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Milton Keynes - A History & CelebrationSelected extracts and photosReturn to Book | Search for another Book | View all photos for Milton Keynes | Milton Keynes homepage |
11 captions found: Showing captions 1 to 11 | |
 Bletchley, Tree Square c1955 (ref. B439017) | Inn-keeping has long been a city area tradition. On one of Stony Stratford's first bridges over the River Great Ouse, Grilkes Inn had been operating since 1317, possibly the oldest alehouse in Buckinghamshire; and the Cross Keys (1475) and the Cock and the Bull (both 1480) became well known to seasoned travellers through the town, not least because of the fanciful 'cock and bull' stories told there. These stories might have been about the 'fine lady upon a white horse' who rode her 'Cock horse to Banbury Cross' (possibly Celia Fiennes); or about the infamous Dick Turpin, who apparently visited just about every staging post with his mare Black Bess being seen tied up outside. In 1737 this 'Essex butcher turned thief, smuggler and highwayman' (Markham) allegedly visited the Old Swan at Woughton, and reversed Black Bess's shoes so that his pursuers would set off after him in the wrong direction. Notwithstanding, he was hanged in York in 1739 at the age of 34. |  Add your own Memory Add to your Album |
 Bletchley, St Mary's Church c1965 (ref. B439126) | Built around 1750, Stonebridgehouse Farmhouse is situated close to the site of the original stone bridge built by the monks from Bradwell Abbey c1350. The Victorian railway houses of New Bradwell are in the background. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Great Linford, Black Horse Bridge c1965 (ref. G347070) | However, perhaps they eavesdropped on an animated discussion between a group of men who were studying a large plan. A young man seemed to be dominating with his forceful arguments; there was much nodding of heads, and one opulently dressed gentleman seemed particularly impressed. At the end of the meeting, with handshakes all round, John Barnes, the young engineer, had secured agreement from all the local worthies - and finance from the Marquis of Buckingham himself - to build the new 90-mile-long Grand Junction Canal from Braunston to Brentford. Thirteen miles of this proposed trade route would pass through Fenny Stratford, Simpson, Woughton, the Woolstones, Great Linford and Wolverton. By 1800 an average of 35 coaches and 350 animals were crowding Watling Street every day. Road tolls had been set up during the previous century to contribute to its upkeep. The turnpike at Fenny, Stony, and at Two Mile Ash between them, charged from a halfpenny for a packhorse to a shilling for a coach. The area's trade was burgeoning. For example, the 70-odd Stony Stratford occupations of the 1790s included sixteen victuallers, fifteen grocers, nine carpenters and eight bakers, as well as a collar-maker, a fisherman and net- maker, a hemp-dresser and roper, a salesman, a staymaker, a 'surveyor of houses and windows', a potash maker, a toyman and a tinman. Such traders had diverse business needs, and all were dependent on an efficient transport system which was unaffected by the vagaries of muddy ruts. They, along with local innkeepers, must have been delighted when the canal diggers - 'navvies', derived from 'navigators' - arrived in 1797 to make the first cut in Wolverton's soil. Within seven years a direct canal route from the Thames to the industrial midlands was ready and open for business. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Milton Keynes, the M1 at Junction 14 c1965 (ref. M388050) | The New M1 Comes into service 2 november 1959 Parliament first debated the 187-mile London to Leeds link in 1906. Construction of the M1's first 55 miles (including Milton Keynes's section) took 586 days - a bridge every three days and a mile of road every ten. More than 5,000 men used 5 million tons of gravel, stone, sand, cement, and steel to build it; they removed 20 million tons of soil and rock from the cuttings to fill the embankments - four times the volume of the Great Pyramid. The River Great Ouse flooded eight times in 1958- 59, hindering a viaduct construction of eight massive reinforced concrete arches. Of three million vehicles registered in 1959, 14,000 used Milton Keynes's section of the M1 daily; 40 years later there were over ten times that number - 150,000 out of 22 million vehicles. There was no 70mph limit: top speeds of 150mph and averages of 80mph were routinely recorded. The hard shoulder was littered with steaming radiators and blown engines! 40 years later in 2005, the junction is much busier than it was in the photograph. Milton Keynes city centre is just three miles away. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Milton Keynes, Woughton-on-the-Green 2005 (ref. M388703k) | There is but sparse evidence of Anglo- Saxon life in the city area. Among discoveries made are a coin found in Wolverton by Galleon's Wharf; a ring brooch at Bury Lawn, Great Linford; a clay weight for a weaving loom at Pennyland; a spearhead near Rickley Wood, Bletchley; and a silver and gold pendant necklace on the skeleton of a woman at Shenley, along with some small iron shears and a knife beside her. These shadowy people - along with other invading tribes like the Vikings, the Jutes and the Friesians - would leave their mark on the landscape primarily through their names: 'Wulfhere's tun', 'Wafa's tun' and 'Weilfaige's tun' each commemorate the Anglo-Saxon founders of settlements in Wolverton, Wavendon and Woughton. Likewise, Blecca had his field or 'lea' in modern Bletchley, Sigewine his place or 'tun' in Simpson, and Walla his 'tun' in Walton; and