Milton Keynes
Encyclopedia
Milton Keynes sometimes abbreviated MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire
, in the south east of England
, about 49 miles (78.9 km) north-west of London. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes
. It was formally designated as a new town
on 23 January 1967, with the design brief to become a 'city' in scale.
At designation, its 89 km² (34 sq mi) area incorporated the existing towns of Bletchley, Wolverton
and Stony Stratford
along with another fifteen villages and farmland in between. It took its name from the existing village of Milton Keynes, a few miles east of the planned centre
.
At the 2001 census
the population of the Milton Keynes urban area
, including the adjacent Newport Pagnell
, was 184,506, and that of the wider borough, which has been a unitary authority
independent of Buckinghamshire County Council since 1997, was 207,063 (compared with a population of around 53,000 for the same area in 1961). The Borough’s population in 2009 is estimated to be nearly 241,000, with almost all the increase arising in the urban area.
in the South East was needed to relieve housing congestion in London.
Since the 1950s, overspill
housing for several London borough
s had been constructed in Bletchley. Further studies in the 1960s identified north Buckinghamshire as a possible site for a large new town, a new city, encompassing the existing towns of Bletchley, Stony Stratford
and Wolverton. The New Town (informally, "New City") was to be the biggest yet, with a target population of 250,000, in a 'designated area' of 21850 acre (34.1 sq mi; 88.4 km²). The name "Milton Keynes" was taken from the existing village of Milton Keynes on the site.
The site was deliberately located equidistant from London, Birmingham
, Leicester
, Oxford
and Cambridge
with the intention that it would be self-sustaining and eventually become a major regional centre in its own right.
Planning control was taken from elected local authorities
and delegated to the Milton Keynes Development Corporation
(MKDC).
The Corporation's strongly modernist
designs featured regularly in the magazines Architectural Design
and the Architects' Journal. MKDC was determined to learn from the mistakes made in the earlier New Towns and revisit the Garden City ideals
. They set in place the characteristic grid roads
that run between districts, as well as the intensive planting, lakes and parkland that are so evident today. Central Milton Keynes was not intended to be a traditional town centre
but a business and shopping district that supplemented the Local Centres in most of the Grid Squares. This non-hierarchical devolved city plan was a departure from the English New Towns tradition and envisaged a wide range of industry and diversity of housing styles and tenures across the city. The largest and almost the last of the British New Towns, Milton Keynes has stood the test of time far better than most, and has proved flexible and adaptable. The radical grid plan was inspired by the work of Californian urban theorist Melvin M. Webber
(1921–2006), described by the founding architect of Milton Keynes, Derek Walker, as the "father of the city". Webber thought that telecommunications meant that the old idea of a city as a concentric cluster was out of date and that cities which enabled people to travel around them readily would be the thing of the future achieving "community without propinquity" for residents.
The Government wound up MKDC in 1992, 25 years after the new town was created, transferring control to the Commission for New Towns (CNT) and then finally to English Partnerships
, with the planning function returning to local authority control (since 1974 and the Local Government Act 1972
, the Milton Keynes Borough Council
, which was subsequently made a unitary authority
in the 1990s). Since 2004 a Government quango
, the Milton Keynes Partnership, has development control powers to accelerate the growth of Milton Keynes.
Along with many other towns and boroughs, Milton Keynes competed for formal city status
in the 2000 and 2002 competitions, but was not ultimately successful. Nevertheless, the terms 'city' and 'city centre' are widely used by its citizens, local media and bus services to describe itself, perhaps because the term 'town' is taken to mean one of the constituent towns.
The area that was to become Milton Keynes encompassed a landscape that has a rich historic legacy. The area to be developed was largely farmland and undeveloped villages, but with evidence of permanent settlement dating back to the Bronze Age
. Before construction began, every area was subject to detailed archaeological investigation: doing so has provided a unique insight into the history of a large sample of the landscape of south-central England. There is evidence of Iron Age
, Romano-British
, Anglo-Saxon
, Anglo-Norman
, Medieval and Industrial revolution
settlements. Collections http://clutch.open.ac.uk of oral history
covering the 20th century completes a picture that is described in detail in another article
.
When the boundary of Milton Keynes was defined in 1967, some 40,000 people lived in three towns and seven villages in the "designated area" of 21863 acre.
Since the radical plan form and large scale of Milton Keynes attracted international attention, early phases of the town include work by celebrated architects, including (Sir) Richard MacCormac, (Lord) Norman Foster
, Henning Larsen
, Ralph Erskine
, John Winter, and Martin Richardson. The Corporation itself attracted talented young architects led by the young and charismatic Derek Walker. Though strongly committed to sleek "Miesian" minimalism
inspired by the German/American architect Mies van der Rohe they also developed a strand of contextualism
in advance of the wider adoption of commercial Post-Modernism
as an architectural style
in the 1980s. In the Miesian tradition were the Pineham Sewage Works, which Derek Walker regarded as his finest achievement, and the Shopping Building designed by Stuart Mosscrop and Christopher Woodward, which the Twentieth Century Society inter alia
regards as the finest twentieth century retail building in Britain. The contextual tradition that ran alongside it is best exemplified by the Corporation's infill scheme at Cofferidge Close, Stony Stratford, designed by Wayland Tunley, which carefully inserts into a historic stretch of High Street a modern retail facility, offices and car park
. The Development Corporation
also led an ambitious Public art programme.
principles, using a grid pattern
of approximately 1 kilometre (0.621372736649807 mi) interval, rather than on the more conventional radial pattern found in older settlements. Major internal roads run between communities, rather than through them: these distributor roads are known locally as grid roads and the spaces between them the districts are known as grid squares. Intervals of 1 kilometre (0.621372736649807 mi) were chosen so that people would always be within walking distance of a bus stop. Consequently each grid square is a semi-autonomous community, making a unique collective of 100 clearly identifiable neighbourhoods within the overall urban environment. The grid squares have a variety of development styles, ranging from conventional urban development and industrial parks to original rural and modern urban and pseudo-rural developments. Most grid squares have Local Centres, intended as local retail hubs and most with community facilities as well. Originally intended under the Master Plan to sit alongside the Grid Roads, the Local Centres were mostly in fact built embedded in the communities and some are becoming unviable as a result of this and pressure from the new hypermarkets.
junctions were built at intersections because the grid roads
were intended to carry large volumes of traffic: this type of junction is efficient at dealing with these volumes. The major roads are dual carriageway
, the others are single carriageway. Along one side of each single-carriageway grid road there is a (grassed) reservation to permit dualling or additional transport infrastructure at a later date. The edges of each grid square are landscaped and densely planted, some additionally have berm
s. The purpose of the berms is to reduce traffic noise for adjacent residents, but traffic noise can be significant at many locations even some distance from the grid roads. Traffic movements are fast, with relatively little congestion since there are alternative routes to any particular destination. The national speed limit applies on dual carriageway sections of the grid roads (70 mile per hour) and most single carriageway grid roads (60 mile per hour), although some single carriageway speed limit
s have now been reduced to 40 mi/h. Consequently the risk to unwary pedestrians and turning traffic is significant, although pedestrians rarely need to cross grid roads at grade
, as underpasses exist in several places along each stretch of all of the grid roads. However, the new districts to be added by the expansion plans for Milton Keynes
will depart from this model, with less separation and using 'at grade' crossings. Monitoring station data shows that pollution is lower than in other settlements of a similar size. This can be partially attributed to the large number of trees, especially as trees line grid roads in most places.
There is a separate cycleway network (the "redways
") that runs through the grid-squares and sometimes runs alongside the grid-road network. This was designed to segregate slow moving cycle and pedestrian traffic from fast moving motor traffic. In practice, it is mainly used for leisure cycling rather than commuting, mainly because the cycle routes include many underpasses beneath the grid-roads and because they take meandering scenic routes rather than straight lines. Despite what appears to be a desirable facility, rates of cycle commuting in Milton Keynes are well below the national average for urban areas. The detailed article
includes a critical appraisal.
The original design guidance declared that "no building [be] taller than the tallest tree". However, the Milton Keynes Partnership, in its expansion plans for Milton Keynes
, believes that Central Milton Keynes
(and elsewhere) needs "landmark buildings" and has lifted the height restriction for the area. As a result, 14-storey
buildings have been built in the central business district. Some of the pedestrian underpasses have been closed in order to 'normalise' the streetscape of Central Milton Keynes and the character of the area is set to change under government pressure to increase densities of development. These changes are being opposed by pressure groups such as Urban Eden
and the Milton Keynes Forum.
Recent large-scale building includes The Pinnacle MK on Midsummer Boulevard. The Pinnacle is the largest office building to be constructed in Milton Keynes in 25 years. Other developments in the pipeline include a 20-storey tower as part of the West End One development and a casino tower adjacent to the Xscape centre.
The flood plains of the Great Ouse
and of its tributaries (the Ouzel
and some brooks) have been protected as linear park
s that run right through Milton Keynes. The Grand Union Canal
is another green route (and demonstrates the level geography of the area there is just one minor lock in its entire 10 miles (16.1 km) route through from Fenny Stratford
to the "Iron Trunk" Aqueduct
over the Ouse at Wolverton
. The Milton Keynes redway system
of cycleways and footpaths uses these and other routes. The Park system
was designed by landscape architect
Peter Youngman, who also developed landscape precepts for the whole town: groups of grid squares were to be planted with different selections of trees and shrubs in order to give them distinct identities. However the landscaping of parks and of the grid roads was evolved under the leadership of Neil Higson, who from 1977 took over as Chief Landscape Architect and made the original grand but not entirely practical landscape plan more subtle. A policy of creating "settings, strings, beads" for landscape features was introduced: 'settings' for historic villages and landscape features, 'strings' of landscape to make the linear parks hang together and 'beads' of public space
where residents might linger. Higson also made the landscaping of the Grid Roads, one of the features of Milton Keynes, more subtle, with 'windows' cut into the roadside planting so that motorists travelling through had a sense of the major town they were in; early critics had said of Milton Keynes 'there is no there there', as the town could not be seen by the motorist just passing through. Now that the trees and shrubs have matured, the skill and lavish scale of the Grid Road planting makes a dramatic and welcome change from the monotony of many British towns and cities.
of the Development Corporation the lavish landscapes of the Grid Roads and of the major parks were transferred to The Parks Trust, a charity
which is independent from the municipal authority and which was intended to resist pressures to build on the parks over time. The Parks Trust is endowed with a portfolio of commercial properties, the income of which pay for the upkeep of the green spaces, a maintenance model which has attracted international attention.
John Prescott
announced the Government's plan to double the population of Milton Keynes by 2026. He appointed English Partnerships
to do so, taking planning controls away from Milton Keynes Borough Council
and making EP the statutory planning authority. Their proposal for the next phase of expansion moves away from grid squares to large scale, mixed use, higher density development. The more detailed article
expands on the details of their proposals. As the first stage in that plan, the Government expanded the boundaries of the designated area, adding large green-field expansion sites to the east and west that are to be developed by 2015.
In June 2004 Milton Keynes Partnership Committee (MKPC), was created by the Government and is a committee of the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), the national housing and regeneration agency for England. MKPC was created to ensure a co-ordinated approach to planning and delivery of growth and development in the ‘new city’.
The Partnership brings together Milton Keynes Council, HCA, Local Strategic Partnership representatives from the health, community and business sectors and independent representation.The role of MKPC is to co-ordinate and implement the delivery of growth and ensure that homes, infrastructure, jobs and community facilities are provided as part of a joined up approach.
The day-to-day activities of MKPC are carried out by its staff of management, professional and technical experts, known collectively as Milton Keynes Partnership (MKP).
The open air National Bowl
is a 65,000 capacity venue for large scale events.
The 1,400 seat Milton Keynes Theatre
opened in 1999. The theatre has an unusual feature: the ceiling can be lowered closing off the third tier (gallery) to create a more intimate space for smaller scale productions. There are further performance spaces in Bletchley, Wolverton, Leadenhall, Shenley Church End
, Stantonbury
and Walton Hall.
The town's public art gallery (Milton Keynes Gallery beside the main theatre) presents free exhibitions of international contemporary art.
In Wavendon
, on the southeast edge of the town, The Stables provides a venue for jazz
, blues
, folk
, rock, classical, pop and world music
. It is closely associated with jazz artists Cleo Laine
and John Dankworth
. The venue also hosts an annual summer camp
for young musicians.
Another music venue
is The Pitz Club in the Woughton
Centre, Leadenhall. It usually features a mixture of punk, alternative rock
, and heavy metal
.
There are two museums, the Bletchley Park
museum of wartime cryptography, and the Milton Keynes Museum
, which includes the Stacey Hill Collection of rural life that existed before the foundation of the new town.
The town also has a literature scene, with groups like Speakeasy meeting regularly and hosting performance events, and the town's only poetry magazine, Monkey Kettle
coming out twice a year. In addition, two performance poetry
groups exist in the town Poetry Kapow!, an offshoot of Monkey Kettle though now independent of the parent organisation, specialising in live, multi-discipline, interactive poetry/ art/ music events, usually featuring slams; and Tongue in Chic, a regular open mic poetry event which features headline poets such as Rachel Pantechnicon and John Hegley
. Between them, the two groups supply members of Bardcore, a semi-professional group of 4–6 poets who work collaboratively on performance poetry projects.
In May 2011, the outgoing Mayor, Debbie Brock announced the appointment of Mark Niel as the first official Milton Keynes' Poet Laureate (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-13502872).
In July 2010, Milton Keynes' first independent Central Arts Centre was opened by Radio One DJ Jo Whiley
. The centre is regenerated from the disused Central Bus Station and former Chicago Rock Cafe. It is home to the existing "Buszy" Skate Plaza, which is where the name for the regenerated venue has come from. It is managed and operated by Make a Difference a community interest company which in 2011 was awarded a "Big Society" award for their positive activities and opportunities for young people and the wider community. The Buszy is the social enterprise arm of Make a Difference. All profits raised by the cultural activity at the venue are re-invested into Make a Difference. The venue hosts independent cinema, live performance, gigs, art shows/exhibitions, dance activity, a thrift shop, office and conference facilities and the city's only social enterprise hub.
Milton Keynes also boasts several choir
s the OU Choir, the Milton Keynes Chorale, the New English Singers, the Cornerstone Choir, Quorum, and others, along with a variety of amateur drama groups, and amateur musical theatre groups.
In 1981, the main shopping area in the town centre was used as the filming location for the music video to Cliff Richard's
hit Wired for Sound
.http://learningfrommiltonkeynes.com/2008/12/22/cliff-richard-is-wired-for-sound-in-mk/
Milton Keynes Forum is the registered civic society
for the town.
Public sculpture in Milton Keynes includes work by Philip Jackson
, Nicolas Moreton
, Ronald Rae
and Elisabeth Frink
.
's headquarters are based in the Walton Hall district, though as this is a distance learning institution, the only students resident on campus are approximately 200 full-time postgraduates. Cranfield University
, an all-postgraduate institution, is in nearby Cranfield
, Bedfordshire. Milton Keynes College
provides further education
up to foundation degree
level, however a Postgraduate Certificate in Education
course is available; run in partnership with and accredited by Oxford Brookes University
.
