MILTON KEYNES AN ICON WITHIN BRITAIN’S TRANSPORT NETWORK.

When The Milton Keynes Development Corporation put pen to paper to plan our new city it used a unique grid system for our roads, a grid system that has stood the test of time for more than half a century. Within how many other cities can a person drive from North to South, from East to West in such a short time ?

Everything was planned around three ley lines across the centre of what would be the New City. Firmly implanted on the plan until the time was right to start construction was Midsummer Boulevard, carefully aligned so on midsummer’s day the sun would rise down its length. Then Avebury Boulevard and Silbury Boulevard were two ley-lines across the new city centre which in ancient times was the location of the Saxon Court. Avebury Boulevard named after the Avebury Stones in Wiltshire, Silbury Boulevard after Silbury Hill.

Predating the Saxons the Roman Watling Street runs through the heart of Milton Keynes, Of a more modern era the M1 Motorway can be found in Milton Keynes. Also the very first motorway service station on the British Motorway Network was built at Newport Pagnell Milton Keynes. Across the world not everyone will know of Newport Pagnell Motorway Services but in every country of the world you will find someone who knows of James Bond. Where does James Bond buy his cars ?  From Aston Martin of course in Newport Pagnell Milton Keynes !

Within Britain’s railway network is an almost forgotten but vitally important location here in Milton Keynes, an item of history and heritage.

Officially the railway bridge crossing Watling Street in Bletchley is known as Denbigh Hall Bridge but to those who understand its significance it is and always will be Leon Bridge.

So why Leon Bridge ?  Leon as in Sir Herbert Leon, financier, member of parliament and First Baronet of Bletchley Park ?

Behind the shrubbery of today is a plaque erected by Sir Herbert on which is written. 

PRIOR TO SEPTEMBER 1838 THE SOUTHERN PART OF THIS RAILWAY TERMINATED AT THIS BRIDGE WHENCE PASSENGERS WERE CONVEYED BY COACH TO RUGBY WHERE THEY REJOINED THE RAILWAY TO BIRMINGHAM. THIS COMMEMORATION BY SIR HERBERT LEON BART OF BLETCHLEY PARK AND BY KIND PERMISSION OF LRNW RAILWAY AUGUST 1920.

Why was that ?  Why get off a train then travel by horse-drawn carriage only to get back on a train further up the road ? In 1838 that would have been a long journey on a not well maintained road !

Drive north along the A5 Watling Street and to your right in a field near Kilsby you will see a castle. Actually this is not a castle it is a ventilation shaft for the Kilsby Railway Tunnel.

At 2,432 yards long when it was opened Kilsby Tunnel was the longest railway tunnel in the world. It was designed by Robert Stephenson. Until the tunnel was completed passengers had

to disembark at Denbigh Hall and take a horse-drawn coach.

Partly my words and partly those of the late Sir Frank Markham in his book The History Of Milton Keynes And District, this is what my book Not The Concrete Cows published in 1993 originally had to say about Leon Bridge.

Denbigh Hall was chosen as the terminus because it was there that the railway line crossed the Wattling Street but no proper facilities were installed for the passengers. There was no sanitation, no proper accommodation, tents often being the only overnight shelter and mud was everywhere. Railway construction workers were billeted at Denbigh Hall and drunken brawls were commonplace. One passenger described Bletchley as "a small miserable village where those disappointed at getting from Denbigh Hall must not expect to find accommodation even for their dog !"

The only place to find any refreshment was the Denbigh Hall Inn which had the most terrible reputation for previously harbouring highwaymen and criminals and for generally being a bawdy house. At least three murders took place in the locality which, two centuries earlier had been the site for the local gallows.

Some say that Bletchley Park was chosen because it was where the railway’s Oxford to Cambridge and Birmingham to London lines crossed. Although for decades the line between

Oxford and Cambridge has not been operational we are now in the midst of a vast construction to bring it back into operation. This will add much importance to Milton Keynes, an importance better served as a city.

Road and Rail but also Canal. Fenny Lock on The Grand Union Canal is the smallest lock on the country’s waterway system. Legend and fact, history and heritage surround this location. This I explore in some detail within my writing, both in Not The Concrete Cows and Milton Dreams The City That Never was.

Within my trying to spark a dream that one day Milton Keynes will be given a city charter I speak of a discussion I had with a former mayor. He was looking forward to meeting and

hosting Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to our developing new city. He was to meet our monarch at Bletchley Railway Station, there was no Milton Keynes Central at that time. Queen Elizabeth arrived on The Royal Train. When that train was not is use it was kept and maintained in the railway works at Wolverton Milton Keynes. When Milton Keynes Central railway station opened it was His Royal Highness Charles Prince of Wales who performed the opening.