosures. Orchard Park (originally Arbury Park and, before that, Arbury Camp Farm) features the outline of part of the Arbury prehistoric settlement at Ring Fort Road. We've inserted the sites of Arbury Court, Arbury Town Park, the Guided Busway, and t...

A greeting from the gent at the Kingsway Kebab van during Andy and Deb's Arbury tour recently. Lots of comments and enquiries here. All requiring personal replies have been dealt with, so here is our round-up of some of the questions you've asked the Arbury Archivists this week... Hello! I like your blog. Did the original King's Hedges have field names like the Arbury Manor Farm? Yes, it did! although there were only fifty eight acres, there were names. To find the original King's Hedges on the map, just look north of the railway track/guided busway. We've updated our trusty old map and inserted the names. Nothing to do with the subject, but as an aside, the other side of the Mere Way Roman road was Impington Park and Impington Hall - which was mentioned in Samuel Pepys' diary. And next... As an old Arbury geezer I say incredible work. You all deserve medals, not many would bother. Do you have anymore info on the old Snowcat? I was always in there for years. Tha...

In January, 2013, Arbury gained a major community first.  The Grove (formerly Snowcat) public house in Arbury Court, became the Cambridge Gurdwara, the first Sikh temple not only in Arbury, not only in Cambridge city, but in the whole of Cambridgeshire. The building was erected in 1959 as the Snowcat public house, to serve the 'rapidly expanding Arbury estate'. The architect was David Roberts, the builders Kidman and Sons, and the cost £16,000!  A 1965 report on the Snowcat. The Snowcat was a part of the Arbury community for years, but times changed, and its reputation as a decent pub went downhill around the turn of the 21st Century. In an effort to improve things, the Snowcat was renamed 'The Grove' - confusing, with the Grove School in Campkin Road (named after Manor Farm trees) in close proximity. Two 'Groves' - one a primary school, one a boozer? It really did not compute. As usual, it's the few that give a pub a bad name, and after a particularly nasty...

'John of Ely' asks: 'What's the link between Arbury Road and King Henry VIII? I heard a modern folk song recently referring to it and the old Snowcat pub?' As far as we know, King Henry VIII never had any links to the Cambridge Arbury Road, John. The song writer/s may have got mixed up with Arbury in Nuneaton - which did have history with a couple of kings of that name: Arbury Hall, like so many other great country houses, was founded in Henry II’s reign as a monastery but suffered dissolution and confiscation at the hands of Henry VIII in 1536.   -  https://arburyestate.co.uk/history/ The 'King's Hedges' thing in Arbury comes from the inappropriately named 'King's Hedges' electoral ward/estate. King's Hedges was historically north of what is now the guided busway (see map) and the most likely source of the name is a hunting warren, a warren of hedges, planted to trap and kill animals for hunting 'sport'. The Royal Manor of Cheste...