If
I were to say the word DIARIST whose
name would immediately come into your mind ?
Ann
Frank who died in 1945 in Bergen-Belsen convention camp.
Samuel
Pepys who began writing his diary in 1600.
Or
perhaps Jeffrey Archer the former Conservative Member of Parliament and
millionaire author who added to his fortune writing a prison diary when he was
banged up in 2001 for perverting the course of justice.
Who
was perhaps the most prolific diary writer ?Queen Victoria wrote in excess of eight million words in her diary but
on her death in 1901 her daughter Princess Beatrice destroyed many of the books
in which her mother had told stories the family did not want to be in the
public domain.
I
wonder if Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II wrote a diary. I think she may well
have done but how many years will it be before it appears in print ?Not in my lifetime I am thinking.
This
is the diary of a nobody, David John Bekah Ashford writing under the pen-name
of Max Robinson. When it comes to being a nobody I am a mega star.
2023,
the year in which I will reach my seventy-third birthday. Flippin’ heck !The picture on the right (above) is how I
look but there are increasingly more days when I feel physically older. The
picture on the left was taken when I was sixteen and that is how I feel
mentally and is physically how I want to be. Who is responsible for dates
within the calendar ? If you believe Gilbert and Sullivan (Pirates of Penzance)
it is The Astronomer Royal and for my money he got things for me more than a
bit wrong. 3rd November 2023 will not be my seventy-third birthday
but the day when seventeen candles twinkle on my birthday cake.
2020
The Year That Never Was. Pandemic and lockdown. 2021 More of the same. 2022 on
a personal level this was a year of illness, twice admitted to hospital urgent
care and then in December falling over breaking my right arm, bruising my left
hand and breaking my nose – as if I am not ugly enough ! Perhaps I was simply
experiencing symptoms of old age.
2022
was a beautiful year as we celebrated our Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, sadly
followed by the passing of Her Majesty. Political chaos, are not politics and
chaos one and the same thing ? Liz Truss the shortest serving prime minister
our country has ever known. Industrial action, cost of living soaring like a
rocket to the moon. What will 2023 bring ? With our NHS in crisis, politicians
refusing to engage, Postman Pat on strike, with so many others striking and the
war in Ukraine affecting the world things do not look good. This nobody is
going to keep a diary to record all that happens.
Saturday 31st
December 2022:
Something
strange happened. I awoke in the very small hours, before 1am and reached for
my laptop to type up a dream I had just experiences.
I
had another dream on Saturday 24th September 2022, I dreamed the
plot for a story
WEALTH BEHIND BARS. I wrote something for the story every day
until Tuesday 15th November by which time I had penned 25,505 words.
I then set the story aside as MILTON KEYNES THE CITY OF LEGEND took over my
life. When that was published I began compiling my anthology POETRY THE MELODY
OF WORDS. I am in the final stages of checking the text ahead of offering it to
Amazon tomorrow. I will then return to Wealth Behind Bars.
I
am excited about returning to this story, I love the characters and the way
they develop within the story line but that story line is moving simultaneously
in multiple directions. How to draw everything together and bring the tale to
an end is going to be a problem. Was going to be a problem. Past tense. I have
just dreamed and typed up five hundred and twenty-eight words ending the story
and filling me with excitement as I bring the tale from November to its soon to
be January ending.
To end this introduction please join me on New Year Eve 2022 to say Happy
Eighth Birthday to my beautiful granddaughter Frances.
What
do you think the coming three hundred and sixty-five days have in store for us
all ?
We’ll
have a little chat about that in a moment but first I want you to write a 2023
Milton Keynes Doings List for yourself. To help you get started I am giving you
a couple of challenges.
ONE: Go
and find The Concrete Cows on Monks Way MK13 0PQ. Take a selfie and post it on
social media.
TWO: The
final chapter in MILTON KEYNES THE CITY OF LEGEND takes names from all Milton
Keynes waR memorials where addresses of the fallen are known and are compiled
to make MILTON KEYNES MAP OF HONOUR. Choose a street close to where you live,
walk its length a take from the memorials the names of those who gave their
young lives so you can live your old life and place them in your heart.
