THIS IS THE GREATEST SHOW! The 2025 Arbury Carnival has a circus theme and will take place at Arbury Town Park, Campkin Road, on 14 June. For this spring edition of Arbury Snippets , we focus on the approaching Arbury Carnival, the return of our Arbury Guru, a winged 1970s visitor at the Arbury Adventure Playground, an early 1980s visit to King's Hedges School, and insights into local life from other long ago Arbury children. We also answer a question and feature a little brain teaser... Lovely account of a feathered visitor to the Arbury Adventure Playground on the Nun's Way recreation ground from August 1974 . The Arbury Adventure Playground, which opened in 1973 on the Nuns Way Recreation Ground, was a much appreciated feature of local life for many years. Schoolboy Nicky Wright gave his views on the playground in 1980 for the 'Arbury 1980' project of the district's schools - Arbury, King's Hedges, St Laurence's and the Grove: I like it because you can pl...

It all happened in 1983, when Andy was busy setting up the Arbury Archive. He heard that Mrs McCulloch, mother of Andrew McCulloch, who owned the TV shop in Arbury Court, might have some memories of the area in years gone by. He went to the shop and spoke to her. Mrs McCulloch was very helpful. Yes, she did know the Arbury well, but she had a friend who knew much more and would speak to her and find out if she could help. Andy left his address. He wasn't 'on the phone' at the time, and even basic analogue (and hugely expensive) mobiles ('yuppie toys'!) were still two years away. He hoped for a letter from Mrs McCulloch's friend. It was a week or so later that an elderly lady cycled up to Andy's front door.  'I do hope this will be of some help,' she said, handing over a small white envelope. This was Mrs Osland. She explained that she lived in Cockerell Road, and was delighted at the interest in Arbury history which had resulted from the 'Arbury ...

Imagine gazing down Campkin Road from Arbury Road. On the left, you see Arbury Town Park, the Arbury Community Centre and Nicholson Way; on the right you behold the houses and the old farm cottage and a row of lovely old trees, lining the pavement edge... It's almost as hard to imagine as the old Manor Farm cottages, standing in the roadway at the junction of the Arbury and Campkin Roads, but the trees were a part of the original vision for North Arbury, a bequest from the old Manor Farm days... Unfortunately, workmen digging trenches and foundations for the new development inadvertently cut through the trees' tap roots. Nobody realised at first but, within a few years, the trees were plainly dying and had to come down. Some other Manor Farm trees survived - including three in the garden of the Manor Farmhouse, two of which still stand today. Colonel Charles Bennett brought the seeds back from abroad for the garden. Looking down a frozen Manor Farm Drive towards Arbury Road in ...

Ah, the days of fund raising for the Arbury Adventure Playground on the Nun's Way playing field! Having somewhere safe and supervised for the many children of the district to play was a very high priority. In 1970, 'Arbury's marathon singer' Tony Coleno of Cameron Road, made a record-breaking contribution to the funds... Arbury's marathon singer, Tony Coleno, slept for 18 hours last night after breaking the world record for solo non-stop singing by 12 minutes. He sang from 8 am on Saturday until 11.15 am on Sunday. Mr Coleno, of 46 Cameron Road, survived on a diet of soft drinks and beverages, chewing gum, indigestion tablets and throat spray, and raised almost £100 for the Arbury Adventure Playground Association. The marathon took place at the Jenny Wren public house, Campkin Road. The landlady, Mrs Valerie McCord, said today: 'He was really marvellous, fresh as a daisy even at the end. 'On Saturday night, when he'd been singing for 13 hours, he got up ...

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...

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...

South Arbury is getting there, but Alex Wood Road connects to Arbury Road, and Arbury Court is absent, as are the Kingsway Flats. North Arbury is still the Manor Farm, which covered most of the land north of Arbury Road, and Arbury Road still runs its original full length from Milton Road to the Histon/Cambridge Road as King's Hedges Road (the meteoric highway which vroomed across Arbury and sent the name to where it doesn't belong in the late 1970s) still leads to King's Hedges - which was never a district but a 58-acre farm north of the railway tracks/guided busway. Well, imagine that!  The Arbury, Grove, King's Hedges and Manor Schools are also still absent. Arbury School opened in 1956 and was probably there, but unmarked on the map at that time. The Manor opened in 1959 and the Grove and King's Hedges in 1963 and 1968 respectively. Hall Farm buildings are still marked on the map in Carlton Way.

So, this is Campkin Road, with the Arbury Community Centre, Arbury Town Park, Grove School and part of the North Cambridge Academy. I have marked in the field names from Manor Farm days. The old farm 'Drive', of course, became Campkin Road. The yellow star marks the site of the Manor Farmhouse. This was, as you can see below, a very large house - and was often referred to by locals as the 'manor house'.  After the farm was bought by Cambridgeshire County Council in 1909, the house was let to the Medlow family, and, after they left, became the residence of two County Land Agents in succession. There were also four semi-detached cottages at the farm, plus the foreman/horse keeper's house. A detached cottage was added in the 1920s. As mentioned before on this blog, the boundary of the farmhouse garden has been 'immortalised' in the old Manor School/North Cambridge Academy boundary, which was erected around it.  Compare the 1950s photograph below with the one ab...