Brede found a most convenient 'wella' of water at Bradwell. Perhaps the most significant bequest the Anglo-Saxons left for future citizens of Milton Keynes was their seat of local government, one of the earliest in England. This was the Seckloe Meeting Mound, founded in 914 and situated on the highest point of the city, behind the Civic Offices in Central Milton Keynes. Their self-government, known as Danelaw, had its northern boundary of influence, just like modern Milton Keynes, on the River Great Ouse. This experiment in autonomy was not set to continue, however. In 1066, Britain would suffer its last - and most far-reaching - armed invasion. (Marion Hill) Woughton is one of the area's eighteen villages existing in the 11th century which were mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086; thirteen of the villages became local centres for the new city. Woughton's ancient village green is just five minutes' drive from the city centre. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Milton Keynes, the Pennyland Boat Basin 2005 (ref. M388702k) | Boudicca's Last Stand The Roman-built Watling Street (the A5) has been a vital artery from London to Chester for 2,000 years. Eight metres wide and elevated in towns - their 'High' Streets - it was the route that Queen Boudicca (or Boadicea) took in AD 60 to her final battle with the Roman Governor of Britain, Suetonius Paulinus. As queen of the Essex Iceni, she was incensed that the Romans broke her dead husband's treaty. She led an army of charioteers to sack Colchester, London and St Albans before heading north through Milton Keynes city area along the high streets of Fenny and Stony Stratford. Her 230,000-strong force was expected to win another glorious victory - wives and children came along to celebrate. But the Romans led them into a trap north of Milton Keynes, and unleashed a terrible blizzard of javelins: 80,000 were slaughtered, and the British rebellion was crushed forever. There were just 400 Roman casualties. (Marion Hill) The Pennyland Boat Basin. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Milton Keynes, Caldecotte Lake 2005 (ref. M388701k) | MILTON KEYNES'S first known resident once swam around in the area now known as Caldecotte Lake. With his huge eyes, elongated mouth and sharp teeth he was not a pretty sight; but his four-metre (thirteen feet) length, his dolphin-like fins and streamlined shape made him a fearsome and most effective hunter. Fish, octopus and mammals unfortunate enough to be swimming too close would meet a swift end in his massive jaws. He was the mighty Fish Lizard, or Icthyosaurus. Whatever caused his death can only be guessed at. But his corpse was eventually covered and compressed by mud and sand. For 150 million years his remains gradually converted into fossilised rock. In 1982 he surfaced again, unearthed by construction workers digging foundations for the new city of Milton Keynes. When the Icthyosaurus was found, it still had 75% of its skeleton. It was consequently described as a find 'of great scientific importance' because of the quantity of information it yielded (Dr R G Clements and D M Martill, Department of Geology, University of Leicester, 1982). The legacy of all those millions of years - of swamps, of mudstone and limestone formations, and of Ice Ages coming and going - has been a considerable challenge for people living in the city area over the last 10,000 years. If they were to thrive, they had to master the land. In many places its poor drainage from a thick layer of boulder clay caused frequent and destructive flooding. After all those THE ICTHYOSAURUS ZZZ05095 (The Parks Trust, Milton Keynes) Milton Keynes's first known resident, living 150 million years ago. (Marion Hill) The Fish Lizard's remains were discovered when the lake was constructed in 1982. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 New Bradwell, Spencer Street 2005 (ref. N224701k) | What had made Wolverton men so contented with their lot? Sir Frank Markham believed it was the 'benevolent socialism' of members of the LNWR Company Board who felt a protective responsibility towards employees and their families; they 'really cared for the hundreds it employed and the thousands who depended for their health, education and even places of worship'. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 New Bradwell, c1955 (ref. N224019) | Built around 1750, Stonebridgehouse Farmhouse is situated close to the site of the original stone bridge built by the monks from Bradwell Abbey c1350. The Victorian railway houses of New Bradwell are in the background. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Wolverton, Stratford Road c1910 (ref. W176501) | The 775 employees at Wolverton Works in 1851 grew to 2,000 by 1860, with the LNWR the largest single employer in North Bucks; a company engine driver earned nearly four times as much as an agricultural labourer. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Wolverton, Stratford Road 2005 (ref. W176702k) | The huge carriage works (right) have long since gone, to be replaced in the 1980s by the entrance to the Tesco supermarket development. The Works' fire station (centre) and bath house (centre left) can be identified by their gabled roofs. (Marion Hill) This view, taken from about the same point as ZZZ05124, below, shows the surviving facade of the LNWR's fire station (now a music shop).When it opened in 1911, it was 'very well-equipped and up-to-date' with a 'well-laid high-pressure system of water mains and hydrants'. The Works' old bath house (now Living Archive's headquarters and Wolverton's community centre) is to its left. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
