LOCATIONS, LEGENDS, ICONS, HISTORY AND HERITAGE
As I write this part of my presentation I will have to be careful and try to keep it short ! I could actually write a book. I HAVE written a book, two books: Not The Concrete Cows published in 1991 and Milton Dreams The City That Never Was published in 2020.
Of all locations in Britain I think I would be right in saying nowhere can beat Milton Keynes for such a large number and wide diversion of legends. A legend ? It could be true, it may be true, it doesn’t have to be true but it is the grain of truth within a legend and what it contributes to a legend that counts.
Fenny Poppers – Saint Martins Church in Fenny Stratford Milton Keynes is the only church in the country with a firearms licence ! It needs this to store the gunpowder for the annual firing of Fenny Poppers. I am deeply honoured to have been invited to fire the
poppers not once but twice. The poopers are fired on Leon Recreation Ground, a park given to the town by the Leon Family of Bletchley Park. There is far more to Bletchley Park than the codebreakers.
Dial A Bus – visit Bletchley Railway Station and on Sherwood Drive you will find a slightly eccentric layby and entrance to the station. Few people today will know what this is. It is a piece of Milton Keynes History and Heritage. Milton Keynes Dial-a-Bus providing on-call transport from Tinkers Bridge, Netherfield and Bean Hill to Bletchley. There were special telephones at the end of each street for residents to call for a lift. This was not only a transport system but also a planning tool within the development corporation finding out the numbers of potential passengers and routes for a more traditional future ‘bus system.
Mary’s Ghost – Legend says a small child, the daughter of the local blacksmith, died in the Black Death in 1348/1349. Along with so many she was thrown into The Fenny Stratford Plague Pit. Six hundred years later legend said her ghost used to roam the local school looking for friends to play with. Footsteps could be heard in corridors and open doors to classrooms would suddenly close without anyone touching them.
· The Open University - Unique and unlike any other university in the country Milton Keynes proudly boasts The Open University. One of its co-founders was Sir Harold Wilson. His son went on to become professor of mathematics at the university. My book Milton Dreams The
· The Point – Milton Keynes was chosen as the first location for a multiplex cinema, the first in the country. Opened in 1985 it is sadly now scheduled for demolition but that demolition can not take away its importance within our developing new city and when it is no more it will still be an iconic legend and an important part of our heritage.
· Keep Willen Forever Tranquil – When Milton Keynes Development Corporation drew up its plan for the grid road system nobody initially spotted something which would later cause a bit of a public outcry.
If you want to build a new city and concrete over all the fields that will seriously upset the natural drainage system so what do you do ? The answer is you build lakes, balancing lakes, and move the surface water into a system where the various lakes are linked together. The very first balancing lake was Willen Lake and was quickly taken into the hearts of we Mkeyneyans. What nobody noticed was on the strategic plan of The Milton Keynes
Visiting Willen Lake today and not having been around in the early days of our new city you could well think Willen is a natural lake and not manmade. It is indeed tranquil with the Portway Bridge hardly noticed.
Willen Lake has its own
legends, oh yes it does ! For a time
there was a giant fountain shooting water high up into the air. The plan was
for this to be visible from the M1 Motorway but it could never be forced so
high. It came and it went. When you flushed your toilet the water went to a sewerage
processing plant at the back of the lake. Coca Cola, the world’s most
recognised brand for a time had a giant canning plant adjacent to Willen.
Legends within a Milton Keynes icon.
· Bletchley The Home of The Teabag – A major employer in Bletchley over many years was Tetley Tea. Legend says Tetley invented the tea bag in Bletchley. Perhaps it did, perhaps it did not but certainly development and early production centred in Bletchley.
Bletchley The Home of The Sausage – Scot of Bletchley – makers of the world’s finest cooked meat. That was far from an empty boast, it was one hundred percent true. Nobody could make a sausage like Scot of Bletchley. In the early days of our new city there were just not enough people available for Scot to employ in its Bletchley factory. Coach loads of workers were brought up from London. Sadly Scot sold out to a giant but lesser brand from which the country was denied the world’ finest cooked meat but never forget that for a time Bletchley was the home of the sausage.
Maggie Thatcher Made In Milton Keynes – When The Centre MK Opened on Tuesday 25th September 1979 that opening was performed by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. While she
People flocked to the centre, coaches of shoppers poured into The Centre MK – Shopping as it should be. The centre’s management team released a record of the advert’s theme. I am not sure it got anywhere in the charts but that does not matter.
Did Maggie buy a new handbag on her vist back in September 1979 ? That does not matter
What is That Smell – The first time I came to Bletchley I got off the train, stood on the platform and inhaled the most evil stench I had ever smelt. What was that ?
It was the sulphur smell from the London Brick Company’s kilns. Long gone this once stood where today we have Newton Leys.
London Brick but bricks from Bletchley. Bricks which were sent all over the country to build
There are millions upon millions of bricks in cities everywhere which came from the new city of Milton Keynes. Located on the Oxford Clay Belt there was no shortage of clay with which to make these bricks. As the clay began to run out so ceased the operation of London Brick. One of the pits from which the clay was dug is now a wonderful nature reserve, The Blue Lagoon Bletchley.
The legends and icons continue tomorrow with:
· Queen
Boudica
· Video
Killed The Radio Star
·
Milton Keynes Peace Pagoda
· The
Olney Pancake Race
· Signs
and roundabouts
·
Tattenhoe
·
The Satellite
·
Queen Elanore
· The
Concrete Cows
· Major’s
Hill
· Stevenson
and Brunel
· London
Milton Keynes Airport
· Milton
Keynes Is Dying For A Hospital
· Skew
Bridge
· They
Gave Their Young Lives So We Could Live Our Old Lives
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