MK Today - Wednesday 12th April 2023

Allow me in this edition to share a personal experience.

WHERE PETS ARE FAMILY – That is a Milton Keynes statement.  It is the mission statement of Milton Keynes Vet Group.

From Whaddon Way Bletchley to Walnut Tree; from Willen to Water Eaton to Stony Stratford every surgery has those beautiful words at the centre of every pet consultation.

I love and support as much as I can our NHS, if I live to be one hundred I will never be able to repay the debt my family owes to our National Health Service. Vets are members of the Animal NHS, as with those working the human species they do not treat their patients but care for them. Vets and their nurses are special people who do what they do by way of a passion deep within their hearts.

Jake the Dog of Love was central to my family for eight years. He passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on Tuesday 31^st January this year. Milton Keynes Vet Group operates a 24/7 service, just as does our NHS. Jake was admitted on Monday evening to Doggie A & E at Walnut Tree Animal Hospital. Overnight care is given there by Vets Now. I received a telephone call at six thirty the next morning, Jake was no longer with us.

Jake was physically wrapped in a blanket. On arrival at the hospital my wife Maureen and I were immediately wrapped in thick, warm blankets of love. Arrangements were made for Jake’s cremation. We were sent cards of condolence from MK Vet Group and Vets Now. We were sent seeds to plant in a memorial area of our garden. Where Pets Are Family – that is not an empty statement. It is true, 101% true. ALL staff within MK Vet Group are dedicated, loving people who do not treat their patients but care for them.

Without Jake our home was empty, without the love with which this beautiful little boy had filled it for eight years sadness was everywhere. Before Jake was taken ill we had started to support the RSPCA, on his passing I sent a gift to our local sanctuary.

Who put the R is RSPCA ? I bet you don’t know. R = Her Majesty Queen Victoria. The RSPCA was founded in 1824, that was actually before Queen Victoria ascended the throne and gave this new rescue charity its royal warrant.

Where is the RSPCA rescue sanctuary local to Milton Keynes ? It is Blackberry Farm at Quainton about thirty minutes drive south from our city.  I wonder how many people know that.

What does the RSPCA do ?  We’ve all hear of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals but what does it do ?  Rehome unwanted animals ? Actually no. Let me tell you Barnaby’s story.

Barnaby is a Patterdale Terrier who was born into evil ! Used with other dogs in the cruel, illegal sport of badger bating Barnaby will ill-treated with cruelty beyond anything you can possibly imagine. He was physically and mentally ill.

This came to the notice of the RSPCA which took away the dogs and began legal proceedings against those involved. These dogs were taken to Blackberry Farm where a full-time team of vets, nurses, animal behaviourists and others spent a whole year treating and caring for each little boy and girl. That is the work the RSPCA does.

With the case won staff began looking to find forever homes for these now happy little boys and girls. The way in which the RSPCA goes about this task is far more than simply rehoming. We were approached and asked if we would adopt Barnaby. This was very soon after losing Jake but we said we would.

I cannot believe that Barnaby was born into such evil but he was. He is a happy, very affectionate, well behaved and loyal boy who has made our home his own and filled it to overflowing with love. How can that be given his background ? That is easy to answer, the year he spent living at Blackberry Farm while the court case was pending the love of the RSPCA completely changed him. When he came to live with us he was on doggie anti-depressant pills. Leaving Blackberry Farm we did not simply wave bye bye and leave it at that, the vet team is still in contact checking on Barnaby’s health and condition. Vets, the animal version of our NHS.

We registered Barnaby with Milton Keynes Vet Group, taking him to Whaddon Way surgery we were hit with a wall of love and that is not an empty statement. The way we were welcomed and the care given to Barnaby during his check up was LOVE in block capital letters. It had to be experienced to be believed.

Do you know that nationally the RSPCA receives a call reporting animal neglect and cruelty every thirty seconds ? The way to call emergency services is to dial 999, the way to call help for animals is to dial 0300 1234 999. Make a note of that number for sadly there are many cases of animal cruelty and neglect in Milton Keynes.

