The seventh part of the recollections of Mrs Grace Hinchcliffe (1910-1998), contributed to the Arbury Archive in the 1980s. Continuing memories of the hot and turbulent summer of 1921... 'My birthday was coming up - I was going to be eleven. Imagine that - I was all excited! And then Miss Lawn got murdered. Now, I know, looking back, a lot of us think things were better in those days. And they  were  when it came to crime. But we weren't living in some sort of... well... paradise. Things  did  happen. I remember, some years later, when I had kiddies of my own, a woman stabbing a baby parked in its pram outside Joshua Taylor's in town. I go cold to think of that. All sorts of things went on - like now, but less of it. Of course, when I was a kiddie, you didn't hear so much - we didn't have the wireless or the telly or anything. We got the paper and that was it. 'Miss Lawn's murder was a big thing in Cambridge. And it really hit us because we always went to he...

The 2023 Arbury Carnival kicks off at Arbury Town Park in Campkin Road at 11am on Saturday, 10 June. There are many attractions, and the procession makes its way across the historic Arbury Meadows, starting from Minerva Way at 12 noon. We hope people will support this great community event, which was first held in 1977. We can't be there this year, but we shall certainly be there in spirit. Have a wonderful day, everybody!

North Arbury, home of the Arbury Adventure Playground, Arbury Community Centre, North Arbury Chapel, Arbury Town Park, North Arbury Post Office, etc, etc, made it into print in a TV inspired letter in the Daily Mirror in March, 1970. I (Badger) wasn't born in 1970, but I know a bit about Nana! Imagine, a £6.00 licence fee! The letter writer was R. Turner. Any relation to the legendary Turner of Turner's Fish Locker in Arbury Court, I wonder? A song from Nana Mouskouri way back in 1970 below:

From the Arbury Archive, contributed in the late 1980s, the sixth part of Mrs Grace Hinchcliffe's memories. Mrs Hinchcliffe (1910-1998) was Andy's grandmother. Her fund of memories of Arbury & Chesterton Past, transcribed from the original interviews, make fascinating reading. This week, we enter the turbulent summer of 1921... 'When I started at Milton Road School my parents paid... I think it was sixpence a week for me to go. While I was there, the fee was cut out. Now, you might think Mum and Dad would be pleased. Mum wasn't. I didn't understand it properly, but she said standards would drop and this was charity and all sorts of things. She was disgusted and got quite het up about it. 'So, it was decided I'd go to a private school. Dad went along with it - he idolised me. But some of my aunts looked at me funny and when I went over to Arbury, Grandma Brett said: "Well! Aren't you a posh girl now?!" Nobody in the family had ever been to p...

Mrs Elizabeth Jones outside her house in George Street, Chesterton in the 1920s. 'Uncle Albert built the bay window onto their house,' said Mrs Hinchcliffe. 'He was a very clever man.' Mrs Grace Hinchcliffe's memories, contributed to the Arbury Archive in the mid-to-late 1980s, continue.  'It makes me think, how the school leaving age has gone up and up. My mum and dad were eleven when they left. I was fourteen. Now it's sixteen [1987]. Of course, it's eighteen if you stop on. But I often think how young Mum, Dad, Uncle Arthur, Aunt Lou and them were when they left. 'Uncle Arthur and Aunt Lizzie were the oldest two.  'Uncle Arthur was born in 1881 - I saw his birth certificate when he applied for his pension - and Aunt Lizzie a year or two later. Well, Uncle Arthur worked as a maintenance man for one of the colleges, then had to go to war, then worked at Girton College until he retired. His wife was ill for years, and Uncle Arthur coped, all very...

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 ...

Cherry's Corner in the 1920s - before the parade of shops was built on Arbury Road. Photo: Cambridgeshire Collection. When Andy began the Arbury Archive in 1983, he knew well the fact that the junction of Arbury Road and Milton Road was 'Cherry's Corner' - plus the fact that the Cherrys had built the parade of shops on Arbury Road by the corner. Older friends and relatives often referred to 'Cherry's Corner' and relayed the history to him as Andy's great-great grandparents had lived next door at No 1, Arbury Road, years before. But he didn't know that Mrs Ceta Cherry, wife of Ernest, still owned the shops until this delightful Cambridge Weekly News article, published on 7 September, 1989:         Mrs Ceta Cherry with some of her tenants and their staff at Cherry's Corner. From left, Elaine Williams, Heather Mothersole, Heidi Morewej and Peter Workman. Cherry's Corner is what older local people call the junction of Arbury Road and Milton Roa...

Two rival pubs, the Jenny Wren in North Arbury and the Green Dragon in East Chesterton, united in their rivalry to raise money for the unit for visually impaired and blind children at the Manor Community College in Arbury Road. The 'daft challenge' chosen was frisbee throwing. The 'Jenny' won, and both teams were happy at the £900 raised for the Manor unit. Enjoy the article and photograph from the Cambridge Weekly News above. Also... were you there? Let us know in the comments!

The fourth part of Mrs Grace Hinchcliffe's memories, contributed to the Arbury Archive in the mid-to-late 1980s. Mrs Hinchcliffe (1910-1998) was Andy's grandmother. She had a marvellous memory and her recollections of Old Arbury and Chesterton life - and her maternal grandparents' home in Vicarage Terrace - always held Andy spell-bound. 'I remember going over to Arbury one day, and it was just starting to rain when I set out from Milton Road. Just spitting. When I got to Manor Farm, I went to see Grandma and I was sitting in her big old kitchen and she was making a pie and I was watching her, cutting up the meat and rolling out the pastry, and the old wind started blowing outside and the rain was coming down real fast and pattering on the window and the window frames were rattling... old sash windows they were... and it was really gloomy in there, but cosy.  'I was chattering away to Grandma and she was chattering away to me and it was lovely. I was thinking the oth...

Mrs Hinchcliffe in 1986. Part three of Mrs Grace Hinchcliffe's memories, contributed to the Arbury Archive in the 1980s. Mrs Hinchcliffe (1910-1998) told us of her childhood and teenage years in the Arbury, Chesterton and Vicarage Terrace of the 1910s and 1920s. She was a cousin of Mrs Muriel Wiles, whose memories are also featured on this blog, and the differing personalities and recollections of the two make for fascinating reading. 'Mum was bringing me up to be a young lady. It wasn't a very good idea because we were working class really, but she wouldn't even let me wash up a spoon - bless her! But really I was full of mischief and loved an adventure. 'We had a saying about some housewives who were what you might call "jumped-up". They'd spend out on things to make their houses seem a bit posher, and skimp on necessary things. We'd say: "All fancy net curtains and half a bloater for dinner"! Mum wasn't like that - but she did see ...