Every masterplan for a new settlement will include a high street. The lovingly rendered illustrations will show mothers with push chairs strolling past local shops, artisan bakers, cafes and maybe even a pub. And yet these streets are almost never built.

Over the last few months we have been editing Tales of the High Street a project that seeks to tell the story of a hundred high streets. Over the next few months I will be sharing some of these stories in this column and I thought a good place to start was the new settlement of Cambourne.

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