In the early-1990s a purpose built polytechnic
was opened at Kents Hill in Milton Keynes, opposite the Open University's Walton Hall site. At around the time the existing Polytechnics converted to Universities, "MK Poly" merged with the former Leicester Polytechnic, De Montfort University
and the site was rebranded the DMU MK site. However in recent years, DMU closed the MK site and the Open University has expanded to take over the buildings.
Although the town does not yet have its own conventional local university, its founders hope that the new University Centre Milton Keynes
will be the seed for a future 'Milton Keynes University'. It is currently the UK's largest population centre without its own university proper.
Like many parts of the UK, the state secondary schools in Milton Keynes are Comprehensive school
s, although schools in the rest of Buckinghamshire still use the Tripartite System
. Results are above the national average, though below that of the rest of Buckinghamshire but the demography
of Milton Keynes is also far closer to the national average than is the latter. Access to selective schools is still possible in Milton Keynes as the grammar schools in Buckingham and Aylesbury accept some pupils from within the unitary authority area, with Buckinghamshire County Council operating bus services to ferry pupils to the schools.
The Safety Centre
is a purpose-built interactive centre which provides safety education to visiting schools and youth groups via its full-size interactive demonstrations known as Hazard Alley.
stations, Heart Home Counties, covering Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Northamptonshire and MKFM, which started in June 2011 covering Milton Keynes and the surrounding areas. BBC Three Counties Radio
is the local BBC Radio
station, covering Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, but has different programming from the Bow Brickhill
transmitter at breakfast. CRMK Online is a voluntary station broadcasting on the Internet.
For television, the area is in the overlap between the Oxford
and the Sandy
transmitters and so receives BBC
South and BBC East, and ITV Central and Anglia
. Signal quality is weak in many areas due to distance and "terrain shadow". It was for this reason among others that Milton Keynes has one of the first Cable TV
networks in the UK. However, the cable network is now ageing and in need of modernisation to cope with the imminent digital TV switchover; many residents have already opted for roof-top aerials and satellite dishes. All homes in the post-designation and/or post expansion areas of Milton Keynes are already on-net cable homes but (as of Jan 2011) is analogue only. Virgin Media, which leases the cable network from Openreach until 2012, have yet to announce any plans for the service thereafter. The digital switchover for the Sandy transmitter took place in two phases over March/April 2011.
Milton Keynes has two free-to-residents local newspapers, the Milton Keynes Citizen, which is twice-weekly in some areas, and the MK News
, a weekly.
In the early days of land-line broadband, parts of Milton Keynes were so far from the BT exchanges as to have a poor or no service. Recent work by BT to enhance its network (including FTTC and FTTP BT Infinity) should see the issue resolved for up to 33% of customers before end of 2012 – but the Eastern & Western Expansion Areas, plus rural exchanges such as Woburn Sands are in the "final third of roll-outs", meaning upgrades there won't occur until the 2017 time frame at the earliest.
A survey in spring 2011 reported that the performance of the broadband-over-3G service provided to customers in Milton Keynes was the slowest of the towns/cities surveyed.
), ice hockey
(Milton Keynes Lightning
), and in basketball (Milton Keynes Lions
), and the Formula One
motor-racing team (Red Bull Racing
) is based in the town. It is represented at amateur level in many sports, some at national level. For details see Sport in Milton Keynes
. Milton Keynes is also home to the Xscape
indoor ski slope.
Senior football is a new arrival in Milton Keynes. There had been several non-league teams based in the area over the years, but these proved unpopular and it was not until the late 1990s that it looked as though Milton Keynes would have a senior side. Local businessman Pete Winkelman
approached several senior clubs in and near London about a move to Milton Keynes as part of the proposed construction of a new retail development. He got his wish in May 2002 when Wimbledon FC
were given permission by the F.A. to relocate to Milton Keynes
56 miles (90.1 km) away from their home borough of Merton
. Wimbledon moved into the National Hockey Stadium
in September 2003 as a temporary home until a new, larger stadium could be built. A year later, Wimbledon FC became Milton Keynes Dons, and three years after that they moved into a new 22,000-seat stadium known as stadium mk in the Denbigh district of south Milton Keynes.
In December 2009, the English FA awarded 'Candidate Host City' status to Milton Keynes, as part of the English 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup bid. Had England been selected for the tournament, stadium MK would have hosted some games. For this to have happened, the stadium capacity would need to be have been increased to 44,000. The right to host the FIFA World Cup 2018 was won by Russia.
As a key element of the New Town vision, Milton Keynes has a purpose built centre, with a very large "covered high street" shopping centre, theatre, art gallery
, two multiplex cinemas, hotels, business district, ecumenical church, Borough Council offices
and central railway station
.
village and its Abbey
, Broughton
, Caldecotte
, Fenny Stratford
, Great Linford
, Loughton
, Milton Keynes Village
, New Bradwell
, Shenley Brook End
, Shenley Church End
, Simpson
, Stantonbury
, Tattenhoe
, Tongwell
, Walton
, Water Eaton
, Wavendon
, Willen
, Great and Little Woolstone
, Woughton on the Green. The historical settlements have been focal points for the modern development of the new town. Every grid square has historical antecedents, if only in the field names. The more obvious ones are listed below and most have more detailed articles.
Bletchley was first recorded in the 12th century as Blechelai. Its station
was a major Victorian
junction (the London and North Western Railway
with the Oxford-Cambridge Varsity Line
), leading to the substantial urban growth in the town in that period. It expanded to absorb the villages of Water Eaton and Fenny Stratford
.
Bletchley Park
was home to the Government Code and Cypher School during the Second World War. The famous Enigma code was cracked here, and the building housed what was arguably the world's first programmable computer, Colossus
. The house is now a museum of war memorabilia, cryptography and computing.
The Benedictine
Priory
of Bradwell Abbey
at Bradwell was of major economic importance in this area of north Buckinghamshire before the Dissolution of the Monasteries
. The routes of the medieval trackways (many of which are now Redways or bridleways) converge on the site from some distance. Nowadays there is only a small medieval chapel and a manor house occupying the site.
New Bradwell
, to the north of the medieval Bradwell (Abbey) and just across the canal and the railway to the east of Wolverton, was built specifically for railway workers. It has a working windmill
, although technically this lies just a few yards outside of the parish boundary. The level bed of the old Wolverton to Newport Pagnell Line
ends here and has been converted to a Redway, making it a favourite route for cycling.
Great Linford
appears in the Domesday Book
as Linforde, and features a church dedicated to Saint Andrew
, dating from 1215. Today, the outer buildings of the 17th century manor house
form an Arts Centre
, and Linford Manor
is a prestigious recording studio.
Milton Keynes Village
is the original village to which the New Town owes its name. The original village is still evident, with a pleasant thatched pub, village hall
, church and traditional housing. The area around the village has reverted to its original name of Middleton, as shown on old maps of the 1700s. The oldest surviving domestic building in the area, a 14th century manor house, is here.
There has been a market in Stony Stratford
since 1194 (by charter of King Richard I
). The Rose and Crown Inn at Stratford is reputedly the last place the Princes in the Tower
were seen alive.
The manor house of Walton
village, Walton Hall
, is the headquarters of the Open University
and the tiny parish church
(deconsecrated) is in its grounds.
The tiny Parish Church (1680) at Willen
contains the only unaltered building by the architect and physicist Robert Hooke
. Nearby, there is a Buddhist Temple and a Peace Pagoda
. The district borders the River Ouzel
: there is a large balancing lake
here, to capture flash flood
s before they cause problems downstream on the River Great Ouse
. The north basin is a wildlife sanctuary and a favourite of migrating aquatic birds. The south basin is for leisure use, favoured by wind surfers and dinghy sailors. The circuit of the lakes is a favoured "fun run".
The original Wolverton
was a medieval settlement just north and west of today's town. The Ridge and Furrow
pattern of agriculture can still be seen in the nearby fields and the Saxon (rebuilt in 1819) Church of the Holy Trinity still stands next to the Norman Motte and Bailey site. Modern Wolverton was a 19th century New Town built to house the workers at the Wolverton railway works
(which built engines and carriages for the London and North Western Railway
).
Milton Keynes is one of the more successful (per capita) economies in the South East, with a gross value added
per capita index that was 47% higher than the national average (2005 data). Service industries dominate the economy, making it susceptible to economic downturn.
The population is significantly younger than the national averages. According to 2005 estimates, the ethnic makeup of the Borough is 88.0% White
, 4.7% South Asian
, 3.5% Black
, 2.1% Mixed Race, 1.7% Chinese or other.
Marshall
valve
amplifiers and some speaker cabinets
are hand-built in Bletchley, Milton Keynes
.
. These are the parishes, and the districts they contain, within Milton Keynes itself. For a list of parishes in the Borough, see Borough of Milton Keynes (Rest of the borough)
The Grand Union Canal
between London and Birmingham provides a major axis in the design of Milton Keynes.
Milton Keynes is served by five railway stations, of which Milton Keynes Central is the one served by inter-city services. Wolverton
, Milton Keynes Central and Bletchley
stations are on the West Coast Main Line
, whilst Fenny Stratford
and Bow Brickhill
are on the Marston Vale Line
. Woburn Sands railway station
, also on the Marston Vale line, is just outside the urban area in the small town of Woburn Sands
, but is still within the Borough of Milton Keynes.
The M1 motorway
runs to the east of the town, and is served by junctions 13, 14, and 15A. The A5 road runs through the west of the town. Other main roads include the A509
, which links Milton Keynes with Wellingborough and Kettering, and the A421
which goes west to Buckingham
and east to Bedford
.
Many long-distance coaches stop at the Milton Keynes coachway
, (beside M1 Junction 14), some 3.3 miles (5.3 km) from the centre (or 4 miles (6.4 km) from Milton Keynes Central station). There is also a park and ride
car park on the site. Regional coaches stop at Milton Keynes Central.
The main bus operator is MK Metro
, providing a number of routes which mainly pass through or serve Central Milton Keynes
. Milton Keynes is also served by Arriva
(which owns MK Metro but runs Arriva-branded services from Aylesbury
) and Stagecoach Group
which operates routes to Oxford
, Cambridge
and Peterborough
. See Buses in Milton Keynes
for more information.
Milton Keynes is served by routes 6 and 51 on the National Cycle Network
.
The nearest international airport
is London Luton Airport
which is accessible by route VT99 from MK Central station, this service runs with wheelchair accessible coaches. There is a direct rail connection to Birmingham International Airport
. There is an aerodrome at Cranfield
, 6 miles (10 km) from the centre. Although Milton Keynes is allocated an International Air Transport Association airport code of KYN, it does not actually have an airport. (There were proposals in 1971 for a third London airport at nearby Cublington
. Parliament rejected the recommendation in favour of a site at Maplin Sands
, Foulness
).
(Köppen climate classification
Cfb) similar to almost all of the United Kingdom. Recorded temperature extremes range from 34.6 °C (94.3 °F) during July 2006, to as low as −20.6 °C on 25 February 1947. More recently the temperature fell to −16.3 °C on 20 December 2010
The nearest Met Office
weather station is in Woburn
, located just outside the south eastern fringe of the Milton Keynes urban area.
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
, in the south east of England
South East England
South East England is one of the nine official regions of England, designated in 1994 and adopted for statistical purposes in 1999. It consists of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Surrey and West Sussex...
, about 49 miles (78.9 km) north-west of London. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes (borough)
The Borough of Milton Keynes is a unitary authority and borough in south central England, at the northern tip of the South East England Region. For ceremonial purposes, it is in the county of Buckinghamshire...
. It was formally designated as a new town
New towns in the United Kingdom
Below is a list of some of the new towns in the United Kingdom created under the various New Town Acts of the 20th century. Some earlier towns were developed as Garden Cities or overspill estates early in the twentieth century. The New Towns proper were planned to disperse population following the...
on 23 January 1967, with the design brief to become a 'city' in scale.
At designation, its 89 km² (34 sq mi) area incorporated the existing towns of Bletchley, Wolverton
Wolverton
Wolverton is part of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England.Wolverton may also refer to:Places in England:*Wolverton, Dorset*Wolverton, Kent*Wolverton, Hampshire*Wolverton, Shropshire*Wolverton, WarwickshirePlaces in the United States:...
and Stony Stratford
Stony Stratford
Stony Stratford is a constituent town of Milton Keynes and is a civil parish with a town council within the Borough of Milton Keynes. It is in the north west corner of Milton Keynes, bordering Northamptonshire and separated from it by the River Great Ouse...
along with another fifteen villages and farmland in between. It took its name from the existing village of Milton Keynes, a few miles east of the planned centre
Central Milton Keynes
Central Milton Keynes is the central business district of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England and a civil parish in its own right.The district is approximately 2.5 km long by 1 km wide and occupies some of the highest land in Milton Keynes...
.
At the 2001 census
United Kingdom Census 2001
A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194....
the population of the Milton Keynes urban area
Milton Keynes urban area
Milton Keynes is a large town in Buckinghamshire. The Milton Keynes urban area is a designation established by the United Kingdom's Office of National Statistics. As with other urban areas, it includes settlements that regard themselves as being outside Milton Keynes...
, including the adjacent Newport Pagnell
Newport Pagnell
Newport Pagnell is a town in the Borough of Milton Keynes , England. It is separated by the M1 motorway from Milton Keynes itself, though part of the same urban area...
, was 184,506, and that of the wider borough, which has been a unitary authority
Unitary authority
A unitary authority is a type of local authority that has a single tier and is responsible for all local government functions within its area or performs additional functions which elsewhere in the relevant country are usually performed by national government or a higher level of sub-national...
independent of Buckinghamshire County Council since 1997, was 207,063 (compared with a population of around 53,000 for the same area in 1961). The Borough’s population in 2009 is estimated to be nearly 241,000, with almost all the increase arising in the urban area.
Birth of a "New City"
In the 1960s, the UK Government decided that a further generation of new townsNew towns in the United Kingdom
Below is a list of some of the new towns in the United Kingdom created under the various New Town Acts of the 20th century. Some earlier towns were developed as Garden Cities or overspill estates early in the twentieth century. The New Towns proper were planned to disperse population following the...
in the South East was needed to relieve housing congestion in London.
London overspill
London overspill is the term given to the communities created - largely consisting of publicly provided housing - as a result of the Government policy of moving residents out of Greater London, England into other towns around the South East, East Anglia and beyond.-Policy development:The policy...
housing for several London borough
London borough
The administrative area of Greater London contains thirty-two London boroughs. Inner London comprises twelve of these boroughs plus the City of London. Outer London comprises the twenty remaining boroughs of Greater London.-Functions:...
s had been constructed in Bletchley. Further studies in the 1960s identified north Buckinghamshire as a possible site for a large new town, a new city, encompassing the existing towns of Bletchley, Stony Stratford
Stony Stratford
Stony Stratford is a constituent town of Milton Keynes and is a civil parish with a town council within the Borough of Milton Keynes. It is in the north west corner of Milton Keynes, bordering Northamptonshire and separated from it by the River Great Ouse...
and Wolverton. The New Town (informally, "New City") was to be the biggest yet, with a target population of 250,000, in a 'designated area' of 21850 acre (34.1 sq mi; 88.4 km²). The name "Milton Keynes" was taken from the existing village of Milton Keynes on the site.
