happy birthday Milton Keynes

Milton Keynes is 50 years old today.  Anniemay and I have both been here a long time.

We have a certain nostalgia for the early days when children could cycle to school through fields and along cycle paths, without having to venture on to a road.  To get to get to the shops or work, we could telephone the ‘dial-a-bus’ service - and a bus would be diverted to our front door.  And every new resident would be given a £5 voucher to buy a tree for their garden (at that time you could buy a tree for £5.)

But things change, as they always do.

Now, much like anywhere else, cars dominate the school run.  The ‘dial-a-bus’ service was killed off - I once met the man who told me, rather proudly, that he was responsible for its demise.  A couple of years ago we had to take down a 40 year-old willow tree (planted by the original owner of our house) as it threatened to engulfed the whole back garden.

Milton Keynes, despite the dreams the planners had, is not perfect.  There’s much that annoys us about it.  But there’s still much to like about the place.  There is ‘real’ history and culture - you just have to know where to look for it.  Something you don’t have to look hard for are the trees and shrubs - more than 22 million of them.  

And of course, there are the concrete cows.

Here’s a list of 50 reasons to love MK. 

ps;  for fans of Father Ted, I changed the 'small = far away' sketch