THREE: Put a
date in your diary: Friday 21st July. I’ll remind you nearer the and
fix the place
and time to meet. It will be dawn on Midsummer Boulevard, come a
join me watching the sun rise down the fundamental ley-line about which the
entire City of Milton Keynes was built.Let’s take a group selfie and add it to our City’s heritage.
That’s
three challenges isn’t it, not two ! WellI never was much good at Maths. Anyway, they serve as a good
introduction to what I now want to say. So read on my friends.
As
the year 2020 dawned I suggested we were about to enter the Roaring Twenties
with roaring being times of fun,
positivity and excitement but just how evil was the breath of tooth decay from
the lion that roared throughout the year. Pandemic. Lockdown. 2020 the year
that never was.
Last
year 2022 promised a beautiful and unique time, something our world had never
seen before as we looked forward to celebrating Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee,
what a happy time that celebration was. Within it Milton Keynes was awarded
a city charter. That was something I had hoped for across many, many years but
to make The City of Milton Keynes during such an event never again to be seen
made it well worth waiting for.
Then
so sadly shortly after the celebrations Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II passed
away, in time I am sure she will be known as Queen Elizabeth The Great. The way
everyone came together was an honour of thanks for Her Majesty’s long life and
service. When somebody dies it is not a time for tears and grief, it is a time
of celebration and thanks for all they achieved in their live.
2023
will see our new Monarch King Charles III visit Milton Keynes to confirm we are
now The City of Milton Keynes. I wonder what he will think of us all.
What
in your view is the most beautiful place in the City of Milton Keynes, beauty
both literal from the eye’s view and metaphosphoric from the heart ?
Christ
The Cornerstone on Saxon Gate is near the top of my list. As Prince of Wales oor
Monarch spoke of his wanting to be The Defender of Faith and he strongly alluded
to this in his Christmas broadcast. Faith does not have to mean religion. The
Church of Christ The Cornerstone was the first purpose built ecumenical church
in the country and as I view it both with my eyes and my heart it is a
reflection of the ecumenical diverse society that makes up Milton Keynes and is
at the core of our being a City.
Every
Thursday Christ The Cornerstone hosts blood donation sessions where people of
all
races, ages, creeds and colours come to donate a pint of blood and give it
with a gallon of love.
Every
week, down the road on Standing Way, University Hospital Milton Keynes uses one
hundred and fifteen pints of blood to care for its patients. During that year
of pandemic, 2022, Prime Minister Boris Johnson made a number of visits to our
hospital. Why chose Milton Keynes Hospital and not somewhere closer two Downing
Street ? Because while its official title is University Hospital Milton Keynes
in truth it is Amazing, University, Wonderful, Beautiful, Loving, Caring
Hospital Milton Keynes and unique within our NHS.
During
the frightening days of 2020 people stood on their doorsteps and clapped for
our NHS, posters loving key workers appeared everywhere, supermarkets offered
discounts for nurses shopping within their isles. We can now see how shallow
all that was, with the NHS in crisis where is the real love we need to be
giving ? The wave of love flows in both directions, can we in this New Year
allplease grab our surfboards and ride
that wave.
Not
a new year but September 1971, shortly after I came to live in the then infant
New City of Milton Keynes we first year trainee teachers were taken by bus to
Oxford of whose university our college was a satellite, for Freshers Day.
During that day we were given some words which we all took away firmly
implanted in our hearts.
DESIDERATA by Max Ehrman
GO PLACIDLY amid the
noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as
possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their
story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may
become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than
yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as
your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real
possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business
affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what
virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is
full of
heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign
affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and
disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield
you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline, be
gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees
and the stars; you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to
you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace
with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labours and
aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all
its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be
cheerful. Strive to be happy.
Desiderata
is Latin for DESIRED THINGS.Those words
have been central to my life since that day way back in September 1971 when as
a twenty year old youth they were given to me. It is actually written in my
will that they should be read at my funeral.