The site was deliberately located equidistant from London, Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, Leicester
Leicester
Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
, Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
and Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
with the intention that it would be self-sustaining and eventually become a major regional centre in its own right.
Planning control was taken from elected local authorities
Local government
Local government refers collectively to administrative authorities over areas that are smaller than a state.The term is used to contrast with offices at nation-state level, which are referred to as the central government, national government, or federal government...
and delegated to the Milton Keynes Development Corporation
Milton Keynes Development Corporation
Milton Keynes Development Corporation was established on 23 January 1967 to provide the vision and execution of a "new city", Milton Keynes, that would be the modern interpretation of the Garden city movement concepts first expressed by Ebenezer Howard 60 years earlier...
(MKDC).
The Corporation's strongly modernist
Modern architecture
Modern architecture is generally characterized by simplification of form and creation of ornament from the structure and theme of the building. It is a term applied to an overarching movement, with its exact definition and scope varying widely...
designs featured regularly in the magazines Architectural Design
Architectural Design
Architectural Design, also known as AD, is a UK-based architectural journal first launched in 1930.In its early days it was more concerned with the British scene, but gradually became more international. It also moved away from presenting mostly news towards theme-based issues...
and the Architects' Journal. MKDC was determined to learn from the mistakes made in the earlier New Towns and revisit the Garden City ideals
Garden city movement
The garden city movement is a method of urban planning that was initiated in 1898 by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the United Kingdom. Garden cities were intended to be planned, self-contained communities surrounded by "greenbelts" , containing proportionate areas of residences, industry and...
. They set in place the characteristic grid roads
Milton Keynes grid road system
The Milton Keynes grid road system is a network of national speed limit, fully landscaped routes that form the top layer of the street hierarchy for both for private and public transport in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire...
that run between districts, as well as the intensive planting, lakes and parkland that are so evident today. Central Milton Keynes was not intended to be a traditional town centre
Town centre
The town centre is the term used to refer to the commercial or geographical centre or core area of a town.Town centres are traditionally associated with shopping or retail. They are also the centre of communications with major public transport hubs such as train or bus stations...
but a business and shopping district that supplemented the Local Centres in most of the Grid Squares. This non-hierarchical devolved city plan was a departure from the English New Towns tradition and envisaged a wide range of industry and diversity of housing styles and tenures across the city. The largest and almost the last of the British New Towns, Milton Keynes has stood the test of time far better than most, and has proved flexible and adaptable. The radical grid plan was inspired by the work of Californian urban theorist Melvin M. Webber
Melvin M. Webber
Melvin M. Webber was an urban designer and theorist associated for most of his career with the University of California at Berkeley but whose work was internationally important....
(1921–2006), described by the founding architect of Milton Keynes, Derek Walker, as the "father of the city". Webber thought that telecommunications meant that the old idea of a city as a concentric cluster was out of date and that cities which enabled people to travel around them readily would be the thing of the future achieving "community without propinquity" for residents.
The Government wound up MKDC in 1992, 25 years after the new town was created, transferring control to the Commission for New Towns (CNT) and then finally to English Partnerships
English Partnerships
English Partnerships was the national regeneration agency for England, performing a similar role on a national level to that fulfilled by Regional Development Agencies on a regional level...
, with the planning function returning to local authority control (since 1974 and the Local Government Act 1972
Local Government Act 1972
The Local Government Act 1972 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974....
, the Milton Keynes Borough Council
Milton Keynes (borough)
The Borough of Milton Keynes is a unitary authority and borough in south central England, at the northern tip of the South East England Region. For ceremonial purposes, it is in the county of Buckinghamshire...
, which was subsequently made a unitary authority
Unitary authority
A unitary authority is a type of local authority that has a single tier and is responsible for all local government functions within its area or performs additional functions which elsewhere in the relevant country are usually performed by national government or a higher level of sub-national...
in the 1990s). Since 2004 a Government quango
Quango
Quango or qango is an acronym used notably in the United Kingdom, Ireland and elsewhere to label an organisation to which government has devolved power...
, the Milton Keynes Partnership, has development control powers to accelerate the growth of Milton Keynes.
Along with many other towns and boroughs, Milton Keynes competed for formal city status
City status in the United Kingdom
City status in the United Kingdom is granted by the British monarch to a select group of communities. The holding of city status gives a settlement no special rights other than that of calling itself a "city". Nonetheless, this appellation carries its own prestige and, consequently, competitions...
in the 2000 and 2002 competitions, but was not ultimately successful. Nevertheless, the terms 'city' and 'city centre' are widely used by its citizens, local media and bus services to describe itself, perhaps because the term 'town' is taken to mean one of the constituent towns.
Prior history
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
. Before construction began, every area was subject to detailed archaeological investigation: doing so has provided a unique insight into the history of a large sample of the landscape of south-central England. There is evidence of Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
, Romano-British
Romano-British
Romano-British culture describes the culture that arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest of AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, a people of Celtic language and...
, Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
, Anglo-Norman
Anglo-Norman
The Anglo-Normans were mainly the descendants of the Normans who ruled England following the Norman conquest by William the Conqueror in 1066. A small number of Normans were already settled in England prior to the conquest...
, Medieval and Industrial revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
settlements. Collections http://clutch.open.ac.uk of oral history
Oral history
Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews...
covering the 20th century completes a picture that is described in detail in another article
History of Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes is a large town in South East England, founded in 1967. This history of Milton Keynes details its development from the earliest human settlements, through the plans for a 'new city' for 250,000 people in south central England, its subsequent urban design and development, to the...
.
When the boundary of Milton Keynes was defined in 1967, some 40,000 people lived in three towns and seven villages in the "designated area" of 21863 acre.
Urban design
- The concepts that heavily influenced the design of the town are described in detail in article urban planningUrban planningUrban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....
see 'cells' under Planning and aesthetics (referring to grid squares).See also article single-use zoningSingle-use zoningSingle-use zoning, also known as Euclidean zoning, is a practice of urban planning where everyday uses are separated from each other and where land uses of the same type are grouped together. Shops are concentrated in one area, housing in another area, industry in another...
.
Since the radical plan form and large scale of Milton Keynes attracted international attention, early phases of the town include work by celebrated architects, including (Sir) Richard MacCormac, (Lord) Norman Foster
Norman Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank
Norman Robert Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank, OM is a British architect whose company maintains an international design practice, Foster + Partners....
, Henning Larsen
Henning Larsen
Henning Larsen is a Danish architect.He is internationally known for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building in Riyadhand the Copenhagen Opera House...
, Ralph Erskine
Ralph Erskine (architect)
Ralph Erskine, CBRE, RFS, ARIBA was an architect and planner who lived and worked in Sweden for most of his life.-Upbringing and influences :...
, John Winter, and Martin Richardson. The Corporation itself attracted talented young architects led by the young and charismatic Derek Walker. Though strongly committed to sleek "Miesian" minimalism
Minimalism
Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts...
inspired by the German/American architect Mies van der Rohe they also developed a strand of contextualism
Contextualism
Contextualism describes a collection of views in philosophy which emphasize the context in which an action, utterance, or expression occurs, and argues that, in some important respect, the action, utterance, or expression can only be understood relative to that context...
in advance of the wider adoption of commercial Post-Modernism
Postmodernism
Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...
as an architectural style
Architectural style
Architectural styles classify architecture in terms of the use of form, techniques, materials, time period, region and other stylistic influences. It overlaps with, and emerges from the study of the evolution and history of architecture...
in the 1980s. In the Miesian tradition were the Pineham Sewage Works, which Derek Walker regarded as his finest achievement, and the Shopping Building designed by Stuart Mosscrop and Christopher Woodward, which the Twentieth Century Society inter alia
Inter Alia
-Track listing:# Inter Alia# Outfox'd # Righteous Badass # The Altogether feat. Bix, Apt, UNIVERSE ARM and Cal# The Day-to-Daily# Trouble Brewing # The Prestidigitator# The Force...
regards as the finest twentieth century retail building in Britain. The contextual tradition that ran alongside it is best exemplified by the Corporation's infill scheme at Cofferidge Close, Stony Stratford, designed by Wayland Tunley, which carefully inserts into a historic stretch of High Street a modern retail facility, offices and car park
Parking lot
A parking lot , also known as car lot, is a cleared area that is intended for parking vehicles. Usually, the term refers to a dedicated area that has been provided with a durable or semi-durable surface....
. The Development Corporation
Development Corporation
In England and Wales, Development Corporations are bodies set up by the UK government and charged with the urban development of an area, outside the usual system of Town and Country Planning in the United Kingdom...
also led an ambitious Public art programme.
Grid squares
Milton Keynes Development Corporation planned the major road layout according to street hierarchyStreet hierarchy
The street hierarchy is an urban design technique for laying out road networks that exclude automobile through-traffic from developed areas. It is conceived as a hierarchy of roads that embeds the link importance of each road type in the network topology...
principles, using a grid pattern
Grid plan
The grid plan, grid street plan or gridiron plan is a type of city plan in which streets run at right angles to each other, forming a grid...
of approximately 1 kilometre (0.621372736649807 mi) interval, rather than on the more conventional radial pattern found in older settlements. Major internal roads run between communities, rather than through them: these distributor roads are known locally as grid roads and the spaces between them the districts are known as grid squares. Intervals of 1 kilometre (0.621372736649807 mi) were chosen so that people would always be within walking distance of a bus stop. Consequently each grid square is a semi-autonomous community, making a unique collective of 100 clearly identifiable neighbourhoods within the overall urban environment. The grid squares have a variety of development styles, ranging from conventional urban development and industrial parks to original rural and modern urban and pseudo-rural developments. Most grid squares have Local Centres, intended as local retail hubs and most with community facilities as well. Originally intended under the Master Plan to sit alongside the Grid Roads, the Local Centres were mostly in fact built embedded in the communities and some are becoming unviable as a result of this and pressure from the new hypermarkets.
Roads and cycleways
RoundaboutRoundabout
A roundabout is the name for a road junction in which traffic moves in one direction around a central island. The word dates from the early 20th century. Roundabouts are common in many countries around the world...
junctions were built at intersections because the grid roads
Milton Keynes grid road system
The Milton Keynes grid road system is a network of national speed limit, fully landscaped routes that form the top layer of the street hierarchy for both for private and public transport in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire...
were intended to carry large volumes of traffic: this type of junction is efficient at dealing with these volumes. The major roads are dual carriageway
Dual carriageway
A dual carriageway is a class of highway with two carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation...
, the others are single carriageway. Along one side of each single-carriageway grid road there is a (grassed) reservation to permit dualling or additional transport infrastructure at a later date. The edges of each grid square are landscaped and densely planted, some additionally have berm
Berm
A berm is a level space, shelf, or raised barrier separating two areas. Berm originates in the Middle Dutch and German berme and came into usage in English via French.- History :...
s. The purpose of the berms is to reduce traffic noise for adjacent residents, but traffic noise can be significant at many locations even some distance from the grid roads. Traffic movements are fast, with relatively little congestion since there are alternative routes to any particular destination. The national speed limit applies on dual carriageway sections of the grid roads (70 mile per hour) and most single carriageway grid roads (60 mile per hour), although some single carriageway speed limit
Speed limit
Road speed limits are used in most countries to regulate the speed of road vehicles. Speed limits may define maximum , minimum or no speed limit and are normally indicated using a traffic sign...
s have now been reduced to 40 mi/h. Consequently the risk to unwary pedestrians and turning traffic is significant, although pedestrians rarely need to cross grid roads at grade
At-grade intersection
An at-grade intersection is a junction at which two or more transport axes cross at the same level .-Traffic management:With areas of high or fast traffic, an at-grade intersection normally requires a traffic control device such as a stop sign, traffic light or railway signal to manage conflicting...
, as underpasses exist in several places along each stretch of all of the grid roads. However, the new districts to be added by the expansion plans for Milton Keynes
Expansion plans for Milton Keynes
In January 2004, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott announced the United Kingdom government's Expansion plans for Milton KeynesHe proposed that the population of Milton Keynes should double in the subsequent 20 years...
will depart from this model, with less separation and using 'at grade' crossings. Monitoring station data shows that pollution is lower than in other settlements of a similar size. This can be partially attributed to the large number of trees, especially as trees line grid roads in most places.
There is a separate cycleway network (the "redways
Milton Keynes redway system
The Milton Keynes redway system is a network of cycleways/paths for cyclists and pedestrians in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It is generally surfaced with red tarmac, and criss-crosses most of the city....
") that runs through the grid-squares and sometimes runs alongside the grid-road network. This was designed to segregate slow moving cycle and pedestrian traffic from fast moving motor traffic. In practice, it is mainly used for leisure cycling rather than commuting, mainly because the cycle routes include many underpasses beneath the grid-roads and because they take meandering scenic routes rather than straight lines. Despite what appears to be a desirable facility, rates of cycle commuting in Milton Keynes are well below the national average for urban areas. The detailed article
Milton Keynes redway system
The Milton Keynes redway system is a network of cycleways/paths for cyclists and pedestrians in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It is generally surfaced with red tarmac, and criss-crosses most of the city....
includes a critical appraisal.
Height
Expansion plans for Milton Keynes
In January 2004, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott announced the United Kingdom government's Expansion plans for Milton KeynesHe proposed that the population of Milton Keynes should double in the subsequent 20 years...
, believes that Central Milton Keynes
Central Milton Keynes
Central Milton Keynes is the central business district of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England and a civil parish in its own right.The district is approximately 2.5 km long by 1 km wide and occupies some of the highest land in Milton Keynes...
(and elsewhere) needs "landmark buildings" and has lifted the height restriction for the area. As a result, 14-storey
Storey
A storey or story is any level part of a building that could be used by people...
buildings have been built in the central business district. Some of the pedestrian underpasses have been closed in order to 'normalise' the streetscape of Central Milton Keynes and the character of the area is set to change under government pressure to increase densities of development. These changes are being opposed by pressure groups such as Urban Eden
Urban Eden
Urban Eden is a pressure group based in Milton Keynes, England, formed in 2006. The group's stated aim is to "promote a sustainable expansion to the original masterplan for Milton Keynes"...
and the Milton Keynes Forum.
Recent large-scale building includes The Pinnacle MK on Midsummer Boulevard. The Pinnacle is the largest office building to be constructed in Milton Keynes in 25 years. Other developments in the pipeline include a 20-storey tower as part of the West End One development and a casino tower adjacent to the Xscape centre.
