■ The Cambourne Identity

Blog 4: June 23, 2010

Coffee shops have always made me somewhat nervous.

I think it’s because on the relatively rare occasions I visit one, there’s inevitably an ever wider range of bizarre-sounding variations on the traditional cup of coffee than the last time I went.

And everyone in one of these places seems to know what these options are – whether they’re students pretending to do some work but in fact gossiping, or shoppers with so many bags at their feet that it’s a wonder they could carry a drink to their table.

'I’ll have a one-shot skinny mochachocafrappucino to go please,’ the person in front of me will say, while spending £3.85 on a tiny square of flapjack.

‘And I’ll have a cup of tea, please.’ That’s my usual offering. It seems somehow safer than navigating the ever-increasing range of options behind the counter.

But I’m left feeling a bit like I’ve ordered a steak in a vegetarian restaurant.

Perhaps it’s my imagination, but it always seems that a brief silence descends over the caffeine literati when I order tea in a coffee shop – at least until the coffee-maker in chief can create a veneer of respectability about my unadventurous order by offering me 15 different varieties, even though he and I both know it’s English breakfast tea that I want, not some highly-scented variety picked from the Himalayan mountain-side and burnt over charcoal for three days.

Of course, the only reason I’m in a coffee shop in the first place is because a) my wife, a fully paid-up member of the caffeine literati, has insisted on it and b) there’s no pub nearby.

(And if there is, we’ll have this conversation:
“It’s bound to have a coffee machine.” “Yes, but it’s not the same. And I don’t want a cappuccino and that’s all they know how to make.” “Fine, I fancy a cup of tea anyway.”)

So what is the meaning of this lengthy preamble and its relevance to all things Cambourne?

Simply that I have visited our new coffee shop – Greens Coffee & Co – and was, for the first time, given an explanation as to what on earth was in the drink I found myself ordering. And no, it wasn’t tea.

It was, you see, one of the hottest days of the year, and I had been out for a bike ride. In need of instant refreshment, and something cool, I copied my wife’s order. No, I can’t remember what it was. Some sort of frappucinato probably.

Sitting outside at Cambourne’s newest al fresco attraction, I sipped my icy coffee drink, leafed through the pages of a Sunday newspaper and reflected that this was an excellent addition to the community: a friendly, well-run and welcoming coffee shop, and not one owned by those ubiquitous chains.

I suspect I’ve been slow in reaching this conclusion, as every time I’ve driven past it in the mornings, the pavement outside Greens has resembled a mother and toddler meeting. I say that, of course, without having been to a mother and toddler meeting.

Certainly my wife has done her bit to help Aron and Julie Green make a success of their venture.

She’s taken to ordering flat whites, which is another variety I hadn’t heard of before this summer. I still have no idea what one is - but at least I now know where to go if I want to ask.


Blog 3: June 6, 2010

If you’ve just tuned in (from BBC World Service, or wherever), then welcome to my Cambourne blog.

I’ve spent the first two instalments explaining why we moved there and why I like the place.
This time, I want to tell you about the hotel I’ve constructed in my back garden.

It is, I believe, Cambourne’s newest completed development. It includes a spa, restaurant and, in theory at least, solar-powered lighting.

Before you demand a room for the night, or report me to the planning authorities, I should explain that it’s only open to birds. The feathered variety.

And my sister is really to blame. As a present, she purchased something described on the box as a ‘bird bath hotel’.

Two things occurred to me when I read this. Firstly, I didn’t know birds particularly enjoyed hotel breaks and secondly, if they do, how on earth will they pay the bill? I’m not convinced their deposits are welcome at my bank.

Predictably, my wife was overly excited about this new development and set about putting it up before I could take a sip of my obligatory morning cup of tea.

And with it taking pride of place in the garden, loaded with bird food and armed with enough water to drown a vulture, we settled back to await our first guests.

I was filled with notions of exciting finches, colourful nuthatches, jays and yellow hammers visiting our garden now we had such facilities to accommodate them. After all, Cambourne is full of exciting bird life.

But for a while, we got nothing – as if they were suspicious of the thing. I suggested we put out a tweet to let them know. My wife looked at me with disdain.

Eventually, our first guest checked in. One of the glorious goldfinches I’ve seen fluttering around the front garden perhaps? No. All too predictably, it was a starling.

Not exactly the Ritz clientele we were hoping for.

I read recently that starlings are meant to be in decline, along with sparrows. I can reveal that they’re not in decline, they’re just all living in Cambourne.

Where one starling goes, a horde follows, of course. But they did at least spread the word to others: and blue tits, sparrows and, in a rather ridiculous manner, a pigeon soon checked out the facilities.

Woody, as we have named the pigeon, has become our most regular client. He’s too big for it really and edges precariously around the bath like a Youtube clip waiting to happen.

It’s fair to say that my wife has taken her responsibilities as Cambourne’s chief bird feeder rather more seriously than necessary.

Having purchased fat balls that the wretched starlings demolish as if they hadn’t already devoured kilograms of bird seed, she also invested in something that, to me at least, looked like pate.

‘It’s not pate, it’s fruity bird food,’ she told me, as I grumbled about them eating better than I do.

I was intrigued to see, however, whether shopping in the bird equivalent of Waitrose would lead to posher visitors to the garden.

But no, the flock of starlings with their over-indulgent young – somehow they remind me of the horde of ura-kai in Lord of the Rings – ensured anything resembling a finch steered well clear of our hotel.