Check out our local rescue centre at Blackberry Farm:

 https://www.rspca.org.uk/local/blackberry-farm-animal-centre

See if there is a pet there you could take into your family.

MK Today - Monday 10th April 2023.

Last Friday was the anniversary of my daughter’s kidney transplant. I was in California at the time. Los Angeles to be precise. Rebekah was too ill to travel and was on-call for a donor organ son it was her two brothers I had taken on holiday to the Golden State. After a long overnight flight I was met at Heathrow by a friend with the news that Rebekah had received a life-saving kidney transplant at London’s Guys Hospital.

I love our NHS. Beck was born with chronic renal failure which was diagnosed within Milton Keynes then infant hospital in the mid 1980’s. She spent her childhood in and out of Guys Hospital but it was Milton Keynes General Hospital that saved her life and began my love of our NHS.

When you next go into what is now University Hospital Milton Keynes, from the entrance look to your left and you will see a beautiful piece of art celebrating, and yes celebrating is the right work, our hospital does harvesting organs from patients who have passed away to transplant into patients like Beck and save their lives.

On Friday 21^st April I am meeting with the Organ Donation Team at our hospital and am looking to extend my love affair with our NHS.

Way back some thirty and more years I worked with Elizabeth Ward who founded then original kidney donor card. When her son Timothy, known as Timbo, died in Guys Hospital from Kidney failure she devoted her life to trying to save others in her son’s memory. My daughter was one such salvation. Mrs Ward predicted the day when organ donation would be natural, there would be no need for donation cards and the law would support such. That day has arrived.

Within the law it is now assumed that on death a person will donate their organs for transplantation unless they have said otherwise. That, however, is not the way it actually works and I am not sure it is right so to do. We need a far greater awareness of the need for organ donation and on the loss of a loved one the family needs to step forward rather than the medical profession approach the family. I am so eager to learn how this is now being done in our beautiful Milton Keynes Hospital.

Within the NHS we have Blood and Organ Donation, the two go together. You cannot give someone an organ transplant without a blood transfusion. I have tried to find out but without success so that is a question I will be asking at the meeting in two weeks time.

Rebekah passed away in May 2017. She was again under the care of our beautiful Milton Keynes Hospital.

Beck was always known as Little Miss Sunshine. I defy anyone anywhere to find a photograpah of her where sheb is not smiling. One of her biggest smiles I use within my book OUR REBEKAH A LOVE STORY FROM OUR NHS.

I have rewritten NHS from National Health Service to NATIONAL HAPPY SMILE.

If I live to be one hundred years of age, twenty-seven years come November, I can never hope to repay my family’s debt to our NHS. At the centre of that love is our city’s hospital. I do not yet known its organ donation statistics but I do know it uses six thousand pints of blood every year to care for its patients. The NHS does not treat patients, it cares for them and cares with love. It was Milton Keynes General Hospital that first wrapped that blanket of love around my daughter.

This edition of MK Today  is an introduction to Monday 24^th April’s feature. University Hospital Milton Keynes is not a transplant centre but it is a donation centre. Within my love for our NHS I want to help use my story to raise the profile of this special work.

Do visit our beautiful hospital and allow the artwork within its entrance to inspire your love of our NHS to a higher level.

MK Today - Friday 7th April 2023

Our city can be proud of its grid road system which enables ease of movement from North to South, from East to West or if the mood so shall take you from North to East and from South to West.

Did you know that legend says within the Strategic Plan of Milton Keynes Development Corporation there were three hundred and sixty-five roundabouts ?  One for every day of the year. I wonder how many there are today. These magic roundabouts ease movement across the grid system, the planners from those early days are to be applauded.

Here I want to look at two roundabouts: Coffee Hall Roundabout and Emmerson Valley Roundabout. Coffee Hall named after Coffee Hall Farm and Emmerson valley after Mr Emmerson’s dip in the ground !

Driving recently past Coffee Hall I was tempted to drive around the roundabout twice as I admired the beauty of the daffodils growing there. What was it William Wordsworth said about these beautiful spring flowers ?

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

I am sure he would have loved to have driven his car passed Milton Keynes Coffee Hall.

What was it George Orwell said about Big Brother watching you !