Linear parks
River Great Ouse
The Great Ouse is a river in the east of England. At long, it is the fourth-longest river in the United Kingdom. The river has been important for navigation, and for draining the low-lying region through which it flows. Its course has been modified several times, with the first recorded being in...
and of its tributaries (the Ouzel
River Ouzel
The River Ouzel , also known as the River Lovat, is a river in England, and a tributary of the River Great Ouse. It rises in the Chiltern Hills and flows 20 miles north to join the Ouse at Newport Pagnell....
and some brooks) have been protected as linear park
Linear park
A linear park is a park that is much longer than wide. It is often formed as a part of a rails-to-trails conversion of railroad beds to rail trail recreational use...
s that run right through Milton Keynes. The Grand Union Canal
Grand Union Canal
The Grand Union Canal in England is part of the British canal system. Its main line connects London and Birmingham, stretching for 137 miles with 166 locks...
is another green route (and demonstrates the level geography of the area there is just one minor lock in its entire 10 miles (16.1 km) route through from Fenny Stratford
Fenny Stratford
Fenny Stratford is a constituent town of Milton Keynes, ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire, England and in the Civil Parish of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford. Originally an independent town, it was included in the Milton Keynes "designated area" area in 1967...
to the "Iron Trunk" Aqueduct
Aqueduct
An aqueduct is a water supply or navigable channel constructed to convey water. In modern engineering, the term is used for any system of pipes, ditches, canals, tunnels, and other structures used for this purpose....
over the Ouse at Wolverton
Wolverton
Wolverton is part of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England.Wolverton may also refer to:Places in England:*Wolverton, Dorset*Wolverton, Kent*Wolverton, Hampshire*Wolverton, Shropshire*Wolverton, WarwickshirePlaces in the United States:...
. The Milton Keynes redway system
Milton Keynes redway system
The Milton Keynes redway system is a network of cycleways/paths for cyclists and pedestrians in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It is generally surfaced with red tarmac, and criss-crosses most of the city....
of cycleways and footpaths uses these and other routes. The Park system
Park system
A park system, also known as an open space system, is a network of open spaces which are connected by public walkways, bridleways or cycleways. In modern landscape practice, the park system concept is being overtaken by the idea of planning greenways which run through urban and rural areas.One of...
was designed by landscape architect
Landscape architect
A landscape architect is a person involved in the planning, design and sometimes direction of a landscape, garden, or distinct space. The professional practice is known as landscape architecture....
Peter Youngman, who also developed landscape precepts for the whole town: groups of grid squares were to be planted with different selections of trees and shrubs in order to give them distinct identities. However the landscaping of parks and of the grid roads was evolved under the leadership of Neil Higson, who from 1977 took over as Chief Landscape Architect and made the original grand but not entirely practical landscape plan more subtle. A policy of creating "settings, strings, beads" for landscape features was introduced: 'settings' for historic villages and landscape features, 'strings' of landscape to make the linear parks hang together and 'beads' of public space
Public space
A public space is a social space such as a town square that is open and accessible to all, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, age or socio-economic level. One of the earliest examples of public spaces are commons. For example, no fees or paid tickets are required for entry, nor are the entrants...
where residents might linger. Higson also made the landscaping of the Grid Roads, one of the features of Milton Keynes, more subtle, with 'windows' cut into the roadside planting so that motorists travelling through had a sense of the major town they were in; early critics had said of Milton Keynes 'there is no there there', as the town could not be seen by the motorist just passing through. Now that the trees and shrubs have matured, the skill and lavish scale of the Grid Road planting makes a dramatic and welcome change from the monotony of many British towns and cities.
"City in the forest"
The original Development Corporation design concept aimed for a "forest city" and its foresters planted millions of trees from its own nursery in Newlands in the following years. As of 2006, the urban area has 20 million trees. Following the winding upLiquidation
In law, liquidation is the process by which a company is brought to an end, and the assets and property of the company redistributed. Liquidation is also sometimes referred to as winding-up or dissolution, although dissolution technically refers to the last stage of liquidation...
of the Development Corporation the lavish landscapes of the Grid Roads and of the major parks were transferred to The Parks Trust, a charity
Foundation (charity)
A foundation is a legal categorization of nonprofit organizations that will typically either donate funds and support to other organizations, or provide the source of funding for its own charitable purposes....
which is independent from the municipal authority and which was intended to resist pressures to build on the parks over time. The Parks Trust is endowed with a portfolio of commercial properties, the income of which pay for the upkeep of the green spaces, a maintenance model which has attracted international attention.
Further development plans
In January 2004, Deputy Prime MinisterDeputy Prime Minister
A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some counties, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, but is significantly different, though both...
John Prescott
John Prescott
John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott is a British politician who was Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007. Born in Prestatyn, Wales, he represented Hull East as the Labour Member of Parliament from 1970 to 2010...
announced the Government's plan to double the population of Milton Keynes by 2026. He appointed English Partnerships
English Partnerships
English Partnerships was the national regeneration agency for England, performing a similar role on a national level to that fulfilled by Regional Development Agencies on a regional level...
to do so, taking planning controls away from Milton Keynes Borough Council
Milton Keynes (borough)
The Borough of Milton Keynes is a unitary authority and borough in south central England, at the northern tip of the South East England Region. For ceremonial purposes, it is in the county of Buckinghamshire...
and making EP the statutory planning authority. Their proposal for the next phase of expansion moves away from grid squares to large scale, mixed use, higher density development. The more detailed article
Expansion plans for Milton Keynes
In January 2004, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott announced the United Kingdom government's Expansion plans for Milton KeynesHe proposed that the population of Milton Keynes should double in the subsequent 20 years...
expands on the details of their proposals. As the first stage in that plan, the Government expanded the boundaries of the designated area, adding large green-field expansion sites to the east and west that are to be developed by 2015.
In June 2004 Milton Keynes Partnership Committee (MKPC), was created by the Government and is a committee of the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), the national housing and regeneration agency for England. MKPC was created to ensure a co-ordinated approach to planning and delivery of growth and development in the ‘new city’.
The Partnership brings together Milton Keynes Council, HCA, Local Strategic Partnership representatives from the health, community and business sectors and independent representation.The role of MKPC is to co-ordinate and implement the delivery of growth and ensure that homes, infrastructure, jobs and community facilities are provided as part of a joined up approach.
The day-to-day activities of MKPC are carried out by its staff of management, professional and technical experts, known collectively as Milton Keynes Partnership (MKP).
Culture
National Bowl
The National Bowl is an entertainment venue in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The site was a former clay-pit , filled in and raised to form an amphitheatre using sub-soil excavated by the many new developments in the area and it has a current maximum capacity of 65,000...
is a 65,000 capacity venue for large scale events.
The 1,400 seat Milton Keynes Theatre
Milton Keynes Theatre
Milton Keynes Theatre is a large theatre in Milton Keynes . It opened on 4 October 1999, 25 years after the campaign for a new theatre first started....
opened in 1999. The theatre has an unusual feature: the ceiling can be lowered closing off the third tier (gallery) to create a more intimate space for smaller scale productions. There are further performance spaces in Bletchley, Wolverton, Leadenhall, Shenley Church End
Shenley Church End
Shenley Church End is a village, district and civil parish in Milton Keynes England. Together with its neighbouring parish, Shenley Brook End and the districts of Shenley Wood and Shenley Lodge, the districts are collectively known as "The Shenleys".-History:...
, Stantonbury
Stantonbury
Stantonbury is a district of Milton Keynes, ceremonial Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated at the northern edge, between Great Linford and Wolverton...
and Walton Hall.
In Wavendon
Wavendon
Wavendon is a village and civil parish in the south east of the Borough of Milton Keynes and ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire, England. The village name is an Old English language word, and means 'Wafa's hill'. In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 969 the village was recorded as Wafandun. The...
, on the southeast edge of the town, The Stables provides a venue for jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
, folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, rock, classical, pop and world music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
. It is closely associated with jazz artists Cleo Laine
Cleo Laine
Dame Cleo Laine, Lady Dankworth, DBE is a jazz singer and an actress, noted for her scat singing and vocal range...
and John Dankworth
John Dankworth
Sir John Phillip William Dankworth, CBE , known in his early career as Johnny Dankworth, was an English jazz composer, saxophonist and clarinetist...
. The venue also hosts an annual summer camp
Summer camp
Summer camp is a supervised program for children or teenagers conducted during the summer months in some countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer camp are known as campers....
for young musicians.
Another music venue
Music venue
A music venue is any location used for a concert or musical performance. Music venues range in size and location, from an outdoor bandshell or bandstand or a concert hall to an indoor sports stadium. Typically, different types of venues host different genres of music...
is The Pitz Club in the Woughton
Woughton
Woughton is a civil parish in south central Milton Keynes, ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire, England. It takes its name from the original ecclesiastic parish of Woughton and its original village, Woughton on the Green....
Centre, Leadenhall. It usually features a mixture of punk, alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
, and heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
.
There are two museums, the Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park is an estate located in the town of Bletchley, in Buckinghamshire, England, which currently houses the National Museum of Computing...
museum of wartime cryptography, and the Milton Keynes Museum
Milton Keynes Museum
Milton Keynes Museum is an independent local museum in the parish of Wolverton and Greenleys in Milton Keynes, England. It is mostly run by volunteers with a small number of paid staff.The museum is housed in a former Victorian farmstead....
, which includes the Stacey Hill Collection of rural life that existed before the foundation of the new town.
The town also has a literature scene, with groups like Speakeasy meeting regularly and hosting performance events, and the town's only poetry magazine, Monkey Kettle
Monkey Kettle
Monkey Kettle is a poetry, prose and arts magazine based in Milton Keynes. Issues are usually 52 pages in length, printed in black and white and released twice a year...
coming out twice a year. In addition, two performance poetry
Performance poetry
Performance poetry is poetry that is specifically composed for or during a performance before an audience. During the 1980s, the term came into popular usage to describe poetry written or composed for performance rather than print distribution.-History:...
groups exist in the town Poetry Kapow!, an offshoot of Monkey Kettle though now independent of the parent organisation, specialising in live, multi-discipline, interactive poetry/ art/ music events, usually featuring slams; and Tongue in Chic, a regular open mic poetry event which features headline poets such as Rachel Pantechnicon and John Hegley
John Hegley
John Richard Hegley is an English performance poet, comedian, musician and songwriter.-Early life:He was born in the Newington Green area of Islington, London, England, into a Roman Catholic household. He was brought up in Luton and Bristol...
. Between them, the two groups supply members of Bardcore, a semi-professional group of 4–6 poets who work collaboratively on performance poetry projects.
In May 2011, the outgoing Mayor, Debbie Brock announced the appointment of Mark Niel as the first official Milton Keynes' Poet Laureate (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-13502872).
In July 2010, Milton Keynes' first independent Central Arts Centre was opened by Radio One DJ Jo Whiley
Jo Whiley
Johanne "Jo" Whiley is a British radio disc jockey and television presenter. She was the host of the long running weekday Jo Whiley Show on Radio 1.-Early life and education:...
. The centre is regenerated from the disused Central Bus Station and former Chicago Rock Cafe. It is home to the existing "Buszy" Skate Plaza, which is where the name for the regenerated venue has come from. It is managed and operated by Make a Difference a community interest company which in 2011 was awarded a "Big Society" award for their positive activities and opportunities for young people and the wider community. The Buszy is the social enterprise arm of Make a Difference. All profits raised by the cultural activity at the venue are re-invested into Make a Difference. The venue hosts independent cinema, live performance, gigs, art shows/exhibitions, dance activity, a thrift shop, office and conference facilities and the city's only social enterprise hub.
Milton Keynes also boasts several choir
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
s the OU Choir, the Milton Keynes Chorale, the New English Singers, the Cornerstone Choir, Quorum, and others, along with a variety of amateur drama groups, and amateur musical theatre groups.
In 1981, the main shopping area in the town centre was used as the filming location for the music video to Cliff Richard's
Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard, OBE is a British pop singer, musician, performer, actor, and philanthropist who has sold over an estimated 250 million records worldwide....
hit Wired for Sound
Wired for Sound
Wired for Sound is a 1981 album by Cliff Richard. The album spent 25 weeks in the UK album charts in 1981, peaking at number 4 on release....
.http://learningfrommiltonkeynes.com/2008/12/22/cliff-richard-is-wired-for-sound-in-mk/
Milton Keynes Forum is the registered civic society
Civic society
In the United Kingdom a civic society is a voluntary body or society which aims to represent the needs of a local community.A civic society may campaign for high standards of planning of new buildings or traffic schemes, conservation of historic buildings, and may present awards for good standards...
for the town.
Public sculpture
Philip Jackson (sculptor)
Philip Henry Christopher Jackson CVO is an award-winning Scottish sculptor, noted for his modern style and emphasis on form. Acting as Royal Sculptor to Queen Elizabeth II, his sculptures appear in numerous UK cities, as well as Argentina and Switzerland.His twice life-size bronze statue of...
, Nicolas Moreton
Nicolas Moreton
Nicolas Moreton is a British artist born in 1961 in Watford, Hertfordshire. Predominantly a stone carver, two of his sculptures are in permanent public locations in Milton Keynes....
, Ronald Rae
Ronald Rae
Ronald Rae is a British sculptor born in Ayr, Scotland, in 1946. Works, by hand, in granite. His largest work to date is the 20 tonne Lion of Scotland. Solo exhibitions include Regents Park, London and Holyrood Park, Edinburgh...
and Elisabeth Frink
Elisabeth Frink
Dame Elisabeth Jean Frink, DBE, CH, RA was an English sculptor and printmaker...
.
Education
The Open UniversityOpen University
The Open University is a distance learning and research university founded by Royal Charter in the United Kingdom...
's headquarters are based in the Walton Hall district, though as this is a distance learning institution, the only students resident on campus are approximately 200 full-time postgraduates. Cranfield University
Cranfield University
Cranfield University is a British postgraduate university based on two campuses, with a research-oriented focus. The main campus is at Cranfield, Bedfordshire and the second is the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom based at Shrivenham, Oxfordshire. The main campus is unique in the United...
, an all-postgraduate institution, is in nearby Cranfield
Cranfield
Cranfield is a village and civil parish in north west Bedfordshire, England, between Bedford and Milton Keynes. It has a population of 4,909, and is in Central Bedfordshire District....
, Bedfordshire. Milton Keynes College
Milton Keynes College
Milton Keynes College is a general further education and training college, serving the Borough of Milton Keynes. It also serves the surrounding areas...
provides further education
Further education
Further education is a term mainly used in connection with education in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is post-compulsory education , that is distinct from the education offered in universities...
up to foundation degree
Foundation degree
The Foundation Degree is a vocational qualification introduced by the government of the United Kingdom in September 2001, which is available in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
level, however a Postgraduate Certificate in Education
Postgraduate Certificate in Education
The Postgraduate Certificate in Education is a one-year course in England, Wales and Northern Ireland for undergraduate degree holders that allows them to train to be a teacher....
course is available; run in partnership with and accredited by Oxford Brookes University
Oxford Brookes University
Oxford Brookes University is a new university in Oxford, England. It was named to honour the school's founding principal, John Brookes. It has been ranked as the best new university by the Sunday Times University Guide 10 years in a row...
.