I think we’ll have to take down the four-star sign.

:: Next time, I’ll be talking about Cambourne’s new café.



Blog 2: May 31, 2010

Thanks for coming back to my new blog about all things Cambourne.

In this, my second instalment, I’m going to pin down a few reasons why I feel we made the right decision that day in the pub.

Public houses are not renowned for leading you down the path of wisdom, but on this occasion I think our decision to make this new and growing community our home was a good one.

First of all, there’s the masterplan. Most places grow organically and have been subjected to the whim of changing planning rules over the years.

To have the opportunity to plan a community from scratch is, I think, an exciting one. It can help you ensure facilities are well located and the balance between homes and green spaces is maintained.

Of course, there are always things you could do differently: a few more pubs, perhaps – and an airport-style moving walkway between them, for example.

Cambourne’s design was based around some of the principles of the old English village, with their winding roads helping to prevent speeding (even if they do necessitate a manhole every few yards) and the central cricket green surrounded by homes reinforcing the notion of community.

And while I can’t claim to like every house type in Cambourne any more than I do in any other community, I do like many of the designs and – given that so many homes have been built in the space of 10 years – I think the developers have done a decent job of providing some architectural variety (talking of interesting homes, have you been in that award-winning show home off School Lane, with the mirrors on the bedroom ceilings?).

It was wise to build plenty of executive and family homes, as well as the starter homes, town-houses and flats you expect in all new developments, as it helped to make the community attractive to all.

Secondly, we are fortunate with the amenities we have. The Morrisons store does an excellent job of dragging money from me when all I intended to buy was some milk and a loaf of bread (the last curious item I bought was a half-price herb planter, which prompted the lady behind me at the till to say ‘Oh, that’s nice. What is it?’, to which I replied ‘No idea, but my wife wants one.’)

We also have the aforementioned pub, a hotel with gym and swimming pool, a restaurant, some takeaways and other small shops, plus, of course, we have primary schools, a nursery, a medical centre, a library, a youth centre, tennis courts and sports pitches.

There’s no doubt that we turned up at the right time. The debates and the disputes about what should have been provided, what was promised and so on were largely resolved by the time we arrived. Perfect timing, you might say.

True, we are only just getting progress on the sports centre plans now, and there are still some issues with schooling and, for people in a few roads in Lower Cambourne, some major drainage problems. But on the whole, we are well-served.

How many other villages can claim a post office has opened in the last year – and that a police station and fire station are next?

Thirdly, I do like the fact that it’s not all about houses and flats. We have woodlands and fields, plus a country park with several lakes. I’ll discuss in a later blog some of the wildlife I’ve spotted in Cambourne, but suffice to say I still feel we’re in an environment where nature is on our doorstep.

So is the dual-carriageway A428, of course, should you be seeking a swift route towards Cambridge. Location, then, is my fourth reason.

It’s good to be near the city, and close to major routes like the M11 to take you further afield. Just don’t mention the rather tedious A1198.

So there you have it: four reasons why, if you live in Cambourne, you should feel good about where you live.

Next time, I’ll tell you about the very latest development in Cambourne. And you won’t believe it.


Blog 1: May 20, 2010

"So where do you live?"

"Cambourne."

"Oh, OK. What’s that like?"

"It’s lovely, thank you."

"Right. Good. So anyway, the World Cup..."

This, slightly awkward, exchange is typical of many conversations I’ve had with people I’ve just met. Particularly those, it has to be said, who have never visited Cambourne.

We have a natural suspicion of anything new, I think. Some people, it seems, won’t even consider living in a house that hasn’t lived through two world wars and 15 rounds of wallpaper.

But when I moved to the new community of Cambourne in 2008, it was partly its newness that attracted me.

So has it lived up to its billing? And what is life in Cambourne like? In this, my new blog, I hope to explore some of those questions, from my own perspective.

So back to Cambourne’s ‘newness’.

My wife, when we were busy looking around houses across Cambridgeshire, commented that being in Cambourne was a little bit like being at Center Parcs.

Glancing around, I couldn’t spot the trademark dome housing a sub-tropical swimming paradise and assumed the summer heat was getting to her.

"Everything is on your doorstep," she insisted on explaining. "You can walk across to the supermarket, or the pub, or the Indian restaurant, but there are also lots of woodlands and fields and a nature reserve, and there are lots of families walking around and people cycling about."

It was, I had to admit, a fair observation.

And she had hit on the very thing that appealed to me about the place. Either that, or I was being influenced by the al fresco pint I was enjoying at the Monkfield Arms - where we were wading through the latest batch of recommendations from innumerable estate agents.

I’ve always liked the idea of a sustainable community, where facilities for leisure, shopping, schooling, entertainment and employment could be found alongside nice homes and green spaces.

Some older villages can fit this bill, and there are undoubtedly some very picturesque ones in South Cambridgeshire.

I find Melbourn appealing in many ways and think Barrington is glorious on a summer’s day. But, in truth, nowhere I had visited quite fitted the bill as well as Cambourne.

Of course, all those features are available in a city - and Cambridge is without doubt a fantastic one. But for work purposes, we needed to live to the south or west. Besides, the traffic would have driven me mad.

And so the deal was done. Cambourne was to be our new home. It’s funny how a decent beer and an unusual observation can change your life.

In my next instalment, I’ll be looking at what I’ve discovered since moving in.