For every piece of beauty, both literal and metaphorical, to be found at Coffee Hall twice the evil of Big Brother can be found at Emmerson Valley Roundabout. The shrubbery has been decimated and replaced with litter. The trees have had their branches amputated. Now hideous, ugly morally apprehensible phone mast tower high into the sky. I hope all of our emergency services are on stand by ready for an aircraft filled with passengers hits one of these towers of evil.

A tale of two roundabouts.

How many people drove past Coffee Hall Roundabout and said: Just look at those beautiful flowers.

How many people will have their personal data hacked by users via Emmerson Valley Roundabout ? How many vulnerable people will be targeted by phone processing signals via Emmerson Valley Roundabout ?

Big Brother or Daffodils ? Give me Coffee Hall any day !

MK Today - Wednresday 5th April 2023

Dog licence, what is one of those ?  When was the dog licence abolished in the UK ? 1987, do the Maths and you will find that was thirty-six years ago. For those who were dog owners back then the licence was observed by not bothering, few ever went to the Post Office to hand over cash and legalise their pet.

Dog Owner – that is an expression I do not like. I do not own my Doggie Barnaby, he is a member of our family. A respected member of our family.

When Barnie Boy joined us as a rescue dog from the RSPCA he rescued my wife and I from old age. A young, active Patterdale Terrier, Barnaby needs four walks a day. Before joining us just the thought of a single walk was exhausting !

On those walks Barnie will do his business which is scooped up using doggie poo bags provided free of charge by West Bletchley Council. The contents are then deposited into one of the many, many poo bins to be found wherever we happen to be walking.

SO WHY THEN DO SOME MORON DOG WALKERS NOT PICK UP THE POO ?

WHO DO SOME MEGA MORON DOG WALKERS PICK UP THEIR PET’S EXCRIMENT, BAG IT THEN THROW SUCH ON THE FLOOR ?

WE THEN HAVE THE DOG POO GRAFFITI ARTISTS WHO THINK THROWING BAGS INTO TREES OR HANGING SUCH ON FENCES IS ART !

Bring back the dog licence, that is what I say. In order to have a licence doggie DNA must be registered. Poo offenders can then be located and arrested. Good idea ?

Punishment for dog poo offending ?  One thousand hours of dog poo picking using the offender’s bare hands. But then if the new dog licensing system works there will be no poo to pick up !

How many dog pets are there in the UK ? Thirteen Million, I have just counted them. (Well Mr Google has.) How many dogs live in Milton Keynes ?  Mr Google is unable to answer that.

Here is a dirct quote from Mr G: Established as an independent charity in 1992, The Parks Trust expertly cares for over 6,000 acres of beautiful and inspirational green space in Milton Keynes including parks, ancient woodlands, lakes, river valleys and 80 miles of landscaped areas along the city's grid roads.

Doggie Barnaby has widened my already significant appreciation of the beauty within our City. His and my favourite places include: Saint Giles Tattenhoe & Howe Park Wood, Walton Lake, Ouzel Valley Park. Why are there those who think that dog poo enhances the beauty of such iconic locations ?

Bring back the dog licence. I rest my case.

MK Today - Monday 3rd April 2023

Did you know it was way back in the seventeen hundreds that April Fool’s Day started in Britain ?

April Fool’s Day 2023 – that was three days ago so I am being a little tardy. Oh dear what a shame never mind !

1957, I was only six years old but I remember what has to be the best April Fool joke ever. The BBC broadcast a programme explaining a spaghetti shortage as the Spring was messing up the harvest.

1^st April 2023 was the last day in a nationwide litter pick. I signed up saying on my daily doggie walks I would collect five bags. In actual fact I picked up TWENTY-FIVE bags !

Walking round with my Amazon litter stick, excellent value by the way, I tried not to look at people as the last thing I wanted to project myself as was a do-gooder. A few people did over the days engage with me and every single one said something about my doing the job the council should be doing.

NO !  Everyone knows I am not a fan of Milton Keynes Cowboy Council but this is NOT where the litter is coming from ! Milton Keynes Council has a fantastic team of bin men and a sound recycling programme. Parish councils provide and maintain litter bins all the way across our city. The FOOLS, the IDIOTS, the MORONS, the XXXX HEADS who throw the litter on the ground are responsible.