When
someone writes something, a book or a poem it becomes copyright for seventy
years after their death. Max Ehrman renounced allrights, he wanted as many people as possible
to take his desired things, share them and make them central to as many lives
as possible.
There
are two phrases within this beautiful poem which I often extract and quote to
people I meet.
You are a child of the universe no
less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.
and
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful
world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.
As
you make your New Year Resolution for 2023 take those words, place them in your
heart and look for what you consider to be the most beautiful place in the City
of Milton Keynes both literally as seen from the heart and metaphorically from
the heart.
For
EVERY copy sold a donation will be made to University Hospital Milton Keynes to
help care for children sick in its wards, send love to their parents and thank
our NHS staff who are caring for them. Royalties will then be used to send
SMILE cards to NHS staff, their patients and to parents who have a child sick
in hospital in eleven different locations around the world.
200,000
words within which I look at our City’s
legend and heritage from my point of
view then invite you to add your view to celebrate the phrase: WOULDN’T IT BE
NICE IF ALL CITIES WERE LIKE MILTON KEYNES.
Speak again next week. SATURDAY 7th January next year.
Milton Keynes The City Of Legend will be published in January. I am now working through the final draft. Given the current situation I would like to share this chapter. READ ON.
WARNING:
You may like to wear a pair of sunglasses as the turn of our Milton Keynes
Kaleidoscope in this chapter is going to be very bright !
I
have never in my life belonged to a trade union. I have never in my life been
on strike. In my lengthening life I have never supported the withdrawal of
labour, that is until now in the last couple of months of 2022. I am writing
these words on Wednesday 30th November 2022 and editing them on
Friday 16th December 2022.
I
am an old age pensioner living on a small fixed income but I would more than
happily see my income reduced by fifteen percent to help fund the nurses’ pay
claim.
We
are living through a financial crisis with people not being able to afford to
heat their homes, not able to put food on their tables. Lives are at risk.
Nurses are planning strike action, their first such since the days of Florence
Nightingale. Wind the clock back two years to the evil of the pandemic. We all
stood on our doorsteps and clapped for our NHS. Posters of love for the
National Health Service were everywhere, supermarkets gave discounts to
front-line workers. Today all are gone, all are forgotten. The shallow
happy-clappy support has fallen off the sleeves of those pretending to love our
NHS.
During
the pandemic the fear was that the NHS would be overwhelmed. It was not. The
front-line nursing staff went the extra mile to make sure that never happened.
The front-line nursing staff RAN the extra ONE HUNDRED miles to make sure that
never happened and to protect its patients.
My
family owes a debt it can never hope to repay to our National Health Service.
For almost four decades I have been a loud supporter of our NHS and if I live
to be one hundred years of age my volume will always be turned up to eleven.
Although
I would so happily donate fifteen percent of my pension, no make that twenty
percent, it isn’t going to happen is it and my little bit of cash isn’t going
to make any difference ! How many copies will this book sell ? One ? A hundred,
one thousand, perhaps in my dreams one million even. If sales were to reach
every home in the country and every person was to read this chapter it could
never celebrate enough our front line NHS superheroes to the height they
deserve.
Now
editing this draft text, I spent time in the Day Care Surgery Unit at
University Hospital Milton Keynes following the accident I spoke of earlier, I
am having to use only my left index finger to tap my laptop’ keyboard. I
watched nurses on twelve hour shifts working so incredibly hard. The media has
recently been full of football and would have us believe these players are
superheroes. How much does a premier league footballer earn ? The average is £60,000 EVERY WEEK. How
much does a TV sports journalist earn ? Gary
Lineker earns around £2,000,000 A YEAR. Way near the bottom of English
Football, MK Dons recently sacked its manager, I wonder how much more he earned
than does a nurse !
I
have tried to do my bit to show love to our nurses, Milton Keynes Superheroes.
I have signed one thousand Smile Christmas Cards for these beautiful people.
Why are we celebrating our over-paid failing World Cup footballers ? Why are we
not celebrating our NHS Nurses who 24/7 hold out their life-saving cup of love
?
