What is in a name? Well, Impington’s been called many things – here are a few (with the relevant dates): 1066, EPINTONE; 1082, EMPINTON; 1199, YMPITON; 120l, IMPINTON; 1269, HINPINTON; 1272, IMPYNTON. We know that Samuel Pepys (the Samuel Pepys, whose uncle lived in the Parish) wrote in his diary on July 15th 1661, “Rode to Impington”.

So, you’d think that that was that. It’s Impington.

Well, that would be nice …

There are those, of course, who call us Histon. Usually because its shorter than “Histon & Impington” – they never say “Impington” instead. Shame for the 4,000 or so people who live in the village.

However, there are people who invent a totally different name – how about Impingham? Google’s search shows 84 hits for Impingham – some re Chaucer, but some who, for example, “passed through Impingham, Cottenham, Wilburton and Witchford” or (English Heritage, writing about village colleges) “including Impingham, 1939 by Walter Gropius”.

The latest misnaming is from the Guided Bus team, where bridleway signs on the Kings Hedges/CRC junction point to Impingham. Lets hope that the bus doesn’t get lost trying to find Impingham!

Half term week – great – decent weather forecast, I’m under pressure to take my leave allocation – lets go for it. Take it easy, do some jobs in the garden, catch up on the email backlog ….

Nice idea! The Citi 7 issues really knocked that all for six – a couple of meetings, several trips to the Parish Office, 136 mails sent, 365 received (OK, not quite all of them community issues), articles for the Courier – where did the time go?

Yes, one bag of “Denise’s delight” from Madingley Mulch duly transferred to the raised beds in the back garden (and a few other odd jobs done there). A very pleasant meal with family at the Crown, Girton to celebrate my birthday – but where did the rest of it go? Email backlog – there’s more of it!

Next week – back to work, and a meeting every evening, and the annual service at the War Memorial on Sunday – I need a holiday!

We’re all focused on swine flu – and its real, of course. Numbers of reported cases are rising, and there have been a very small number of deaths. For most people, though, its still a mild illness.

Have we taken our eyes off the ball though? Swine flu is this year’s special – but there’s still ordinary flu – and there are some deaths from that each year. So, have you been vaccinated?

For the last few years I have – and I’ve been fine. Of course, I might have been fine without – but since this year’s jab cost me a mere £8 at Asda I’ll go with that. Asda aren’t the only people doing it – and will only be doing it on Saturday’s in October – but get the jab – don’t get ordinary (or swine) flu.

Site (Unwin’s, Impington Lane) director Chris Thatcher said: “We did not expect to find such important Iron Age and Roman remains here at Impington, we can now see the origins of the village going back over 2,000 years.”

We’ve known of the history of the village – its certainly in the Domesday Book, and Arbury Camp (now part of the Orchard Park development) is thought to be Iron Age. But real Iron Age, and Roman, artefacts and features – that’s different.

The report in the Cambridge News talks about an Iron Age roundhouse (familiar to anyone who watches “Time Team“) and also Samian Ware.

Village historian Eleanor Whitehead was able to visit the site on the last day of the dig (apparently an “open day” would fall foul of health and safety concerns), and we’ve been promised copies of reports and photos. A display of finds at the Library is also being considered.

We never believed “late summer” – well, have you see the state of the works in Orchard Park? But do you believe October 31st or November 30th once the County has finished everything it needs to do?

There seems to be a lot still to do – stations (stops) to finish, “maintenance track” to complete (let alone the track at Orchard Park).  The Hunts Post is sceptical – the track is one thing, but then there’s control equipment, closed circuit TV etc.

The holdup has been (or at least the latest holdup) noise barriers for Impington and Histon residents. As to why this has been a holdup, that’s another question. Yes, there’s care needed over the design – and yes, residents have real concerns – well would you want a 4m (or higher) barrier at the end of your garden? Particularly if that garden is short?

At least one delay was the ability to test. The Inspector at the planning inquiry agreed to the need to meet WHO noise guidelines. That was a small victory – those are tougher than UK planning regulations. In order to be sure that the barriers being built we high enough – but no higher – it was necessary to test with proper vehicles once enough track was in place.

In order to speed completion the Parishes have agreed to construction vehicle access via Histon Station – with tight constraints on route and timing. BAM Nuttalls still reckon the end of October will be a “tall order”.

Whatever, we need this finished, and in operation – or else it will really turn into a very large white elephant!

Have you ever wondered about medical testing, about how the tests prove (or otherwise) whether something is working?

The answer, of course, is the control group – people who don’t get the medication, treatment or whatever is being tested. At the end of the testing period comparison between the controls and the treatment groups gives a measure of the effectiveness of the treatment.

