I NEED YOUR HELP. Take a read of the following DRAFT text. As I present my idea to those who can make it happen the more readers of this blog the more I can get them to take notice.
So..............
How old were you when you had your first pint in a pub ?
You’ll probably need to be of my aging generation for that question to have anything of relevance, the pub trade today in the third decade of the twenty-first century is nothing like that of 1967 when Milton Keynes was born.
So how old was I when I had my first pint in a pub ? I would have been sixteen and indeed in the year of 1967. NAUGHTY BOY ! A lawbreaker, the legal age to drink alcohol in a public house was eighteen.
In his book The Ultra Secret, F. W. Winterbotham says that The Three Trees was the watering hole of Bletchley Park’s codebreakers. During my time as a student teacher in Bletchley Park my watering hole and that of my mates was The Eight Belles. It was there we spent money from our student grant. (Note the wording student grant and not student loan. It is not only the pub trade that has declined in modern-day society !)
It was in 1977, ten years after my first illegal pint, that I learned to drive. I made a conscious decision to stop drinking alcohol as it simply did not equate with being behind the wheel of a car. If I had not taken this step then perhaps I could write another book: The Legendary Pubs of Milton Keynes. From Woughton on the Green to Milton Keynes Village all the way to the world famous Cock and Bull Inns of Stony Stratford our pubs have more legends per pint of beer than any other establishments in the land.
I want here to talk about three original pubs on Whaddon Way, Bletchley, and one which I am asking my readers to lift out of obscurity and celebrate its lost heritage.
Once upon a time there were three public houses on Whaddon Way; The Dolphin which is still there, The White Hart which today is the site for a school and The Satellite whose original building stands today accommodating a branch of the Co-op !
On 10th July 1961 America launched the world’s first telecommunications satellite TELSTAR. I believe it is still in Earth’s orbit but ceased functioning shortly after its launch. How many telecommunications satellites are orbiting the world today ? As kids in the summer of 1961 we used to mistune our valve operated family radio sets, listen to the squeaking static and say we were tuned into Telstar. My Dad I remember saying we should invest money in satellite communication as it was the future. A bit eccentric my Dad !
I am not a fan of technology and the way it controls our lives but I never drive a car without using a sat nav – Satellite Navigation System. Sometimes I set it to give me a route to a destination I am unfamiliar with but in general I like having the map silently on screen showing me where I am, the speed I am driving and the speed limit of the road. It is good to be able to check out where the petrol stations are and around breakfast time McDonald’s and its waiting hash browns. All of this comes from my little car being satellite connected to a twenty-first Telstar descendent up in the sky.
For many years the Satellite Pub stood proudly on Bletchley’s Whaddon Way celebrating Telstar and its theme tune from The Tornados. It was at the turn of the century that the pub trade went into decline, one of its victims was our iconic Satellite Pub. It became a branch of Morrissons Local, my son was its manager, then moved to become a branch of the Co-op. Today it is a lost and forgotten heritage of Milton Keynes.
Did you learn about the Rochdale Pioneers when you were at school ? In 1844 a group of mill workers who history has named The Rochdale Pioneers opened a little shop which was the first Co-operative Society store around which today our Whaddon Way satellite orbits. Here’s an iconic name from Milton Keynes legend, who knows who Wilf Griffin was ? As head of Milton Keynes Co-op in our city’s early days and having met him on a couple of occasions I can tell you he was a very special man. Google his name and you will not find anything. That is sad !
If Wilf was still around today I would not be
ending this twist of our Kaleidoscope in the way I am, Mr Griffin would have
come up with the idea way before and would not have left it as an idea, he
would have made it happen. It does not sit on land which was within his estate
and several decades after he left us but for certain Mr Bletchley aka Sir
Herbert Leon would never have allowed our legend to be lost.
I have writt en to the CEO of Co-op UK and to the branch manager. I have asked Iain Stewart MP and Milton Keynes Councillor Adam Rolfe if they would kindly write to both parties supporting the idea.
A BIT OF AN AFTER THOUGHT !
Milton Keynes is infested with silly little four wheeled robots scurrying all over the place delivering bags of crisps and the odd Mars Bar ! I presume they use satellite communication to dribble their way around our city streets. As a vegetarian I totally oppose the slaughter of any animal but a robotatarien I am not so show me the way to the robot abattoir and I heard them all down its road ! Beam me up Scotty !
I want to use this kaleidoscope chapter to get the Co-op to pace
a plaque adjacent to the shop’s entrance celebrating its heritage. NOTE: I am
not suggesting something from English Heritage which would be a complex and
lengthy process. This would be something from the Co-op as a gift to its
locality.
The Three Trees did not exist as a pub name until the late 80’s. The code breakers were long gone. The current building did not exist until the early 60’s. It was previously named the Shoulder of Mutton and replaced the original Shoulder of Mutton that was on the opposite side of Buckingham Road.
ReplyDeleteThe Satellite was named after Sputnik which was launched earlier.
You really ought to check your facts. There are enough local history sites.