When
my broken arm is mended I plan to grab the Health Secretary and plant his
backside in that hospital unit then force him to observe and take note of I was
privileged to see. How much does he earn ? £84,144 !
BBC licence fee payers, that’s you and me,
how much is its political editor Laura Kuenssberg get
paid compared to an NHS nurse ?In 2020
she was paid £290,000 ! Her pay rise that year was above the salary of a nurse
!
My
printer is running low on ink. I have ordered some replacement cartridges which
should be delivered today but the Royal Mail is on strike. It is very
inconvenient but there will be no deliveries for the next two days.Inconvenient but going against my lifetime
belief that industrial action is wrong I fully support Postman Pat and his
friends going on strike.
Within
the bits and pieces of community projects I run I spend quite a bit every week
buying stamps. Royal Mail postage stamps and the incredible service behind them
are a bargain. Increase their cover price by whatever the pay claim our postal
workers are striking for and everything would still be a bargain.
Postman
Pat who serves my home is a Milton Keyes Superhero as is Postman Pat and
Postlady Patricia serving every home in every street across our City. Come
rain, come shine they are always walking the streets and smiling at our
letterboxes. Rain and shine these days come in excess from torrential to
heatwaves, both keeping we ordinary folk indoors. Postal workers are not
ordinary folk who hide indoors, they are superheroes who deserve better.
In
another kaleidoscopic chapter I speak about trying to learn how to send
electronic mail and how a professor at our Open University could not get myself
and other delegates attending the day course to make it work. How many e-mails
do you send in a day, in a week ? Every single one of them is helping to put
Postman Pat and Postlady Patricia out of a job. If such achieves its
technological end where will our society be ? Postal workers, incredibly
hardworking postal workers are a living legend, please do not allow the life to
be taken out of that legend.
Write
a letter to Buckingham Palace and you WILL receive a reply. That reply will be
in the form of a letter and not an email. It is the ROYAL MAIL after all. Write
a letter to the Health Secretary as I did six weeks ago and as with my
experience you will not receive the courtesy of a reply.
In
the various twists and turns of our kaleidoscope I speak of our Milton Keynes
Bin Men, I am not going to apologise for repeating myself here. If you are
looking for a superhero in Milton Keynes look no further than our hard-working
bin men who like our postal workers are out in all weathers.
Our
bin men are not on strike. How much are our bin men paid ? I don’t know and I
am not going to try to find out in monetary terms, in real terms the answer is
not enough.
Bin
Bag Thursday, I was looking out for our super stars to give them a Christmas
gift. It was early, it was still dark, people were scraping ice from their
cars, there were our Bin Men going about their day in sub-zero temperatures.
Just as they had been serving our community during the crazy heatwave of last
August.
When
David Taylor was Mayor of Milton Keynes he spent a day working with our Bin
Men, how many mayors since have followed his example ? How many mayors have
supported our Nurses an Posties working alongside them ?
Where
would the City of Milton Keynes be without our nurses ?Where would the City of Milton Keynes be
without our postal workers ?Where would
the City of Milton Keynes be without our bin men ?
Wouldn’t
it be nice if all cities had superheroes like Milton Keynes.
THEY
DO !
Sunday 4 December 2022
How did you get on with yesterday's bit of fun ? How many neighbours of Miltion Keynes were you able to wave to ?
Here are the answers ?
QUESTION ONE:
Which
football club did a bespectacled pop singer zoom into ?
WAVE: Elton
John had a hit in 1972 with a song Rocket Man, Appearing on Top of the Pops he
wore a pair of spectacles with the letter Z to the left of the lenses and M to
the right spelling Z-O-O-M. In 2019 a film telling Elton John’s story was
released. This year, 2023, Elton John will headline Glastonbury Festival.
WATFORD FOOTBALL CLUB. Elton John
is currently honorary life president at Watford, his boyhood team, having first bought the club in 1976. As
chairman he oversaw a period of huge success with manager Graham Taylor, and he
later bought the club back again in 1997. Elton Hercules John is not his birth
name but an adopted stage name. Hercules, he took from the horse in Steptoe and
Son which first ran on BBC TV in 1962.
