Dirty Old Town – Dirty New
City:
This was the very first thing I ever wrote and had published about Milton Keynes. Accepted by what was The Bletchley Gazette which changed its name in the 1970’s to The Milton Keynes Gazette. Sadly this iconic publication is long since gone.
Do you know the song Dirty Old Town ?
I met my love by the gas works wall
Dreamed a dream by the old canal
I kissed my girl by the factory wall
Dirty old town
Dirty old town
Clouds are drifting across the moon
Spring's a girl from the streets at night
Dirty old town
Dirty old town
I heard a siren from the docks
Saw a train set the night on fire
I smelled the spring on the smoky wind
Dirty old town
Dirty old town
I'm gonna make me a good sharp axe
Shining steel tempered in the fire
I'll chop you down like an old dead tree
Dirty old town
Dirty old town
I met my love by the gas works wall
Dreamed a dream by the old canal
I kissed my girl by the factory wall
Dirty old town
Dirty old town
Dirty old town
Dirty old town
As a bit of a fan of the Pogues I like their version but such was not released until ten years after my article in the Milton Keynes Gazette.
In those early days of our New City it was like living on one giant building site. Mud everywhere ! I did not drive in those days but people were forever complaining of the need to wash their cars. No car washes the like of which we are familiar today, it was a case of a bucket, sponge and elbow grease. It was impossible to walk anywhere within the development area and the early estates of Tinkers Bridge, Bean Hill and Netherfield without bathing your shoes in liquid clay. Come rain or shine this was the case. I can’t speak for the ladies but each evening for we gents it was a case of how far the mud had risen up our trouser legs !
At the South of our New City was London Brick Company (Now Newton Leyes) where bricks
were baked and distributed all over the country to build houses and all the rest. Why there on the edge of Milton Keynes ? The designated area rested on the Oxford clay belt, it was this clay that was dug out of the ground, formed into bricks and cooked in giant kilns. It was the clay across the developing New City that created the mud we early residents were painted with every day.
I regarded the clay and its mud as an inconvenience and not a lot more. However, Milton Keynes Development Corporation was inundated with complaints within which there were those who threatened legal action and compensation. I am not sure that even Rumpole of the Bailey would have been able to win such a case. If you want to build a New City then mud from the construction sites has to be a fact of life so tough luck !
Today we call them Binmen, when I was a kid living in the West Midlands, in The Royal Borough of Sutton Coldfield to be precise, they were Dustmen. Released in 1960, I was nine years old, Lonnie Donegan had a great hit with My Old Man’s A Dustman. I am listening to the song on YouTube as I type this chapter.
Now here's a little story
To tell it is a must
About an unsung hero
That moves away your dust
Some people make a fortune
Others earn a mint
My old man don't earn much
In fact he's flippin' skint
Oh, my old man's a dustman
He wears a dustman's hat
He wears cor blimey trousers
And he lives in a council flat
He looks a proper narner
In his great big hobnail boots
He's got such a job to pull 'em up
That he calls them daisy roots
Some folk give tips at Christmas
And some of them forget
So when he picks their bins up
He spills some on the steps
Now one old man got nasty
And to the council wrote
Next time my old man went 'round there
He punched him up the throat
Oh, my old man's a dustman
He wears a dustman's hat
He wears cor blimey trousers
And he lives in a council flat
I say, I say Les' yeah ?
I 'er, I found a police dog in my dust bin
How do you know he's a police dog ?
He had a policeman with him
Though my old man's a dustman
He's got an 'eart of gold
He got married recently
Though he's eighty-six years old
We said "'ere, 'ang on dad
you're getting past your prime
He said well when you get to my age
It helps to pass the time oi !
My old man's a dustman
He wears a dustman's hat
He wears cor blimey trousers
And he lives in a council flat
I say, I say, I say huh ?
My dustbin's full of lillies
Well, throw them away then !
I can't, Lilly's wearing them
Now, one day while in a hurry
He missed a lady's bin
He hadn't gone but a few yards
When she chased after him
"What game do you think you're playing
She cried right from the heart
You missed me, am I too late ?
No, jump up on the cart !
My old man's a dustman
He wears a dustman's hat
He wears cor blimey trousers
And he lives in a council flat, I say I say, I say not you again !
My dustbin's absolutely full with toadstools
How do you know it's full ?
'Cause there's not mushroom inside !
He found a tiger's head one day
Nailed to a piece of wood
The tiger looked quite miserable
But I suppose he should
Just them from out the window
A voice began to wail
He said oi, where's me tiger's head ?
Four foot from 'is tail !
Oh, my old man's a dustman
He wears a dustman's hat
He wear cor blimey trousers
And he lives in a council flat
Next time you see a
dustman
Looking all pale and sad
Don't kick him in the dustbin
It might be my ole dad !
My Old Man was not a dustman, he was an accounts clerk. The Royal Borough of Sutton Coldfield was middle class, posh ! Being a dustman was not posh. I remember at school being told if we lads did not work hard at our lessons we would end up working as dustmen !