In the early-1990s a purpose built polytechnic
Polytechnic (United Kingdom)
A polytechnic was a type of tertiary education teaching institution in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. After the passage of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 they became universities which meant they could award their own degrees. The comparable institutions in Scotland were...
was opened at Kents Hill in Milton Keynes, opposite the Open University's Walton Hall site. At around the time the existing Polytechnics converted to Universities, "MK Poly" merged with the former Leicester Polytechnic, De Montfort University
De Montfort University
De Montfort University is a public research and teaching university situated in the medieval Old Town of Leicester, England, adjacent to the River Soar and the Leicester Castle Gardens...
and the site was rebranded the DMU MK site. However in recent years, DMU closed the MK site and the Open University has expanded to take over the buildings.
Although the town does not yet have its own conventional local university, its founders hope that the new University Centre Milton Keynes
University Centre Milton Keynes
The University Centre Milton Keynes is a small higher education institute in Milton Keynes, England that is formally part of Milton Keynes College. The centre was opened on 29 September 2008: its long term aim is to be the seed for a new, independent university in Milton Keynes...
will be the seed for a future 'Milton Keynes University'. It is currently the UK's largest population centre without its own university proper.
Like many parts of the UK, the state secondary schools in Milton Keynes are Comprehensive school
Comprehensive school
A comprehensive school is a state school that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude. This is in contrast to the selective school system, where admission is restricted on the basis of a selection criteria. The term is commonly used in relation to the United...
s, although schools in the rest of Buckinghamshire still use the Tripartite System
Tripartite System
The Tripartite System was the arrangement of state funded secondary education between 1944 and the 1970s in England and Wales, and from 1947 to 2009 in Northern Ireland....
. Results are above the national average, though below that of the rest of Buckinghamshire but the demography
Demography
Demography is the statistical study of human population. It can be a very general science that can be applied to any kind of dynamic human population, that is, one that changes over time or space...
of Milton Keynes is also far closer to the national average than is the latter. Access to selective schools is still possible in Milton Keynes as the grammar schools in Buckingham and Aylesbury accept some pupils from within the unitary authority area, with Buckinghamshire County Council operating bus services to ferry pupils to the schools.
The Safety Centre
Safety Centre
Safety Centre Ltd is a purpose-built interactive safety centre in Milton Keynes, opened in 1994. Primarily it provides safety education to visiting schools and youth groups via its full-size interactive demonstrations, known as Hazard Alley...
is a purpose-built interactive centre which provides safety education to visiting schools and youth groups via its full-size interactive demonstrations known as Hazard Alley.
Communications and media
Milton Keynes has two commercial radioCommercial broadcasting
Commercial broadcasting is the broadcasting of television programs and radio programming by privately owned corporate media, as opposed to state sponsorship...
stations, Heart Home Counties, covering Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Northamptonshire and MKFM, which started in June 2011 covering Milton Keynes and the surrounding areas. BBC Three Counties Radio
BBC Three Counties Radio
BBC Three Counties Radio is the BBC Local Radio service for the English counties of Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire...
is the local BBC Radio
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...
station, covering Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, but has different programming from the Bow Brickhill
Bow Brickhill
Bow Brickhill is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It is a short distance south east of Milton Keynes itself....
transmitter at breakfast. CRMK Online is a voluntary station broadcasting on the Internet.
For television, the area is in the overlap between the Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
and the Sandy
Sandy, Bedfordshire
Sandy is a small market town and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England. It is between Cambridge and Bedford, and on the A1 road from London to Edinburgh. The area is dominated by a range of hills known as the Sand Hills. The River Ivel runs through Sandy. The dedication of the Anglican church is to...
transmitters and so receives BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
South and BBC East, and ITV Central and Anglia
Anglia Television
Anglia Television is the ITV franchise holder for the East Anglia franchise region. Although Anglia Television takes its name from East Anglia, its transmission coverage extends beyond the generally accepted boundaries of that region. The station is based at Anglia House in Norwich, with regional...
. Signal quality is weak in many areas due to distance and "terrain shadow". It was for this reason among others that Milton Keynes has one of the first Cable TV
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
networks in the UK. However, the cable network is now ageing and in need of modernisation to cope with the imminent digital TV switchover; many residents have already opted for roof-top aerials and satellite dishes. All homes in the post-designation and/or post expansion areas of Milton Keynes are already on-net cable homes but (as of Jan 2011) is analogue only. Virgin Media, which leases the cable network from Openreach until 2012, have yet to announce any plans for the service thereafter. The digital switchover for the Sandy transmitter took place in two phases over March/April 2011.
Milton Keynes has two free-to-residents local newspapers, the Milton Keynes Citizen, which is twice-weekly in some areas, and the MK News
MK News
The MK News is a local weekly free newspaper based in Milton Keynes. MK News was launched in August 2002 and is delivered to homes across the Milton Keynes urban area and to commuters at Milton Keynes Central railway station. It is delivered on Wednesdays...
, a weekly.
In the early days of land-line broadband, parts of Milton Keynes were so far from the BT exchanges as to have a poor or no service. Recent work by BT to enhance its network (including FTTC and FTTP BT Infinity) should see the issue resolved for up to 33% of customers before end of 2012 – but the Eastern & Western Expansion Areas, plus rural exchanges such as Woburn Sands are in the "final third of roll-outs", meaning upgrades there won't occur until the 2017 time frame at the earliest.
A survey in spring 2011 reported that the performance of the broadband-over-3G service provided to customers in Milton Keynes was the slowest of the towns/cities surveyed.
Sport
Milton Keynes has professional teams in football (Milton Keynes Dons F.C.Milton Keynes Dons F.C.
.Milton Keynes Dons Football Club is an English professional football club founded in 2004 and based since 2007 at Stadium mk, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire...
), ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
(Milton Keynes Lightning
Milton Keynes Lightning
The Milton Keynes Lightning is an ice hockey team from Milton Keynes, England, currently playing in the semi-professional English Premier Ice Hockey League...
), and in basketball (Milton Keynes Lions
Milton Keynes Lions
The Milton Keynes Lions, officially called Prestige Homes Milton Keynes Lions due to sponsorship, is a basketball team which represents Milton Keynes in the British Basketball League, the top level men's basketball league in the United Kingdom. The franchise’s only trophy success to-date is the BBL...
), and the Formula One
Formula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
motor-racing team (Red Bull Racing
Red Bull Racing
Red Bull Racing is a Formula One racing team based in Milton Keynes, England which currently holds an Austrian licence. It is, along with Scuderia Toro Rosso, one of two teams owned by beverage company Red Bull GmbH. The team have won two Constructors' Championship titles, in and , becoming the...
) is based in the town. It is represented at amateur level in many sports, some at national level. For details see Sport in Milton Keynes
Sport in Milton Keynes
Sport in Milton Keynes covers a range of professional and amateur sport in the Borough of Milton Keynes. There are professional teams in football, ice hockey and basketball...
. Milton Keynes is also home to the Xscape
Xscape (building)
Xscape buildings are large, strikingly designed and unusually shaped buildings. Typically they contain a real snow indoor ski slope, leisure facilities and related shops...
indoor ski slope.
Senior football is a new arrival in Milton Keynes. There had been several non-league teams based in the area over the years, but these proved unpopular and it was not until the late 1990s that it looked as though Milton Keynes would have a senior side. Local businessman Pete Winkelman
Pete Winkelman
Pete Winkelman is currently the chairman of football club Milton Keynes Dons, as well as managing director of the property development consortium Inter MK that was responsible for developing the Denbigh North district of Milton Keynes...
approached several senior clubs in and near London about a move to Milton Keynes as part of the proposed construction of a new retail development. He got his wish in May 2002 when Wimbledon FC
Wimbledon F.C.
Wimbledon Football Club was an English professional association football club from Wimbledon, south-west London. Founded in 1889 as Wimbledon Old Central Football Club, the club spent most of its history in amateur and semi-professional non-League football before being elected to the Football...
were given permission by the F.A. to relocate to Milton Keynes
Relocation of Wimbledon F.C. to Milton Keynes
Wimbledon Football Club was an English professional football club from Wimbledon, south-west London. Founded in 1889, the club spent most of its history in amateur and semi-professional non-League football prior to a "fairytale" rise through the divisions following election to The Football League...
56 miles (90.1 km) away from their home borough of Merton
London Borough of Merton
The London Borough of Merton is a borough in southwest London, England.The borough was formed under the London Government Act in 1965 by the merger of the Municipal Borough of Mitcham, the Municipal Borough of Wimbledon and the Merton and Morden Urban District, all formerly within Surrey...
. Wimbledon moved into the National Hockey Stadium
National Hockey Stadium
The National Hockey Stadium was a sports stadium in Milton Keynes, United Kingdom, with a nominal capacity of around 4,000 seats . It was used by England Hockey as their national stadium from 1995 to 2003 and as a professional football stadium from 2003 to 2007...
in September 2003 as a temporary home until a new, larger stadium could be built. A year later, Wimbledon FC became Milton Keynes Dons, and three years after that they moved into a new 22,000-seat stadium known as stadium mk in the Denbigh district of south Milton Keynes.
In December 2009, the English FA awarded 'Candidate Host City' status to Milton Keynes, as part of the English 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup bid. Had England been selected for the tournament, stadium MK would have hosted some games. For this to have happened, the stadium capacity would need to be have been increased to 44,000. The right to host the FIFA World Cup 2018 was won by Russia.
Centre
As a key element of the New Town vision, Milton Keynes has a purpose built centre, with a very large "covered high street" shopping centre, theatre, art gallery
Art gallery
An art gallery or art museum is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art.Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection...
, two multiplex cinemas, hotels, business district, ecumenical church, Borough Council offices
Milton Keynes (borough)
The Borough of Milton Keynes is a unitary authority and borough in south central England, at the northern tip of the South East England Region. For ceremonial purposes, it is in the county of Buckinghamshire...
and central railway station
Milton Keynes Central railway station
Milton Keynes Central railway station serves Central Milton Keynes and the surrounding area of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. The station is located on the West Coast Main Line between the stations of Bletchley and Wolverton, both of which are also within Milton Keynes. The station is served by...
.
Other amenities
- Milton Keynes has a 125-mile (200-km) network of cycleways/footpathsSegregated cycle facilitiesSegregated cycle facilities are marked lanes, tracks, shoulders and paths designated for use by cyclists from which motorised traffic is generally excluded...
for pedestrians and cyclists called the Redway systemMilton Keynes redway systemThe Milton Keynes redway system is a network of cycleways/paths for cyclists and pedestrians in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It is generally surfaced with red tarmac, and criss-crosses most of the city....
, generally surfaced with red tarmac, which criss-cross most of town. The national SustransSustransSustrans is a British charity to promote sustainable transport. The charity is currently working on a number of practical projects to encourage people to walk, cycle and use public transport, to give people the choice of "travelling in ways that benefit their health and the environment"...
cycle network runs to and through the town. The Swan's Way long distance pathLong-distance trailLong-distance trails are the longer recreational trails mainly through rural areas, used for non-motorised recreational travelling ....
does the same. - Central Milton Keynes is home to the National Badminton Centre and was formerly home to the National Hockey StadiumNational Hockey StadiumThe National Hockey Stadium was a sports stadium in Milton Keynes, United Kingdom, with a nominal capacity of around 4,000 seats . It was used by England Hockey as their national stadium from 1995 to 2003 and as a professional football stadium from 2003 to 2007...
. There is a new football stadium in the Denbigh district near Bletchley, home of Milton Keynes Dons F.C.Milton Keynes Dons F.C..Milton Keynes Dons Football Club is an English professional football club founded in 2004 and based since 2007 at Stadium mk, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire... - Near the station, the "Planet Ice" ice rinkIce rinkAn ice rink is a frozen body of water and/or hardened chemicals where people can skate or play winter sports. Besides recreational ice skating, some of its uses include ice hockey, figure skating and curling as well as exhibitions, contests and ice shows...
is used for professional and amateur ice hockeyIce hockeyIce hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
plus leisure skating and amateur figure skatingFigure skatingFigure skating is an Olympic sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform spins, jumps, footwork and other intricate and challenging moves on ice skates. Figure skaters compete at various levels from beginner up to the Olympic level , and at local, national, and international competitions...
. See Sport in Milton Keynes Ice hockey. - Also near the station there is a covered "urban skateboardSkateboardA skateboard is typically a specially designed plywood board combined with a polyurethane coating used for making smoother slides and stronger durability, used primarily for the activity of skateboarding. The first skateboards to reach public notice came out of the surfing craze of the early 1960s,...
ing" arena known as the Buszy, but the wide expanses and slopes of the station plaza remain very popular among skaters. - There is a high security prison, HMP WoodhillWoodhill (HM Prison)HM Prison Woodhill is a Category A men's prison and Young Offenders Institution, located in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. Woodhill Prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service.-History:...
, on the western boundary of the town. - Willen Lakeside Park hosts watersports, and the North Lake is a bird sanctuary.
- The Blue Lagoon Local Nature Reserve in Bletchley.
- Milton Keynes is covered by a high speed WiMaxWiMAXWiMAX is a communication technology for wirelessly delivering high-speed Internet service to large geographical areas. The 2005 WiMAX revision provided bit rates up to 40 Mbit/s with the 2011 update up to 1 Gbit/s for fixed stations...
network; which allows access to the internet from anywhere with signal coverage in Milton Keynes. and the central area additionally has a free WiFiWIFIWIFI is a radio station broadcasting a brokered format. Licensed to Florence, New Jersey, USA, the station is currently operated by Florence Broadcasting Partners, LLC.This station was previously owned by Real Life Broadcasting...
.
Original towns and villages
The remainder of the designated area outside the four main towns (Bletchley, Newport Pagnell, Stony Stratford, Wolverton) was largely rural farmland but included many picturesque North Buckinghamshire villages and hamlets: BradwellBradwell, Milton Keynes
Bradwell is an ancient village and modern civil parish that is part of Milton Keynes . For a time, although it predates it, Bradwell was the supporting village for Bradwell Abbey, a Benedictine priory, founded in 1155 and dissolved in about 1540.The village name is an Old English language word...
village and its Abbey
Bradwell Abbey
Bradwell Abbey or Bradwell Priory is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, urban studies site, district and civil parish in Milton Keynes, ceremonial Buckinghamshire, England. The site was once the location of a Benedictine priory, founded in 1155....
, Broughton
Broughton, Milton Keynes
Broughton is a historic village in North Buckinghamshire that has been a constituent element of Milton Keynes since the latter's designation in 1967; a civil parish; and modernly a suburb and new district of the 'city'.-History and Location:...
, Caldecotte
Caldecotte, Milton Keynes
Caldecotte is a district in the parish of Walton, Milton Keynes, in ceremonial Buckinghamshire that includes the site of an ancient village of the same name. It is also includes the larger part of Caldecotte Lake, an important balancing lake that manages flood water on the River Ouzel just as it...
, Fenny Stratford
Fenny Stratford
Fenny Stratford is a constituent town of Milton Keynes, ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire, England and in the Civil Parish of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford. Originally an independent town, it was included in the Milton Keynes "designated area" area in 1967...