QUESTION TWO:
With
what industry in days gone by would you have associated Luton ?
WAVE: For
many years Luton was famous for making hats. It still does although most of this hand sewing was done in the
home or in small establishments before being sold onto larger firms. The
industry may have declined but in Luton today there are fifteen companies
still linked to the manufacture of hats. Next time you see our Queen Consort or
Princess of Wales on television news ponder to yourself if their hats were made
in Luton.
QUESTION THREE:
Which
group of Leighton Buzzard residents told Shep to get down ?
WAVE: Get
Down Shep – taking the mickey out of Blue Peter and John Noakes dog Shep.
Little White Bum – taking the mickey out of Tommy Steele’s hit Little White
Bull. Sit – taking the mickey out of TV dog trainer Barbra Woodhouse, first
broadcast by the BBC in 1980. All were hilarious silly songs from Leighton
Buzzard group The Baron Knights. Formed in 1959 the band is still playing
today.
QUESTION FOUR:
Name
the once celebrated artist and singer took up residence for a time in a
Bicester gaol.
WAVE: The
prison is HMP Bullingdon and its resident Rolf Harris who had mega hits with
Tie My Kangaroo Down and Two Little Boys. His songs are great to listen to but
not so politically correct after this TV artist, singer and personality was
convicted in In
July 2014, at the age of eighty-four, on twelve counts of indecent assault on
four female victims during the 1970’s and 1980’s. He was sentenced to five
years and nine months, part of which he served at Bullingdon in Bicester.
Milton Keynes may have its own prison at Oakhill but this is a Category A
prison, most sentenced by Milton Keynes magistrates court end up at Bullingdon.
QUESTION FIVE:
With
what industry in days gone by would you have associated Northampton ?
WAVE: Have
you ever seen the film Kinky Boots ? Released in October 2005 it is hilarious
and one of my favourite pieces of comedy. Set in Northampton which was once
centred on the shoe industry, a drag queen Lola who saves shoe factory by re-inventing the
business making men’s fetish footwear – kinky boots. Northampton Town Football
Club has the nick-name of The Cobblers.
QUESTION SIX:
Stoke
Hammond, how many canal locks fronted the waterside pub ?
WAVE: That
wasn’t difficultwas it ? Three, the
Three Locks. Way back, I think it was in the 1980’s, a TV advert was filmed
there.
QUESTION SEVEN:
Which
former Milton Keynes member of parliament lived at Headington Hill Hall in
Oxford ?
WAVE: None
other than Robert Maxwell who was
labour member of parliament for Buckingham from 15th October 1964
until 29th May 1970. He ran again in the March 1974 general election
which overturned the conservative government of Edward Heath and put Harold
Wilson back in Downing Street. However, Maxwell failed to unseat the
conservative Bill Benyon.
QUESTION EIGHT:
A
B C. If B stands for Brewery and C for Company, what is A all about ?
WAVE: Aylesbury – The Aylesbury Brewery
Company which in the infant days of Milton Keynes ran many pubs within our New
City. Itwas originally registered 1895 and operated 146 pubs.
However, brewing actually ceased in 1937 as it was found to be more economical
to buy in beer. It remained an independent company until it was taken over by
Allied Breweries in 1973. It continued to operate semi-independently until a
merger in 1989 when it ran 187 public houses.
QUESTION NINE:
Which
celebrated writer’s former garden shed can be found in a museum within Great
Missenden.
WAVE: Not a difficult
question to answer. How many books written by Roald Dhal have you Read ?
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, The BFG, Matilda, James And The Giant Peach,
The Fantastic Mr Fox ? Danny Champion Of The World. My favourite is his
autobiography Boy. Roald Dhal was born on 13th September 1916 and
left us on 23rd November 1990. He had a writing den in his garden
shed at his home in Great Missenden. That shed can now be found in the Roald
Dhal Museum and Story Centre in High Street Great Missenden, a super place to
visit. Ticket prices are modest at £7.40 for adults, £4.90 for children and old
age pensioners like me, Under five year olds are admitted free of charge.