The very first piece of writing I did about Milton Keynes was back in the 1970’s which the Bletchley and District Gazette published under the headline of DIRTY OLD TOWN – DIRTY NEW CITY. I revisited this in Milton Keynes The City Of Legends but revised the title to MILTON KEYNES THE SCRUFFY CITY.

Who are these fools who drop that which I pick up each day ? Pick up cigarette buts, vape boxes, sweet wrappers, beer bottle and cans with the occasional soft drink can. Balloons of the deflated variety I find each day, NO they are not left over from parties but from illegal drug activity.

What kind of society are we living in ? Who are these idiot fools who would destroy our city ? DESTROY WITHIN OUR CITY ITS FRAGILE ECO SYSTEM AND WILD LIFE ? If my litter picking has saved the life of one ant, one bee, one butterfly that insect is worth more than all the fools who tried to kill them.

What do you think is the greatest by number and by volume item I have litter picked during the Spring Challenge ? You’ll never guess !  Paper handkerchiefs and wipes ! Did we not learn anything within the pandemic about not spreading disease ?

NO Milton Keynes Council is not corporately responsible and most certainly is NOT an April Fool. However, war councillor Adam Rolfe and Milton Keynes South Member of Parliament Iain Stewart I would suggest deserve the title.  Prior to the Spring Litter Pick I contacted them and invited engagement with the terrible situation wrapping itself about our city. THEY BOTH INGNORED MY REPRESENTATION.

April Fool’s Day comes but once a year and there are those who will tell you the jokes end at noon. It seems to me that litter droppers are fools 24/7/365. So may I suggest are politicians who fail to engage with those who alert them to situations.

Yes, the Spring Litter Pick ended last Saturday. I am going to continue ever time DoggieBarnaby and I go out for a walk. If litter buggers operate 24/7/365 than those of us who are not such fools need to pick their crap up. (On the subject of crap I’ll be talking about doggie poo bags within the litter in a later edition of MK Today. Right now I’ve got to log in to Amazon and buy a new litter picking stick, the one I have is worn out !

MK Today - Friday 31st March 2023

In past editions of MK Today we have had a bit of fun with Trains and with Boats. Now it is time to do the same with Planes – Aeroplanes.

Ladies and gentlemen this is the final boarding call for passengers flying from JFK New York to Milton Keynes International, please make your way immediately to Gate One Nine Six Seven !

Inviting Billy J Kramer to sing about the planes of Milton Keynes I am going to take a chapter from Not The Concrete Cows and reproduce it here exactly as it was back in 1994.

No Airport Here:

Season travellers of the Airways will be familiar with the coded baggage tags that ensure one’s suitcases arrive via the same aircraft with their owners and at the same destination.

LHR -  London Heathrow SFO - San Francisco LAX - Los Angeles  JFK - New York Kennedy   LGW - London Gatwick

But what about LMK - London Milton Keynes ? Daily flights to New York, Cairo, Rome, Bombay and one hundred other far away destinations ?

Don't smile because this was very nearly the case ! If the now infamous Robert Maxwell, one-time Labour Member of Parliament for our area, had had his way intercontinental jets would be constantly roaring overhead.

Thirty years ago advanced planning was calling for a new airport to relieve the strain that anticipated demand would place on Heathrow and Gatwick in the next century. One of the best options looked to be building London’s third airport at Cublington just south of the area designated for the construction of a new town.

Within the triangle of roads between Stewkley, Wing and Cublington is the site of a former World War Two airfield from which the Royal Air Force flew against the might of the Third Reich. It is up on this site the proposed airport was planned, only six miles from Milton Keynes. But the project intended extending to a staggering seven and a half thousand acres, bulldozing flat everything in the way. The destruction would have included obliterating the entire village of Stewkley, claimed to be the longest village in England, and rehousing it's eleven hundred residents.