, Great Linford
Great Linford
Great Linford is a historic village, district and civil parish in the northern part of Milton Keynes, England, between Wolverton and Newport Pagnell.-Great Linford village:...
, Loughton
Loughton, Milton Keynes
Loughton is an ancient village, modern district and civil parish in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The village spreads between Watling Street and the modern A5 road, to the west of, and about 1 mile from, the city centre....
, Milton Keynes Village
Middleton, Milton Keynes
Middleton is a district in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The district is centred on Milton Keynes Village, the village that gave its name to the 'New City' of Milton Keynes, which began to be developed during the late 1960s...
, New Bradwell
New Bradwell
New Bradwell is a Victorian era new village, modern district and civil parish that is now part of Milton Keynes , on its northern edge...
, Shenley Brook End
Shenley Brook End
Shenley Brook End is a village, district and civil parish in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. Together with its neighbouring parish, Shenley Church End and the districts of Shenley Wood and Shenley Lodge, the districts are collectively known as "The Shenleys".The name 'Shenley' is an Old...
, Shenley Church End
Shenley Church End
Shenley Church End is a village, district and civil parish in Milton Keynes England. Together with its neighbouring parish, Shenley Brook End and the districts of Shenley Wood and Shenley Lodge, the districts are collectively known as "The Shenleys".-History:...
, Simpson
Simpson, Milton Keynes
Simpson is a village and civil parish in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It was one of the former villages of Buckinghamshire that was included in the New City in 1967. It is located south of the centre, just north of Fenny Stratford, near Walton....
, Stantonbury
Stantonbury
Stantonbury is a district of Milton Keynes, ceremonial Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated at the northern edge, between Great Linford and Wolverton...
, Tattenhoe
Tattenhoe
Tattenhoe and Tattenhoe Park are adjacent districts of Milton Keynes, England, in the ancient parish of Tattenhoe. It is located at the south-western edge of the city, not far from the ruins of Snelshall Priory...
, Tongwell
Tongwell
Tongwell is a district and ancient hamlet in the civil parish of Great Linford in Milton Keynes, England.Historically, it was in the parish of Newport Pagnell but today it is separated from Newport Pagnell by the M1 motorway and has become part of Milton Keynes. Just a few farms remained before...
, Walton
Walton, Milton Keynes
Walton was a hamlet that is now a district and civil parish in Milton Keynes, ceremonial Buckinghamshire, England.The historic hamlet is located about four miles south of Central Milton Keynes and just east of Simpson, mostly along Walton Road in the modern Walnut Tree district...
, Water Eaton
Water Eaton, Milton Keynes
Water Eaton is an area of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England and in the civil parish of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford. It is to the south of Fenny Stratford, and is one of the ancient villages of Buckinghamshire that became incorporated as part of Milton Keynes in 1967.By the date of...
, Wavendon
Wavendon
Wavendon is a village and civil parish in the south east of the Borough of Milton Keynes and ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire, England. The village name is an Old English language word, and means 'Wafa's hill'. In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 969 the village was recorded as Wafandun. The...
, Willen
Willen
Willen is a district of Milton Keynes, England and is also one of the ancient villages of Buckinghamshire to have been included in the designated area of the New City in1967...
, Great and Little Woolstone
Woolstone, Milton Keynes
Great Woolstone and Little Woolstone are two historic villages in modern Milton Keynes, ceremonial Buckinghamshire now called jointly Woolstone or The Woolstones and forming the heart of a new district of that name....
, Woughton on the Green. The historical settlements have been focal points for the modern development of the new town. Every grid square has historical antecedents, if only in the field names. The more obvious ones are listed below and most have more detailed articles.
Bletchley was first recorded in the 12th century as Blechelai. Its station
Bletchley railway station
Bletchley is a railway station that serves the southern districts of Milton Keynes , and the north-eastern parts of the Buckinghamshire district of Aylesbury Vale....
was a major Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
junction (the London and North Western Railway
London and North Western Railway
The London and North Western Railway was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. It was created by the merger of three companies – the Grand Junction Railway, the London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway...
with the Oxford-Cambridge Varsity Line
Varsity Line
The Varsity Line is an informal name for the railway route that formerly linked the English university cities of Oxford and Cambridge, operated successively by the London and North Western Railway, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, and British Railways...
), leading to the substantial urban growth in the town in that period. It expanded to absorb the villages of Water Eaton and Fenny Stratford
Fenny Stratford
Fenny Stratford is a constituent town of Milton Keynes, ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire, England and in the Civil Parish of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford. Originally an independent town, it was included in the Milton Keynes "designated area" area in 1967...
.
Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park is an estate located in the town of Bletchley, in Buckinghamshire, England, which currently houses the National Museum of Computing...
was home to the Government Code and Cypher School during the Second World War. The famous Enigma code was cracked here, and the building housed what was arguably the world's first programmable computer, Colossus
History of computing hardware
The history of computing hardware is the record of the ongoing effort to make computer hardware faster, cheaper, and capable of storing more data....
. The house is now a museum of war memorabilia, cryptography and computing.
The Benedictine
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
Priory
Priory
A priory is a house of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or religious sisters , or monasteries of monks or nuns .The Benedictines and their offshoots , the Premonstratensians, and the...
of Bradwell Abbey
Bradwell Abbey
Bradwell Abbey or Bradwell Priory is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, urban studies site, district and civil parish in Milton Keynes, ceremonial Buckinghamshire, England. The site was once the location of a Benedictine priory, founded in 1155....
at Bradwell was of major economic importance in this area of north Buckinghamshire before the Dissolution of the Monasteries
Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...
. The routes of the medieval trackways (many of which are now Redways or bridleways) converge on the site from some distance. Nowadays there is only a small medieval chapel and a manor house occupying the site.
New Bradwell
New Bradwell
New Bradwell is a Victorian era new village, modern district and civil parish that is now part of Milton Keynes , on its northern edge...
, to the north of the medieval Bradwell (Abbey) and just across the canal and the railway to the east of Wolverton, was built specifically for railway workers. It has a working windmill
Windmill
A windmill is a machine which converts the energy of wind into rotational energy by means of vanes called sails or blades. Originally windmills were developed for milling grain for food production. In the course of history the windmill was adapted to many other industrial uses. An important...
, although technically this lies just a few yards outside of the parish boundary. The level bed of the old Wolverton to Newport Pagnell Line
Wolverton to Newport Pagnell Line
The Wolverton to Newport Pagnell Line was a railway branch line in Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom running from Wolverton on the London and North Western Railway to Newport Pagnell. The line fully opened to passengers in 1867, with an extension to Olney planned in 1865, but this scheme was...
ends here and has been converted to a Redway, making it a favourite route for cycling.
Great Linford
Great Linford
Great Linford is a historic village, district and civil parish in the northern part of Milton Keynes, England, between Wolverton and Newport Pagnell.-Great Linford village:...
appears in the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
as Linforde, and features a church dedicated to Saint Andrew
Saint Andrew
Saint Andrew , called in the Orthodox tradition Prōtoklētos, or the First-called, is a Christian Apostle and the brother of Saint Peter. The name "Andrew" , like other Greek names, appears to have been common among the Jews from the 3rd or 2nd century BC. No Hebrew or Aramaic name is recorded for him...
, dating from 1215. Today, the outer buildings of the 17th century manor house
Manor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...
form an Arts Centre
Arts centre
An art centre or arts center is distinct from an art gallery or art museum. An arts centre is a functional community centre with a specific remit to encourage arts practice and to provide facilities such as theatre space, gallery space, venues for musical performance, workshop areas, educational...
, and Linford Manor
Linford Manor
Linford Manor is an old mansion or manor house converted into a recording studio complex in Great Linford, Milton Keynes, England. It is now owned by Pete Winkelman who is chairman of football club....
is a prestigious recording studio.
Milton Keynes Village
Middleton, Milton Keynes
Middleton is a district in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The district is centred on Milton Keynes Village, the village that gave its name to the 'New City' of Milton Keynes, which began to be developed during the late 1960s...
is the original village to which the New Town owes its name. The original village is still evident, with a pleasant thatched pub, village hall
Village hall
In the United States, a village hall is the seat of government for villages. It functions much as a city hall does within cities.In the United Kingdom, a village hall is usually a building within a village which contains at least one large room, usually owned by and run for the benefit of the local...
, church and traditional housing. The area around the village has reverted to its original name of Middleton, as shown on old maps of the 1700s. The oldest surviving domestic building in the area, a 14th century manor house, is here.
There has been a market in Stony Stratford
Stony Stratford
Stony Stratford is a constituent town of Milton Keynes and is a civil parish with a town council within the Borough of Milton Keynes. It is in the north west corner of Milton Keynes, bordering Northamptonshire and separated from it by the River Great Ouse...
since 1194 (by charter of King Richard I
Richard I of England
Richard I was King of England from 6 July 1189 until his death. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Count of Nantes, and Overlord of Brittany at various times during the same period...
). The Rose and Crown Inn at Stratford is reputedly the last place the Princes in the Tower
Princes in the Tower
The Princes in the Tower is a term which refers to Edward V of England and Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York. The two brothers were the only sons of Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville alive at the time of their father's death...
were seen alive.
The manor house of Walton
Walton, Milton Keynes
Walton was a hamlet that is now a district and civil parish in Milton Keynes, ceremonial Buckinghamshire, England.The historic hamlet is located about four miles south of Central Milton Keynes and just east of Simpson, mostly along Walton Road in the modern Walnut Tree district...
village, Walton Hall
Walton Hall, Milton Keynes
Walton Hall is a district in Milton Keynes, in the English county of Buckinghamshire, and is the location of the campus and offices of The Open University. The University campus covers 48 hectares and the first buildings were designed by Maxwell Fry & Jane Drew in 1969.It is in the ancient parish...
, is the headquarters of the Open University
Open University
The Open University is a distance learning and research university founded by Royal Charter in the United Kingdom...
and the tiny parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
(deconsecrated) is in its grounds.
The tiny Parish Church (1680) at Willen
Willen
Willen is a district of Milton Keynes, England and is also one of the ancient villages of Buckinghamshire to have been included in the designated area of the New City in1967...
contains the only unaltered building by the architect and physicist Robert Hooke
Robert Hooke
Robert Hooke FRS was an English natural philosopher, architect and polymath.His adult life comprised three distinct periods: as a scientific inquirer lacking money; achieving great wealth and standing through his reputation for hard work and scrupulous honesty following the great fire of 1666, but...
. Nearby, there is a Buddhist Temple and a Peace Pagoda
Peace Pagoda
A Peace Pagoda is a Buddhist stupa designed to provide a focus for people of all races and creeds, and to help unite them in their search for world peace. Most have been built under the guidance of Nichidatsu Fujii , a Buddhist monk from Japan and founder of the Nipponzan-Myōhōji Buddhist Order...
. The district borders the River Ouzel
River Ouzel
The River Ouzel , also known as the River Lovat, is a river in England, and a tributary of the River Great Ouse. It rises in the Chiltern Hills and flows 20 miles north to join the Ouse at Newport Pagnell....
: there is a large balancing lake
Balancing lake
A balancing lake is a term used in the U.K. describing an element of an urban drainage system used to control flooding by temporarily storing flood waters...
here, to capture flash flood
Flash flood
A flash flood is a rapid flooding of geomorphic low-lying areas—washes, rivers, dry lakes and basins. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a storm, hurricane, or tropical storm or meltwater from ice or snow flowing over ice sheets or snowfields...
s before they cause problems downstream on the River Great Ouse
River Great Ouse
The Great Ouse is a river in the east of England. At long, it is the fourth-longest river in the United Kingdom. The river has been important for navigation, and for draining the low-lying region through which it flows. Its course has been modified several times, with the first recorded being in...
. The north basin is a wildlife sanctuary and a favourite of migrating aquatic birds. The south basin is for leisure use, favoured by wind surfers and dinghy sailors. The circuit of the lakes is a favoured "fun run".
The original Wolverton
Wolverton
Wolverton is part of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England.Wolverton may also refer to:Places in England:*Wolverton, Dorset*Wolverton, Kent*Wolverton, Hampshire*Wolverton, Shropshire*Wolverton, WarwickshirePlaces in the United States:...
was a medieval settlement just north and west of today's town. The Ridge and Furrow
Ridge and furrow
Ridge and furrow is an archaeological pattern of ridges and troughs created by a system of ploughing used in Europe during the Middle Ages. The earliest examples date to the immediate post-Roman period and the system was used until the 17th century in some areas. Ridge and furrow topography is...
pattern of agriculture can still be seen in the nearby fields and the Saxon (rebuilt in 1819) Church of the Holy Trinity still stands next to the Norman Motte and Bailey site. Modern Wolverton was a 19th century New Town built to house the workers at the Wolverton railway works
Wolverton railway works
Wolverton railway works was established in Wolverton, Buckinghamshire, by the London and Birmingham Railway Company in 1838 at the midpoint of the 112 mile-long route from London to Birmingham...
(which built engines and carriages for the London and North Western Railway
London and North Western Railway
The London and North Western Railway was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. It was created by the merger of three companies – the Grand Junction Railway, the London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway...
).
Economy, demographics, geography and politics
Data on the economy, demographics and politics of Milton Keynes are collected at the Borough level and are detailed at Economy of the Borough and Demographics of the Borough. However, since the urban area is predominant in the Borough, it is reasonable to assume that, other than for agriculture, the figures are broadly the same. For the borough as a whole, the service sector (including energy and construction) is the largest, followed by manufacturing (which includes hunting and forestry).Milton Keynes is one of the more successful (per capita) economies in the South East, with a gross value added
Gross value added
Gross Value Added ' is a measure in economics of the value of goods and services produced in an area, industry or sector of an economy...
per capita index that was 47% higher than the national average (2005 data). Service industries dominate the economy, making it susceptible to economic downturn.
The population is significantly younger than the national averages. According to 2005 estimates, the ethnic makeup of the Borough is 88.0% White
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
, 4.7% South Asian
British Asian
British Asian is a term used to describe British citizens who descended from mainly South Asia, also known as South Asians in the United Kingdom...
, 3.5% Black
Black British
Black British is a term used to describe British people of Black African descent, especially those of Afro-Caribbean background. The term has been used from the 1950s to refer to Black people from former British colonies in the West Indies and Africa, who are residents of the United Kingdom and...
, 2.1% Mixed Race, 1.7% Chinese or other.
Marshall
Marshall Amplification
Marshall Amplification is a British company, founded by drummer Jim Marshall, that designs and manufactures music amplifiers, brands personal headphones/earphones , and, after acquiring Natal Drums, drums and bongos. Marshall amplifiers, and specifically their guitar amplifiers, are among the most...
valve
Vacuum tube
In electronics, a vacuum tube, electron tube , or thermionic valve , reduced to simply "tube" or "valve" in everyday parlance, is a device that relies on the flow of electric current through a vacuum...
amplifiers and some speaker cabinets
Guitar speaker
A guitar speaker is a loudspeaker – specifically the driver part – designed for use in or with the guitar amplifier of an electric guitar...
are hand-built in Bletchley, Milton Keynes
Bletchley, Milton Keynes
Bletchley is a constituent town of Milton Keynes, England. It is part of the Borough of Milton Keynes unitary authority, in the ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire. It is situated in the south-west of Milton Keynes but still retains a distinctive identity...