(Prices a heck of a lot cheaper than Bletchley Park where you’ll need a bank
overdraft for a dayout.)
QUESTION TEN:
Milton
Keynes may be the New City of roundabouts but which town owns the magic
roundabout ?
WAVE: Is it
still there, the magic roundabout ?Indeed it is and is to be found in neighbouringHemel Hempstead. Everyone calls it The Magic Roundabout but it is
actually the Plough roundabout. The familiar name comes from the children's
television programme, you’ll need the skills of Zebedee to find your way around
it.
QUESTION ELEVEN:
Why
may it be an idea to nick-name MK Dons as The Wombles ?
WAVE: The
Wombles Of Wimbledon Common was a fun TV series for kids but much loved by Mums
and Dads. Broadcasting sixty episodes from 5th February 1973 to 24th
October 1975 it was, as its name suggests, set in Wimbledon. Wimbledon FC was
nicked and transported to Milton Keynes where it became MK Dons. Back in London
AFC (Amateur Football Club) took its place. In the TV cops series New Tricks
Brain Lane is an avid AFC Wimbledon fan.
QUESTION TWELVE:
What
is possibly the most notorious case tried at Aylesbury Crown Court ?
WAVE:It was of course the trial of
the Great Train Robbers following their stealing £2.6 million on8thAugust 1963. The trial in January the
following year sentenced Gordon Goody, Charlie Wilson, Buster Edwards, Bruce
Reynolds, Roy James, John Daly, Roger Cordrey, Jimmy White, Bob Welch, Tommy
Wisbey, Jim Hussey, and Ronnie Biggs to lengthy prison sentences with seven of
the convicted being handed down thirty year terms. Only twelve at the time of
the robbery, I remember the media reports and how the public secretly regarded
the robbers as heroes. There was a general disapproval at the length of the
sentences. Twenty years later I was to serve on a jury in the same Aylesbury
courtroom as were tried the Great Train Robbers.
QUESTION THIRTEEN:
Which
football club was supported by one half of a mega popular TV comedy duo ?
WAVE: Luton
Town FCalso known as The Hatters. Eric Morecambe was,
perhaps, Luton Town Football Club's most famous patron and director. His TV
shows with Ernie Wise, and their Christmas specials cemented his status as a
household name, and Eric was proud to let everyone know that he was a Hatters
fan. Today the club has a hospitality lounge named after him. For a time the club
had a school and community officer, who travelled up the M1 to Milton Keynes
including the New City in his mandate. However. Fearing the club may be nicked
my Milton Keynes visits declined. Milton Keynes did not nick the Hatters,
instead kidnapping Wimbledon FC.
QUESTION FOURTEEN:
Who
was the lastperson to be executed at
Bedford Prison ?
WAVE: The
death penalty in England, of which Bedford is a part, was suspended in 1965 and
finally abolished in 1969. James Hanratty was executed at Bedford Prison on
Wednesday 4th April 1962. He was convicted of murdering Michael
Gregsten on the A6 at Deadman’s Hill near Clophill. I remember both the murder
and Hanratty’s execution being reported in the press. There was widespread
thinking that Hanratty was not guilty, something I still think may be correct
in spite of modern-day DNA testing upholding his guilt. Hanratty features in my
books BehindThe Noose Or Not and The
Hangman’s Grandson.
QUESTION FIFTEEN:
Who
designed the gardens at Stowe House near Buckingham ?
WAVE: If you
have never been to the National Trust Gardens at Stowe I would urge you to put
it on your to do list. My stories The Lonely Ghost and The Adventures Of
Dorothy The Duck And Friends are set in its one thousand acre parkland.
Lancelot Brown, better known as Lancelot Capability Brown as applauded as the
Shakespeare of English garden design. He designed the gardens at Stowe as was
head gardener there for ten years.
QUESTION SIXTEEN:
What
association does Stoke Manderville Hospital in Aylesbury have with the
Paralympic games ?
