Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire ACRE
Founded in 1924 as the Cambridgeshire Rural Community Council, Cambridgeshire ACRE has spent more than a century working alongside rural communities through times of change, challenge and opportunity. Established as one of the earliest Rural Community Councils in England, it was created in response to concern about the countryside after the First World War, when economic hardship, social change and rural decline were affecting village life.

Cambridgeshire is a county of contrasts: historic villages, cathedral city communities, market towns, rich farmland and the distinctive Fenland landscape. Its opportunities have always sat alongside rural challenges such as isolation, limited transport, hidden poverty, affordable housing pressures and access to services. Across every decade, Cambridgeshire ACRE has adapted to help communities respond.
In its earliest years, the organisation pioneered practical solutions. It helped villages build halls and meeting places when many communities had no suitable shared space. It organised lectures, music, drama and adult education to widen opportunity and enrich rural life. It even ran a motor omnibus to carry speakers and passengers between villages, recognising early that transport was essential to community connection. Support was also given to local craftspeople, co-operatives and rural enterprise.
During the Second World War, Cambridgeshire Rural Community Council became a hub for voluntary action. It helped communities organise food preservation centres, pig and rabbit clubs, allotments and wartime welfare efforts. It also supported village morale by protecting access to halls and social activity wherever possible. In the post war years, its work evolved again, helping communities rebuild, supporting older people’s clubs and finding ways to provide temporary village halls using surplus government buildings.

From the 1960s onwards, the pace of rural change accelerated. Car ownership, television, housing growth and local government reorganisation reshaped village life. Cambridgeshire ACRE responded by supporting village appraisals, community development, volunteering and local self-help. It launched competitions such as Best Kept Village and Village Ventures, celebrating civic pride and innovation. Several organisations first incubated within its work later became successful independent charities.
The 1990s and 2000s saw new roles emerge in rural housing, regeneration and policy leadership. Cambridgeshire ACRE appointed the county’s first Rural Housing Enabler, helping uncover hidden housing need and support affordable homes in villages. It also led major European and Lottery-funded programmes, rural transport partnerships, community planning initiatives and strategic rural forums that shaped county priorities.

More recently, the charity has supported communities through major modern crises. During the COVID-19 pandemic it provided guidance to village halls, parish councils and volunteers. During the cost of living crisis it helped establish Warm Hubs, later evolving into Community Hubs. Today, Village Agents, housing advisers, environmental projects, consultancy services and community building support continue that tradition of practical action.

Now known as Cambridgeshire ACRE, the organisation remains rooted in the same founding belief as in 1924: that strong rural communities matter and that local people, when supported well, can achieve extraordinary things. Its centenary exhibition, timelines and archives offer many more stories from a remarkable hundred years of community action.

Read our full story at: https://cambsacre.org.uk/about/our-history/

Cambridgeshire Resources