.
Modern parishes and districts
The Borough of Milton Keynes is fully parishedCivil parish
In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...
. These are the parishes, and the districts they contain, within Milton Keynes itself. For a list of parishes in the Borough, see Borough of Milton Keynes (Rest of the borough)
- Bletchley and Fenny StratfordBletchley and Fenny StratfordBletchley and Fenny Stratford is a civil parish with a town council, in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It was formed in 2001 from the unparished area of Milton Keynes, and according to the 2001 census had a population of 13,971....
: Brick fields, Central Bletchley, Denbigh NorthDenbigh NorthDenbigh is a district in Milton Keynes, ceremonial Buckinghamshire, England, to the north of Fenny Stratford and on the eastern side of the West Coast Main Line and Bletchley proper. It is in the civil parish of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford and is generally regarded as part of Bletchley...
, Denbigh East, Denbigh West, Fenny Lock, Fenny StratfordFenny StratfordFenny Stratford is a constituent town of Milton Keynes, ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire, England and in the Civil Parish of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford. Originally an independent town, it was included in the Milton Keynes "designated area" area in 1967...
, Granby, Mount Farm, Water EatonWater Eaton, Milton KeynesWater Eaton is an area of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England and in the civil parish of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford. It is to the south of Fenny Stratford, and is one of the ancient villages of Buckinghamshire that became incorporated as part of Milton Keynes in 1967.By the date of... - BradwellBradwell, Milton KeynesBradwell is an ancient village and modern civil parish that is part of Milton Keynes . For a time, although it predates it, Bradwell was the supporting village for Bradwell Abbey, a Benedictine priory, founded in 1155 and dissolved in about 1540.The village name is an Old English language word...
: Bradwell, Bradwell Common, Bradwell village, Heelands, Rooksley - Bradwell AbbeyBradwell AbbeyBradwell Abbey or Bradwell Priory is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, urban studies site, district and civil parish in Milton Keynes, ceremonial Buckinghamshire, England. The site was once the location of a Benedictine priory, founded in 1155....
: Bradwell Abbey, Kiln Farm, Stacey Bushes, Two Mile AshTwo Mile AshTwo Mile Ash is a district in north west Milton Keynes, two miles south of Stony Stratford, just off Watling Street. The district was named after the Two Mile Ash toll gate on Watling Street. It is one of the larger districts, but a large part of its area is taken up by an 18-hole golf course....
, Wymbush - BroughtonBroughton, Milton KeynesBroughton is a historic village in North Buckinghamshire that has been a constituent element of Milton Keynes since the latter's designation in 1967; a civil parish; and modernly a suburb and new district of the 'city'.-History and Location:...
and Milton Keynes (shared parish council): Atterbury, Brook Furlong, BroughtonBroughton, Milton KeynesBroughton is a historic village in North Buckinghamshire that has been a constituent element of Milton Keynes since the latter's designation in 1967; a civil parish; and modernly a suburb and new district of the 'city'.-History and Location:...
, Fox Milne, MiddletonMiddleton, Milton KeynesMiddleton is a district in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The district is centred on Milton Keynes Village, the village that gave its name to the 'New City' of Milton Keynes, which began to be developed during the late 1960s...
(including Milton Keynes Village), Northfield, Oakgrove, Pineham - Campbell ParkCampbell ParkCampbell Park is a district in east-central and south-central Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England, the central park for Milton Keynes, and a civil parish that includes other districts. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 13,364...
: Campbell Park, Fishermead, Newlands, Oldbrook, Springfield, Willen and Willen LakeWillenWillen is a district of Milton Keynes, England and is also one of the ancient villages of Buckinghamshire to have been included in the designated area of the New City in1967...
, Winterhill, WoolstoneWoolstone, Milton KeynesGreat Woolstone and Little Woolstone are two historic villages in modern Milton Keynes, ceremonial Buckinghamshire now called jointly Woolstone or The Woolstones and forming the heart of a new district of that name.... - Central Milton KeynesCentral Milton KeynesCentral Milton Keynes is the central business district of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England and a civil parish in its own right.The district is approximately 2.5 km long by 1 km wide and occupies some of the highest land in Milton Keynes...
- Great LinfordGreat LinfordGreat Linford is a historic village, district and civil parish in the northern part of Milton Keynes, England, between Wolverton and Newport Pagnell.-Great Linford village:...
: Blakelands, Bolbeck Park, Conniburrow, Downs Barn, Downhead Park, Great Linford, Giffard Park, Neath Hill, Pennyland, Tongwell, Willen Park - Kents Hill, Monkston and BrinklowKents Hill, Monkston and BrinklowKents Hill, Monkston and Brinklow is a civil parish in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It was formed in 2001 as part of a general parishing of the Borough. The population according to the 2001 census was 4,545....
: Brinklow, Kents Hill, Kingston, Monkston - LoughtonLoughton, Milton KeynesLoughton is an ancient village, modern district and civil parish in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The village spreads between Watling Street and the modern A5 road, to the west of, and about 1 mile from, the city centre....
: Loughton, Loughton Lodge, Great Holm, Knowlhill (including the BowlNational BowlThe National Bowl is an entertainment venue in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The site was a former clay-pit , filled in and raised to form an amphitheatre using sub-soil excavated by the many new developments in the area and it has a current maximum capacity of 65,000...
) - New BradwellNew BradwellNew Bradwell is a Victorian era new village, modern district and civil parish that is now part of Milton Keynes , on its northern edge...
- Shenley Brook EndShenley Brook EndShenley Brook End is a village, district and civil parish in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. Together with its neighbouring parish, Shenley Church End and the districts of Shenley Wood and Shenley Lodge, the districts are collectively known as "The Shenleys".The name 'Shenley' is an Old...
: Emerson Valley, Furzton, Kingsmead, Shenley Brook End, Snelshall, TattenhoeTattenhoeTattenhoe and Tattenhoe Park are adjacent districts of Milton Keynes, England, in the ancient parish of Tattenhoe. It is located at the south-western edge of the city, not far from the ruins of Snelshall Priory...
, Tattenhoe Park, WestcroftWestcroftWestcroft is a district in the west side of Milton Keynes, in the civil parish of Shenley Brook End.Westcroft District Centre is a large retail development that serves this side of Milton Keynes... - Shenley Church EndShenley Church EndShenley Church End is a village, district and civil parish in Milton Keynes England. Together with its neighbouring parish, Shenley Brook End and the districts of Shenley Wood and Shenley Lodge, the districts are collectively known as "The Shenleys".-History:...
: Crownhill, Grange Farm, Hazeley, Medbourne, Oakhill, Oxley, Shenley Church End, Woodhill - SimpsonSimpson, Milton KeynesSimpson is a village and civil parish in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It was one of the former villages of Buckinghamshire that was included in the New City in 1967. It is located south of the centre, just north of Fenny Stratford, near Walton....
: Ashland, Simpson, West Ashland - StantonburyStantonburyStantonbury is a district of Milton Keynes, ceremonial Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated at the northern edge, between Great Linford and Wolverton...
: Bancroft/Bancroft Park, Blue Bridge, Bradville, Linford Wood, Stantonbury, Stantonbury Fields - Stony StratfordStony StratfordStony Stratford is a constituent town of Milton Keynes and is a civil parish with a town council within the Borough of Milton Keynes. It is in the north west corner of Milton Keynes, bordering Northamptonshire and separated from it by the River Great Ouse...
: Fullers Slade, Galley Hill, Stony Stratford - WaltonWalton, Milton KeynesWalton was a hamlet that is now a district and civil parish in Milton Keynes, ceremonial Buckinghamshire, England.The historic hamlet is located about four miles south of Central Milton Keynes and just east of Simpson, mostly along Walton Road in the modern Walnut Tree district...
: Brown's Wood, CaldecotteCaldecotte, Milton KeynesCaldecotte is a district in the parish of Walton, Milton Keynes, in ceremonial Buckinghamshire that includes the site of an ancient village of the same name. It is also includes the larger part of Caldecotte Lake, an important balancing lake that manages flood water on the River Ouzel just as it...
, Old Farm Park, Tilbrook, Tower Gate, Walnut Tree, Walton, Walton HallWalton Hall, Milton KeynesWalton Hall is a district in Milton Keynes, in the English county of Buckinghamshire, and is the location of the campus and offices of The Open University. The University campus covers 48 hectares and the first buildings were designed by Maxwell Fry & Jane Drew in 1969.It is in the ancient parish...
, Walton Park, Wavendon Gate - West BletchleyWest BletchleyWest Bletchley is a district and civil parish that covers the western part of Bletchley, a constituent town of Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, England. The parish covers that part of Bletchley that is south of Standing Way , west of the West Coast Main Line and north of Water Eaton Brook...
: Far Bletchley, Old Bletchley, West Bletchley, Denbigh Hall - Wolverton and GreenleysWolverton and GreenleysWolverton and Greenleys is a civil parish with a Town Council in the borough of Milton Keynes, England. It is north-west of central Milton Keynes, and according to the 2001 census had a population of 8,253...
: Greenleys, Hodge Lea, Stonebridge, WolvertonWolvertonWolverton is part of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England.Wolverton may also refer to:Places in England:*Wolverton, Dorset*Wolverton, Kent*Wolverton, Hampshire*Wolverton, Shropshire*Wolverton, WarwickshirePlaces in the United States:...
, Old Wolverton - WoughtonWoughtonWoughton is a civil parish in south central Milton Keynes, ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire, England. It takes its name from the original ecclesiastic parish of Woughton and its original village, Woughton on the Green....
: Beanhill, Bleak Hall, Coffee Hall, Eaglestone, Elfield Park, Leadenhall, Netherfield, Peartree Bridge, Redmoor, Tinkers Bridge, Woughton on the Green, Woughton Park, Woughton village.
Closest cities, towns and villages
Notable people
- Alan TuringAlan TuringAlan Mathison Turing, OBE, FRS , was an English mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, and computer scientist. He was highly influential in the development of computer science, providing a formalisation of the concepts of "algorithm" and "computation" with the Turing machine, which played a...
, played a significant role in the creation of the modern computer. He lodged at the Crown Inn, Shenley Brook EndShenley Brook EndShenley Brook End is a village, district and civil parish in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. Together with its neighbouring parish, Shenley Church End and the districts of Shenley Wood and Shenley Lodge, the districts are collectively known as "The Shenleys".The name 'Shenley' is an Old...
, while working at Bletchley ParkBletchley ParkBletchley Park is an estate located in the town of Bletchley, in Buckinghamshire, England, which currently houses the National Museum of Computing...
. - Andrew BaggaleyAndrew BaggaleyAndrew Baggaley is a professional table tennis player from Milton Keynes.Andrew Baggaley is England's leading medal winner of all time in the Commonwealth Games winning 2 Gold Medals in Manchester, England , 1 Silver Medal in Melbourne, Australia , and 1 Silver and 1 Bronze Medal in Delhi, India...
, English table tennis champion - Sam BaldockSam BaldockSamuel Edward T. "Sam" Baldock is an English professional football striker who plays for West Ham United in the Football League Championship....
, professional footballer for Milton Keynes DonsMilton Keynes Dons F.C..Milton Keynes Dons Football Club is an English professional football club founded in 2004 and based since 2007 at Stadium mk, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire... - Errol BarnettErrol BarnettErrol Barnett is an anchor and correspondent for CNN International. While initially based at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, since August of 2010 he has been anchoring 'Prism' at the networks production hub in Abu Dhabi. The one-hour news program has focused on the Arab Uprising...
, an anchor and correspondent for CNNCNNCable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
is from Milton Keynes. He lived in Crownhill and attended Holmwood First School and Two Mile Ash Middle SchoolMiddle schoolMiddle School and Junior High School are levels of schooling between elementary and high schools. Most school systems use one term or the other, not both. The terms are not interchangeable...
before moving to the U.S.. - CapdownCapdownCapdown are a band from Milton Keynes, England. Originally known as Soap, their songs have political themes as alluded to by their name, which is short for Capitalist Downfall...
, the ska punkSka punkSka punk is a fusion music genre that combines ska and punk rock. It achieved its highest level of commercial success in the United States in the late 1990s. Ska-core is a subgenre of ska punk, blending ska with hardcore punk.The characteristics of ska punk vary, due to the fusion of contrasting...
band, come from and formed in Milton Keynes in 1997 - Chris ClarkeChristopher Clarke (athlete)Christopher Clarke is an English sprinter who numerously has represented Great Britain and Northern Ireland at junior and senior level. At club level he represents Marshall Milton Keynes AC and is also higher claim to Newham and Essex Beagles A.C...
, English sprinter. - FellsilentFellsilentFellsilent were a British experimental metal band from Milton Keynes. They possessed a technical, polyrhythmic style similar to bands such as Meshuggah and Sikth. The band also focused on some melodic elements...
, the metal band, come from and formed in Milton Keynes in 2003 - Adam FicekAdam FicekAdam Ficek is an English musician who performs under the 'Roses Kings Castles' name, and was a song writer and member of Babyshambles....
, drummer of London band BabyshamblesBabyshamblesBabyshambles are an English indie rock band established in London. The band was formed by Pete Doherty during a hiatus from his former band The Libertines, but Babyshambles has since become his main project . Babyshambles has released two albums, three EPs and a number of singles... - Lee HasdellLee HasdellLee Hasdell is a former British mixed martial artist, kickboxer and promoter. He promoted the first professional mixed martial arts events in the United Kingdom. Lee Hasdell began his professional career as a Kickboxer in 1989, eventually winning three British Kickboxing titles...
, professional Mixed martial artist and Kickboxer, and Pioneer of Mixed martial artist in the UK. - James HildrethJames HildrethJames Charles Hildreth is an English cricketer who plays for Somerset County Cricket Club. He attended Millfield School, Somerset. He is a right-handed batsman and occasional right-arm medium pace bowler. Hildreth represented England at all youth levels including the 2003-04 Under-19 World cup...
, cricketer who plays for SomersetSomersetThe ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
and has played for England - Liam KellyLiam Kelly (footballer born 1990)Liam Kelly is an English-born Scottish footballer who currently plays as a midfielder for Kilmarnock.-Career:Kelly began his career at Milton Keynes Dons...
, professional footballer for Kilmarnock F.C.Kilmarnock F.C.Kilmarnock Football Club is a Scottish football team based in the town of Kilmarnock, Ayrshire. Founded in 1869, "Killie" is the oldest club currently in the Scottish Premier League. Home matches are played at Rugby Park... - Shelly McErlaine and Karen PooleKaren PooleKaren Poole is an English songwriter and singer, who gained initial fame with her younger sister, Shelly Poole, as the duo / band, Alisha's Attic.-List of compositions:...
of Alisha's AtticAlisha's AtticAlisha's Attic were an English duo of the 1990s and early 2000s. The two members were sisters Shelly McErlaine and Karen Poole, born in Barking and Chadwell Heath respectively. Their father is Brian Poole of 1960s group Brian Poole and the Tremeloes...
lived in Milton Keynes, and their parents still live in Neath Hill - Gordon MoakesGordon MoakesGordon Peter Moakes is an English multi-instrumentalist and backing vocalist for English indie rock band Bloc Party.-Bloc Party:...