WAVE:Stoke Mandeville Hospital has become known as the home of wheelchair
sport and the birthplace of the Paralympic Games. On 29thJuly 1948, the day of the Opening Ceremony of
the London Olympic Games, Professor Sir Ludwig Guttmann organised the first
competition for wheelchair athletes, the Stoke Mandeville Games. So our near
neighbour is world famous in sport.
QUESTION SEVENTEEN:
What
colour would you associate with motor racing ?
WAVE: Just
up the road from Milton Keynes, close to Towcester you will find the home of
British Formula One Racing Silverstone. SILVERstone. Opened in 1947 it is owned
by the British Racing Drivers Club. Given the overall standard of driving
across Milton Keynes I suspect many of our City’s motorists are fully paid up
members.
QUESTION EIGHTEEN:
In
neighbouring Towcester what form of racing would you associate this friend with
?
WAVE: Sadly
no more but once upon a time Towcester was mega famous for horse racing.
QUESTION NINETEEN:
In
the days of 8mm home movie making where would you send your reels of film to be
processed ?
WAVE:
Hemel Hempstead. This was my teenager hobby and I can remember so clearly
having to post the exposed film for developing to Kodak Box 14 Hemel Hempstead
Hertfordshire. Was 8mm filming once a hobby of yours ? Did you live in Milton
Keynes and buy film from Camera Hayes in Bletchley ?
QUESTION TWENTY:
Who
was Walter Tull and which neighbour would you associate him with ?
WAVE: There
is a great pub and restaurant in Northampton called The Walter Tull. A stature
of him can be found outside Northampton’s Guild Hall. Tull was the first
non-white football player in an English league but more importantly he was the
first non-white British Army Officer. Second Lieutenant Walter Daniel John Tull led his men on dangerous
missions behind enemy lines and returned without loss or injury. For these acts
of bravery, he was cited for his
"gallantry and coolness" under fire by Major General Sir Sydney
Lawford, his commanding officer and recommended for the Military Cross. Walter Tull died on25th March 1918 at the age of twenty-nine years leading
an attack on the Western Front during the Second Battle of the Somme
QUESTION TWENTY-ONE:
Which
neighbour has an Old Gaol in the middle of its modern-day shopping area ?
WAVE: Buckingham.
You can’t miss this beautiful piece of architecture when you visit the former
country town of Buckinghamshire. However, I suspect the tales it could tell may
be slightly less than beautiful !
QUESTION TWENTY-TWO:
What is a Stoic ?
WAVE: A
Stoic is a former pupil at Stowe School near Buckingham. Among there numbers
are Alexander Bernstein (1936 – 2010) Television executive and labour
politician. Sir Richard Branson (Born 1950) He of Virgin fame. David Niven (1910
– 1983) Actor and author. Prince Rainier III of Monaco (1923 – 2005) John
Sainsbury (1927 – 2022) Grocer – Sainsbury’s Supermarkets. Sir Nicholas Winton
(1909 – 2015) Humanitarian and nicknamed the British Schindler. If you want to
send a child of yours to Stowe School this academic year there is firstly a
registration fee of £200. If your child is accepted there is a fee of £1,200 to
be paid in order to accept the place. Next there is a £11,500 deposit if
parents live outside the UK. Termly fees are £13,599 = £40,794 per year.
Assuming your child attends Stowe for six years, in addition to the
registration costs and before yearly fee increases you will need to budget for
£244,764 before uniforms and all the rest ! However, there is a 10% discount if
you send more than one child to Stow ! Even so eight hundred and forty-four
parents are able to find the cash for their offspring to become Stoics. What do
you think, better stay with Milton Keynes schools ?
QUESTION TWENTY-THREE:
Which
motor manufacturer would you associate with Luton ?
WAVE:Vauxhall became a car manufacturer in
1903. It was originally based in the South London suburb from which it takes
its name, but after two years needed larger premises and moved to a six-acre
site in Luton, where it supposedly
still manufactures motor vehicles today.