North Buckinghamshire is already on the North Atlantic route with dozens of heavy jets passing overhead everyday but these are all well on their way to their initial cruising altitude, flying sufficiently high to be relatively unnoticed. Had the airport come here instead of Stansted then living in Milton Keynes would have been akin to residing at the bottom of the runway. Perhaps Milton Keynes would have become a replica of Crawley to the south of Gatwick. Instead of a multi-industry the city would have been almost entirely dependent upon the airport for its employment. It is estimated that fifty thousand people would have worked at the airport.

It was the most efficiently organised public protest since the anti-coral Corn Law League of 1839 the saved us. The outward manifestation was a host of signs reading NO AIRPORT HERE. They sprang up overnight along roads and adjacent to the railway between Bletchley and Leighton Buzzard. But the organisation went much deeper.

The Wing Airport Resistance Association was under the chairmanship of Desmond Fennell, later to be Justice Fennel and head that Kings Cross enquiry, and Evelyn de Rothschild, from the family of merchant bankers, as treasurer, the local population  banded together to prevent at all costs and airport being built on their doorstep. Many other famous names like Johnny Dankworth, Cleo Lane and Roald Dahl, who all lived in the area, through in their unqualified support. (Robert Maxwell, millionaire publisher and MP, joined in but history now shows that his motives and intentions were decidedly unclear.)

They knew only too well but they had an uphill task ahead of them for in every way Cubblington/Wing was the best site for the airport. Had it come to North Buckinghamshire, London Milton Keynes International Airport may not have become London's third airport at all but the countries first airport ! There would have been no need than for Luton, Birmingham or even East Midlands airports and much of the traffic would have been stolen away from Heathrow.

I recently spent a pleasant evening with WARA executive committee member Dennis Skinner in his Whitchurch home, enjoying his hospitality about a roaring log fire, as he explained the airport perimeter fence had been planned for no more than one hundred yards away from where we were sitting.  It is his belief that Milton Keynes would have needed to expand south to meet the airport, swallowing up everything as far as Leighton Buzzard. The resulting conurbation, some planners saw it reaching right down to Aylesbury, would be little like the city we know today.

On another evening I chatted with Farmer Morris and his wife from Manor Farm, Hoggeston realising we were right in the middle of where the main runway would have been. Their family has farm land in the village for ten generations dating back to the 1700’s. What a personal tragedy it would have been to fall victim to a compulsory purchase order.

Eighty year ol Rector of Dunton, the Reverend Hubert Sillitoe, brother of Sir Percy Sillitoe head of wartime MI5, preached hell, fire and damnation against all airport planners. He was a popular character, if a little eccentric, and achieved fame in The Sun newspaper who dubbed him a modern-day Elijah. They quoted one of his speeches ... This damn sacrilege we will fight on the door steps of our homes, in the fields of our farms, at churchyard gates and church doors ! A later edition of the paper had on its front page a picture of this campaigning cleric setting fire to a giant copy of the government's report and reprinting his prayer ...that these inhuman and sacrilegious proposals be so absolutely rejected and reduced the flames of fire shall reduce this copy of the Roskill Report. The reporter went on to describe how the flames leaped upwards as a brass band played the funeral march. But others attracted less favourable media attention. There were those who thought the best thing to do would be to load up their tractors with manure and dump the lot on Downing Street. Mr Justice Roskill, detailed by Harold Wilson's government to study the various sites for the airport, actually received death threats. Some of the protest posters and cartoons in the national press made no secret of the intention many had of actually turning the campaign into a literal fight if talking failed !

I asked Mr Morris if he thought people would have really engaged in hand to hand fighting with bulldozers. A mild mannered man himself, he doubted if he would have actually been involved but were certain others would. WARA not only had to tackle the politicians and bureaucrats but also to disassociate themselves from any threats of violent activity activities if they were to maintain credibility.

The membership of Robert Maxwell was also hardly an asset to the group. Maxwell, as recent events now only to clearly show, was a past master when it came to playing one person off against another. He played WARA off against his own political party and the local community against the planners but never failed to keep his own business interests uppermost. It was reported in the Guardian on 15th of June 1970 that Maxwell said to Bletchley factory worker Let's get Milton Keynes first if we can have the airport as well so much the better !