Why Dustmen and not Binmen ? Everyone in my childhood years had coal fires to heat their homes, Milton Keynes Development Corporation did not build houses on its new housing estates with open fires upon which to burn coal and other things.
Other things ? Well anything and everything. First thing in the morning my Dad (My Old Man) would take the previous day’s newspaper and screw up the sheets. These were placed in the fire grate around which he carefully placed thin pieces of wood forming what looked like a wigwam. Then striking a match everything was set fire to. Next task was to place some small bits of coal about the fire and hope that would catch alight. To help it Dad would draw the fire. That meant holding an open newspaper across the opening of the fire grate with a gap at the bottom to draw in air as the fire sent smoke up the chimney. Sounds a bit dangerous but that was what happened in every home every day. Once the fire was alight anything and everything that would burn was piled into the grate. Burning household rubbish which today we put into our bin bags saved having to buy so much coal.
Before this morning process could be undertaken every Dad in every house had to rake out the dust and ash from the previous day. This was tipped into the DUSTbin to be collected. Hence dustmen.
Society has changed. No more air polluting coal fires, no more burning that which can be recycled. No more class snobbery. No more dustmen, instead binmen. It is no secret that I admire the binmen working across Milton Keynes so very, very highly. I have written and praised their efforts many times. Milton Keynes The City Of Legend – our binmen are a living legend of which every Mkeneyan can be proud.
If only every person in our city worked as hard as they do what an incredible utopia we would all be living in. Burning all that rubbish on home fires in the 1950’s contributed to the climate change of the twenty-first century. We have some crazy weather patterns with rain, wind and temperatures of fire. No matter what our binmen are there doing their duty. The do not walk between houses collecting the wheelie bins and sacks, they run ! When David Taylor was mayor of Milton Keynes he spent a day shadowing the binmen. I am not sure I could shadow a bin lorry for even five minutes.
How many mayor today, how many councillors in any town or city across the country would shadow a binman ?
When the pandemic one of the first to lose his life was a Milton Keynes Binman. Many had to go into isolation. There were delays but still the amazing binmen did their duty serving our community.
I was a member of West Bletchley Council at the time. I proposed a motion of love thanking all key workers for what they were doing. Sadly Milton Keynes labour party hijacked this motion, twisted it for it s own political ends and wiped out the love and support I wanted the council to show. Deeply hurt and offended I resigned from the council.
Yes, Milton Keynes Binmen are a living legend in our city and something to be proud of. If they had their way this would not be a Dirty New City. But if others could have their way ours would be a Scruffy New City !
How far do you have to walk from your front door before you find your first piece of litter ? I challenge you to go out and do that.
Saint
Giles Church Tattenhoe is the most legendary and iconic church within the
entire city of Milton Keynes. There has been a place of worship on this site
for eight hundred years and the present building is six hundred years old. It is a very special place, in a later twist
of our kaleidoscope I will tell you more.
On the same day as I took this photograph my camera snapped this !
he car park adjacent to Saint Giles Church is notorious for litter ! Why ? There is a well maintained litter bin but ignorance appears not to be aware it is there ! Go to Saint Giles any morning, best to go in the morning as later in the day Tattenhoe Council will have cleared the litter, and you will find cigarette packets, beer cans and McDonald’s paraphernalia. NO McDonald’s is not responsible for the litter it is its criminal customers who are guilty. Dropping litter is a crime. Conviction in a magistrate’s court can result in a fine of up to £2,500 but when did the scruffy city of Milton Keynes impose such a fine from its court on Silbury Boulevard ?
I
am not a saint, a goody-goody but I honestly believe I have never littered at
any time during my life. I therefore can not get inside the minds of those who
do. Dirty Old Town – Scruffy New City !
That is a legend we can do without !
Leon Recreation Ground, another iconic legendary place within our city. What idiot was responsible for this graffiti !
Graffiti is an act of criminal damage under the Criminal Damage Act 1971 and offenders can be punished with an unlimited fine. Milton Keynes is a city of legend, Bristol is the city of graffiti. We do not want to copy its example. Again I am not able to get inside the thinking of the criminals who think such behaviour is acceptable.
A quick Google on the subject of fly-posting: Fly-posting is the display of advertising material on buildings and street furniture without consent of the owner. Fly-posting is against the law and the police and our authorised officers can issue a fixed penalty notice of £80 for fly-posting offences - this is to help cover the costs of removal of the material.
So the advertisement for roofing services in this picture meets that definition. It has been in place, along with others in other locations for almost two years. Why has it not been removed ? Why has the illegal fly-poster not been called to account ?
Could it be that there are some within Milton Keynes A City Of Legend who want us to become Milton Keynes The Scruffy New City !
In a later chapter I’ll twist our kaleidoscope
and take a positive look at the legendary recycling we have within Milton
Keynes but for now watch this space, coming soon a look at some of the legendary
Milton Keynes members of parliament over the decades. That together with the
odd prime minister, well by today's standard aren’t ALL prime
ministers odd !
Do check the intricuction to MILTON KEYNES THE CITY OF LEGEND and have a look at my 1994 book NOT THE CONCRETE COWS. And celebrate our amazing city.
No comments:
Post a Comment