QUESTION TWENTY-FOUR:
Which
neighbours hill is said to be the most haunted in the country ?
WAVE:
Clophill in Bedfordshire. Legend says, and many will tell you that it is true.
The old church is supposedly a place where Satanists dance their evil. The tomb of Jenny
Humberstone, who had died in 1770 at the age of twenty-two years, was opened up
in the 1960’s and her skull and bones taken into the nave of the church. The bones were laid out in a
symmetrical circular pattern on a makeshift stone altar and the skull impaled
on a metal spike jammed into the ground. Symbols were scrawled onto the walls
and a cockerel was sacrificed in a bloody culmination to the ceremony. No
witnesses came forward to the incident itself, save for an unconvincing expose
inThe News of the Worldfrom
a supposed member of the coven, but the aftermath was discovered by two young
boys, Duncan Stein and Calvin Smith, who were first on the scene. If you want
to learn more then read Kevin Gates book Paranormal Diaries.
Neighbours
everybody needs good neighbours
With a little understanding
you can find the perfect blend
Neighbours should
be there for one another
That’s when good neighbours
become good friends
Saturday 3 December 2022
I am editing the draft text for Milton Keynes The City Of Legend planning to publish everything with Amazon in January to celebrate our City's fify-sixth birthday but I keep getting ideas for new chapters. Sixty-eight so far coming to 174,404 words ! Here's something I have just written - STILL IN DRAFT FORM but have a look and see if you can wave to some of our neighbours. ANSWERS TOMORROW.
QUESTION ONE:
Which
football club did a bespectacled pop singer zoom into ?
QUESTION TWO:
With
what industry in days gone by would you have associated Luton ?
QUESTION THREE:
Which
group of Leighton Buzzard residents told Shep to get down ?
QUESTION FOUR:
Name
the once celebrated artist and singer took up residence for a time in a
Bicester gaol.
QUESTION FIVE:
With
what industry in days gone by would you have associated Northampton ?
QUESTION SIX:
Stoke
Hammond, how many canal locks fronted the waterside pub ?
QUESTION SEVEN:
Which
former Milton Keynes member of parliament lived at Headington Hill Hall in Oxford
?
QUESTION EIGHT:
A
B C. If B stands for Brewery and C for Company, what is A all about ?
QUESTION NINE:
Which
celebrated writer’s former garden shed can be found in a museum within Great
Missenden.
QUESTION TEN:
Milton
Keynes may be the New City of roundabouts but which town owns the magic
roundabout ?
QUESTION ELEVEN:
Why
may it be an idea to nick-name MK Dons as The Wombles ?
QUESTION TWELVE:
What
is possibly the most notorious case tried at Aylesbury Crown Court ?
QUESTION THIRTEEN:
Which
football club was supported by one half of a mega popular TV comedy duo ?
QUESTION FOURTEEN:
Who
was the lastperson to be executed at
Bedford Prison ?
QUESTION FIFTEEN:
Who
designed the gardens at Stowe House near Buckingham ?
QUESTION SIXTEEN:
What
association does Stoke Manderville Hospital in Aylesbury have with the
Paralympic games ?
QUESTION SEVENTEEN:
What
colour would you associate with motor racing ?
QUESTION EIGHTEEN:
In
neighbouring Towcester what form of racing would you associate this friend with
?
QUESTION NINETEEN:
In
the days of 8mm home movie making where would you send your reels of film to be
processed ?
QUESTION TWENTY:
Who
was Walter Tull and which neighbour would you associate him with ?
QUESTION TWENTY-ONE:
Which
neighbour has an Old Gaol in the middle of its modern-day shopping area ?
QUESTION TWENTY-TWO:
What
is a Stoic ?
QUESTION TWENTY-THREE:
Which
motor manufacturer would you associate with Luton ?
QUESTION TWENTY-FOUR:
Which
neighbours hill is said to be the most haunted in the country ?
Neighbours
everybody needs good neighbours
With a little understanding
you can find the perfect blend
Neighbours should
be there for one another
That’s when good neighbours
become good friends