, the bassist for the London-based rock band Bloc PartyBloc PartyBloc Party are a British Indie rock band, composed of Kele Okereke , Russell Lissack , Gordon Moakes , and Matt Tong...
. - Clare NasirClare NasirClare Nasir is a British weather forecaster for ITV London and can be seen on London Today and London Tonight.-Early life:...
, the meteorologist, TV and radio personality, was born in Milton Keynes in 1970 - Craig PickeringCraig PickeringCraig Keith Pickering is an English sprinter, currently based at the Marshall Milton Keynes Athletics Club; however, he also runs for the University of Bath and Newham and Essex Beagles. He is a former student of the Royal Latin School and got pointed in the sprinting direction by his PE teacher...
, English sprinter - Sarah PinboroughSarah PinboroughSarah Pinborough is an English-born horror writer whose books have found success in the United States. Her works have previously been compared to that of Bentley Little, Richard Laymon and Dean Koontz. She also writes fantasy novels for children under the name Sarah Silverwood.-Biography:Pinborough...
, English horror writer - Mark RandallMark Randall (footballer)Mark Leonard Randall is an English professional footballer who currently plays for Chesterfield FC after being released by Arsenal at the end of the 2010-11 season...
, professional footballer for ChesterfieldChesterfield F.C.Chesterfield Football Club is an English football club based in Chesterfield, Derbyshire. The club currently plays in Football League One, the third tier of English football. Despite being the fourth oldest Football League club in England, they have spent most of their existence in the lower... - Greg RutherfordGreg RutherfordGregory James "Greg" Rutherford is an English athlete from Milton Keynes who competes in long jump and 100 metres. His home club is Marshall Milton Keynes AC.Rutherford competed in the 2006 Commonwealth Games for England...
, English long jumper - Sam TomkinsSam TomkinsA pre-season unofficial friendly match provided Tomkins his first experience against top-flight opposition as he came off the bench during Lee Briers' testimonial match in a 30–22 loss to Warrington Wolves. Noble followed this up by providing Tomkins, aged 19, with his first team debut on 12 May...
, Wigan WarriorsWigan WarriorsWigan Warriors is an English rugby league club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester. The club's first team squad competes in the engage Super League and the team are the current Challenge Cup holders as of the 27th August 2011....
and EnglandEngland national rugby league teamThe England national rugby league team represent England in international rugby league football tournaments. The team has now seen a revival, having largely formed from the Great Britain team, who also represented Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The team is run under the auspices of the Rugby Football...
international rugby leagueRugby leagueRugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
player, was born in Milton Keynes. - Ian PoulterIan PoulterIan James Poulter is an English professional golfer who is a member of the world's top two professional golf tours, the U.S.-based PGA Tour and the European Tour. He has previously been as high as number five in the world rankings...
, PGA & European Tour golf professional. Member of the 2010 European Ryder Cup Team. - Jack Trevor StoryJack Trevor StoryJack Trevor Story was a British novelist, publishing prolifically from the 1940s to the 1970s. His best-known work is the story for Alfred Hitchcock's comedy The Trouble With Harry, the Albert Argyle trilogy , and his Horace Spurgeon novels Jack Trevor Story (30 March 1917 - 5 December 1991) was a...
, novelist, was a long-term resident of Milton Keynes. - Kevin WhatelyKevin WhatelyKevin Whately is an English actor.Whately is known for his starring role as Neville Hope in the British television comedy Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, his role as Dr Jack Kerruish in the drama series Peak Practice, and as Robert "Robbie" Lewis in the crime dramas Inspector Morse and...
, actor, is a resident of Milton Keynes - Jo WhileyJo WhileyJohanne "Jo" Whiley is a British radio disc jockey and television presenter. She was the host of the long running weekday Jo Whiley Show on Radio 1.-Early life and education:...
, DJ for BBC Radio 2, is a resident of Milton Keynes. - Dan WheldonDan WheldonDaniel Clive "Dan" Wheldon was a British racing driver from England. He was the 2005 Indy Racing League IndyCar Series champion, and winner of the Indianapolis 500 in both 2005 and 2011...
, Indy car driver - Pete WinkelmanPete WinkelmanPete Winkelman is currently the chairman of football club Milton Keynes Dons, as well as managing director of the property development consortium Inter MK that was responsible for developing the Denbigh North district of Milton Keynes...
, Chairman of Milton Keynes DonsMilton Keynes Dons F.C..Milton Keynes Dons Football Club is an English professional football club founded in 2004 and based since 2007 at Stadium mk, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire...
Football Club and long term resident
Transport
Grand Union Canal
The Grand Union Canal in England is part of the British canal system. Its main line connects London and Birmingham, stretching for 137 miles with 166 locks...
between London and Birmingham provides a major axis in the design of Milton Keynes.
Milton Keynes is served by five railway stations, of which Milton Keynes Central is the one served by inter-city services. Wolverton
Wolverton railway station
Wolverton railway station serves northern Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, especially Stony Stratford, Wolverton and New Bradwell.The station is served by London Midland local services from Northampton to London on the West Coast Main Line. It is one of the five stations serving Milton Keynes...
, Milton Keynes Central and Bletchley
Bletchley railway station
Bletchley is a railway station that serves the southern districts of Milton Keynes , and the north-eastern parts of the Buckinghamshire district of Aylesbury Vale....
stations are on the West Coast Main Line
West Coast Main Line
The West Coast Main Line is the busiest mixed-traffic railway route in Britain, being the country's most important rail backbone in terms of population served. Fast, long-distance inter-city passenger services are provided between London, the West Midlands, the North West, North Wales and the...
, whilst Fenny Stratford
Fenny Stratford railway station
Fenny Stratford is a railway station that serves the Fenny Stratford area of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. It is on the Marston Vale Line that links Bletchley and Bedford.This station is one of five serving Milton Keynes. The others are , , and ....
and Bow Brickhill
Bow Brickhill railway station
Bow Brickhill railway station is a railway station that serves the village of Bow Brickhill in the Borough of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, and the Caldecotte, Tilbrook and Walton areas of south-east Milton Keynes itself. It is on the Bletchley — Bedford Marston Vale Line.The station is served by...
are on the Marston Vale Line
Marston Vale Line
The Marston Vale Line is the railway line from Bletchley to Bedford in England. It is one of two surviving passenger-carrying sections of the "Varsity Line" between Oxford and Cambridge....
. Woburn Sands railway station
Woburn Sands railway station
Woburn Sands railway station serves the villages of Woburn Sands and Wavendon in the borough of Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, England. It is on the Marston Vale Line between Bedford and Bletchley...
, also on the Marston Vale line, is just outside the urban area in the small town of Woburn Sands
Woburn Sands
Woburn Sands is a small town and civil parish that is mainly located in the Borough of Milton Keynes, England, and to the south-east of Milton Keynes itself, near Wavendon...
, but is still within the Borough of Milton Keynes.
The M1 motorway
M1 motorway
The M1 is a north–south motorway in England primarily connecting London to Leeds, where it joins the A1 near Aberford. While the M1 is considered to be the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the United Kingdom, the first road to be built to motorway standard in the country was the...
runs to the east of the town, and is served by junctions 13, 14, and 15A. The A5 road runs through the west of the town. Other main roads include the A509
A509 road
The A509 is a short A-class road for north-south journeys in south central England, forming the route from Kettering in Northamptonshire to the M1 and A5 in Milton Keynes....
, which links Milton Keynes with Wellingborough and Kettering, and the A421
A421 road
The A421 is an important road for east/west journeys across England. Together with the A428, the A43 and A34, it forms the route from Cambridge through Milton Keynes to Oxford...
which goes west to Buckingham
Buckingham
Buckingham is a town situated in north Buckinghamshire, England, close to the borders of Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire. The town has a population of 11,572 ,...
and east to Bedford
Bedford
Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire, in the East of England. It is a large town and the administrative centre for the wider Borough of Bedford. According to the former Bedfordshire County Council's estimates, the town had a population of 79,190 in mid 2005, with 19,720 in the adjacent town...
.
Many long-distance coaches stop at the Milton Keynes coachway
Milton Keynes Coachway
The Milton Keynes Coachway is situated on the A509 road close to Junction 14 of the M1 Motorway on the eastern edge of Milton Keynes, north Buckinghamshire, England offering coach services to cities, towns and airports on the M1 corridor and on into Scotland, to Heathrow and Gatwick airports, the...
, (beside M1 Junction 14), some 3.3 miles (5.3 km) from the centre (or 4 miles (6.4 km) from Milton Keynes Central station). There is also a park and ride
Park and ride
Park and ride facilities are car parks with connections to public transport that allow commuters and other people wishing to travel into city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system , or carpool for the rest of their trip...
car park on the site. Regional coaches stop at Milton Keynes Central.
The main bus operator is MK Metro
MK Metro
MK Metro was the main bus operator in Milton Keynes in the English county of Buckinghamshire. In February 2006, it was purchased by Arriva Shires & Essex...
, providing a number of routes which mainly pass through or serve Central Milton Keynes
Central Milton Keynes
Central Milton Keynes is the central business district of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England and a civil parish in its own right.The district is approximately 2.5 km long by 1 km wide and occupies some of the highest land in Milton Keynes...
. Milton Keynes is also served by Arriva
Arriva
Arriva plc is a multinational public transport company owned by Deutsche Bahn and headquartered in Sunderland, United Kingdom. It has bus, coach, train, tram and waterbus operations in 12 countries across Europe, employs more than 47,500 people and services over 1.5 billion passenger journeys each...
(which owns MK Metro but runs Arriva-branded services from Aylesbury
Aylesbury
Aylesbury is the county town of Buckinghamshire in South East England. However the town also falls into a geographical region known as the South Midlands an area that ecompasses the north of the South East, and the southern extremities of the East Midlands...
) and Stagecoach Group
Stagecoach Group
Stagecoach Group plc is an international transport group operating buses, trains, trams, express coaches and ferries. The group was founded in 1980 by the current chairman, Sir Brian Souter, his sister, Ann Gloag, and her former husband Robin...
which operates routes to Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
and Peterborough
Peterborough
Peterborough is a cathedral city and unitary authority area in the East of England, with an estimated population of in June 2007. For ceremonial purposes it is in the county of Cambridgeshire. Situated north of London, the city stands on the River Nene which flows into the North Sea...
. See Buses in Milton Keynes
Buses in Milton Keynes
The Buses in Milton Keynes and the services they operate, have a varied history involving five different companies. At the foundation of the 'New City' in 1967 and for some years afterwards, Milton Keynes was served by a rural bus service between and to the pre-existing towns. Apart from a...
for more information.
Milton Keynes is served by routes 6 and 51 on the National Cycle Network
National Cycle Network
The National Cycle Network is a network of cycle routes in the United Kingdom.The National Cycle Network was created by the charity Sustrans , and aided by a £42.5 million National Lottery grant. In 2005 it was used for over 230 million trips.Many routes hope to minimise contact with motor...
.
The nearest international airport
International airport
An international airport is any airport that can accommodate flights from other countries and are typically equipped with customs and immigration facilities to handle these flights to and from other countries...
is London Luton Airport
London Luton Airport
London Luton Airport is an international airport located east of the town centre in the Borough of Luton in Bedfordshire, England and is north of Central London. The airport is from Junction 10a of the M1 motorway...
which is accessible by route VT99 from MK Central station, this service runs with wheelchair accessible coaches. There is a direct rail connection to Birmingham International Airport
Birmingham International Airport (UK)
Birmingham Airport , formerly Birmingham International Airport is an airport located east southeast of Birmingham city centre, at Bickenhill in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull within the West Midlands, England...
. There is an aerodrome at Cranfield
Cranfield Airport
Cranfield Airport is an airfield just outside the village of Cranfield, south-west of Bedford in Bedfordshire, England. It was originally a World War II aerodrome, RAF Cranfield....
, 6 miles (10 km) from the centre. Although Milton Keynes is allocated an International Air Transport Association airport code of KYN, it does not actually have an airport. (There were proposals in 1971 for a third London airport at nearby Cublington
Cublington
Cublington is a village and one of 110 civil parishes within Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England. It is about seven miles north of Aylesbury. The village name is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means 'Cubbel's estate'. In the Domesday Book of 1086 it was recorded as Coblincote.The...
. Parliament rejected the recommendation in favour of a site at Maplin Sands
Maplin Sands
The Maplin Sands are mudflats on the northern bank of the Thames estuary, off Foulness Island, near Southend-on-Sea in Essex, England, though they actually lie within the neighbouring borough of Rochford...
, Foulness
Foulness
Foulness is an island on the east coast of Essex in England, which is separated from the mainland by narrow creeks. The large island had a usually resident population of 212 people in the 2001 census, who live in the settlements of Churchend and Courtsend, at the north end of Foulness. The island...
).
Twin towns
Bernkastel-KuesBernkastel-KuesBernkastel-Kues is a well-known winegrowing centre on the Middle Moselle in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
, Germany
AlmereAlmereAlmere is a planned city and municipality in the province of Flevoland, the Netherlands, bordering Lelystad and Zeewolde. The municipality of Almere comprises the districts Almere Stad, Almere Haven, Almere Buiten, Almere Hout, Almere Poort and Almere Pampus .Almere is the youngest city in the...
, Netherlands
Climate
Milton Keynes experiences an oceanic climateOceanic climate
An oceanic climate, also called marine west coast climate, maritime climate, Cascadian climate and British climate for Köppen climate classification Cfb and subtropical highland for Köppen Cfb or Cwb, is a type of climate typically found along the west coasts at the middle latitudes of some of the...
(Köppen climate classification
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by Crimea German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen himself, notably in 1918 and 1936...
Cfb) similar to almost all of the United Kingdom. Recorded temperature extremes range from 34.6 °C (94.3 °F) during July 2006, to as low as −20.6 °C on 25 February 1947. More recently the temperature fell to −16.3 °C on 20 December 2010
The nearest Met Office
Met Office
The Met Office , is the United Kingdom's national weather service, and a trading fund of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...
weather station is in Woburn
Woburn
-Canada:* Woburn, Toronto, Ontario, Canada** Woburn Collegiate Institute* Woburn, Quebec, Canada-England:* Woburn, Bedfordshire** Woburn Abbey** Woburn Safari Park* Woburn Sands, Buckinghamshire* Woburn Place, London* Woburn Square, London...
, located just outside the south eastern fringe of the Milton Keynes urban area.
See also
:Category:Milton Keynes- Central Milton KeynesCentral Milton KeynesCentral Milton Keynes is the central business district of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England and a civil parish in its own right.The district is approximately 2.5 km long by 1 km wide and occupies some of the highest land in Milton Keynes...
- Middleton (Milton Keynes Village)