But have you ever wondered about the people in the control group? They’re chosen at random – and if the treatment is effective they miss out. If treatment of some life threatening condition is being tested – that’s the ultimate in altruism. In some cases, of course, the treatment is seen to be so effective that the tests are ended early, and everyone treated – but that can be too late for some.

Why? Well, having struggled to lose weight, I signed up for a MRC “Web Weight” study – there are four groups – group A gets the least support – group D the combination that’s thought to have most to offer. And I got “randomised” into group A. I’m still going to be aiming to lose weight – but all on my own!

A14 widening is coming – not sure when, or where the money is to come from, but it is coming. Noise is already a problem – and a wider road, faster traffic …

The Parish Councils are members of JAG – a Joint Action Group of Parish Councils concerned about, for example: HGV traffic, Northstowe development, A14 widening. We come together to share knowledge, challenge District and County Councils (and others) and make more of a difference by working together.

Last night the subject was noise, and noise barriers. We know about those!

Impington residents have been concerned ever since this one, to protect residents at Orchard Park, was built.

We learned a few things last night from Giles Parker, MD of Sound Barrier Solutions talked to us about sound barriers and what could, and couldn’t, be done.

About the Orchard Park barrier:

• its reflective (so it bounces noise back) – absorptive is better
• its wooden, so may not reach the 40 year target life that the Highways Agency have – and closing the road to maintain it may cost more than doing it better to begin with!
• its wooden, so its not safe to allow plants to grow up it – they’ll grow through it and accelerate damage
• its probably not high enough – the sound from HGVs (almost 19% of traffic on the A14 last year were HGVs) will bounce back and forth and come over the top

We learned that other countries (eg Poland) take a completely different approach to protecting their communities – they have noise barriers, not 2 or 3 m high, but 10m high. Ireland are doing better than we are, as are many of the countries in Europe.

Of course, to provide proper barriers for all the roads in the UK will cost a lot of money, but lets hope the Highways Agency are prepared to start doing it right, and to start doing it right here.

There’s work to do making this happen – but at least we know now that its possible!

What do you know about what the Parish Councils get up to?

We’ve got 23 Parish Councillors in the two Parishes working for the community – as unpaid volunteers. Do you know what they’re doing?

This is the first of several polls about the work of the Councils, please do try it!

Robin Hood without Robin Hood?

Any film or TV series about Robin Hood can hardly be called historically accurate – as far as we know, Robin Hood never actually existed. Yes, there are records of outstanding archers from around 1200 who had periods as outlaws, but not as leaders of outlaw bands.

But Robin Hood remains one of England’s folk heroes – like John Henry (US), William Tell (Switzerland), Rummu Jüri (an Estonian Robin Hood) – and has a well established folklore.

That folklore, of course, has been bolstered in the modern era by films (from Errol Flynn to Russel Crowe) and TV series from Richard Greene to Jonas Armstrong.

I first watched the Richard Greene series in the 1950s (OK – that dates me) – and it may be one of the reasons I enjoy archery now, particularly the longbow.

The latest BBC series has been criticised for its changes to the legend – new and different characters, the role of women – even the wrong bow – but has been an enjoyable diversion nevertheless.

However, the last episode of the current series managed to kill of the Sheriff of Nottingham (in a major explosion that also destroyed most of Nottingham Castle), his right hand man (Guy of Gisborne), and Robin Hood himself. The writing team must have wanted to start from fresh!

Yes, there is someone to step forward to lead the band (also reduced by the death of Alan A Dale) but Robin Hood without Robin Hood?

This isn’t the first time this has been done, Jason Connery (Robin of Sherwood) took over in series three of that – and there are shows such as Taggart where the named character is long gone.

The only saving grace is that Archer (the new character) does shoot the longbow rather than the Mongolian Recurve. The majority of films and TV characters have used the longbow, though one or two American ones are reported as using flatbows.

If you want to try your hand at archery, there’s going to be a club nearby. City of Cambridge Bowmen is the one I shoot with, and for a day out Robin Hood Events is difficult to beat.

Latest news: Its not clear which came first, that ending, or the decision to cancel the programme totally. However, that is what has just been announced by the BBC.

Did you take pictures before the digital era?

If so, the colour film that you might have used was Kodachrome. Processing was included, so once you’d finished the roll of film you’d put it in the post and back would come the results. Kodachrome is also unique for having a song written about it (by Paul Simon (of Simon & Garfunkel)).

If you also read the National Geographic magazine, you will have seen many images taken on Kodachrome, including the amazing picture of the Afghan refugee girl, from 1973. That’s featured at the Kodak tribute, and also in a gallery of amazing images showing the amazingly rich colours that this film delivered.

As we all turn to digital photography, demand for roll film has declined and on 22nd June, Eastman Kodak Co announced the end of production.