Three days later he lost his seat to Bill Benyon, so ending his parliamentary career, and he subsequently left the executive committee of water.

Dennis Skinner is convinced it was the election of a Conservative Government, under Prime Minister Ted Heath, but finally saved the day. Wing was the best, but also the most expensive option, in his opinion the Wilson Government had little regard for the costs. Tories, on the other hand, weighed finances with a rather with rather more care and eventually went for the cheaper Stanstead project.

WARA attack the finances of the proposal on every front. It strived all along to avoid becoming a political body, something that frustrated Robert Maxwell, but to truly represent everyone who was against the airport. This included Buckinghamshire County Council, the Milton Keynes Development Corporation and just about every living soul within twenty miles of the proposed airport. There was little to be gained by stressing the environmental issues which carried no weight in the swinging sixties. Instead the organisation employed professionals to undertake their own investigations then question every facet of the government's Roskill Report.

Their arguments were presented to every member of parliament whose final decision found against Wing. While that managed to convince them but the costing was wrong, indeed it was. Nearly a quarter of a century later it has become clear that a London Milton Keynes International Airport, as well as handling more than its fair share of business and cargo traffic, would have developed into the nation's number one holiday resort. Nobody in the 1960’s quite foresaw such an explosion in leisure travel.

There was a victory torchlight procession from Stewkley Church on the 26th April 1971, a tree planted in the churchyard at Whitchurch proclaims:  This tree is planted to the glory of God and in thankfulness for having been spared the third London airport 26th of November 1972. Buckinghamshire County Council planted the spinney at Cubblington upon the site originally intended for the terminal building.

Little now remains of the actual project, the signs have been taken down, the graffiti that once adorned motorway bridges have been sponged off but in the barn at Manor Farm where many of the rallies were held there is still a mural demanding NO AIRPORT.  When I saw it a couple of weeks ago a herd of beef cattle ambled about in their winter quarters oblivious of the fact that they could have been jumbo jets.

But would Milton Keynes be a better place at double its size and serving one of the world's major airports ? Perhaps, perhaps not.  It is difficult to say. During the campaign the activities of WARA cannot have escaped the notice of teenager Richard Branson, then a border at Stowe School near Buckingham. Would it be better if Virgin Atlantic, together with British Airways,  American Airlines and all the rest, brought their vast needs for employment to the area ?

Next time you are sitting in the traffic on the M25 as you head off on holiday by way of Heathrow or Gatwick you can weigh up the advantages and disadvantages then decide yourself.

 

 

MK Today - Wednesday 29th March 2023

Trains and boats and planes ?  How far is the nearest coast to Milton Keynes ? How can it have any boats ? Be patient and I will tell you.

A Beautiful But Tragic Landmark:

It is a place of beauty. On a day to day basis it is seldom considered and often forgotten. It is, however, one of the greatest legends in Milton Keynes. Sadly it is also a location of error and tragedy.

There are one hundred and sixty-six locks on The Grand Union Canal, one thousand five hundred and sixty-nine across the entire waterway network. Fenny Lock is the smallest of all. 

A lock adjusts the water level allowing a boat to climb up or descend an incline. That is what Fenny Lock does, raising and lowering the water level by just four inches it is the smallest lock on the network.

So what did the original Not The Concrete Cows have to say on the subject ?

Stony Stratford established itself in the north of the city about the turnpike road map of the

early industrial revolution but even with the new road improvements it was still a very costly way to move freight by stage-wagons. Enter the age of the canal. By 1830 Britain had over four thousand miles of canals and barges capable of carrying loads of up to one hundred tons.

The story of the canal in Milton Keynes began one June evening in 1792 in a room above an inn in Stony Stratford. There met The Marquis of Buckingham, several local men of substance and one James Barnes, an engineer who had worked with the father of England's canal system James Brindley. Barnes proposed linking London with the industrial midlands by way of Linslade, Solbury, Stoke Hammond, Fenny Stratford, Simpson, Woughton, The Woolstones, Linford and Wolverton. He had costed the project at £500,000. The meeting agreed to his plan and promised the finance. In April 1795 parliament passed The Grand Junction Canal Act (the canal was renamed The Grand Union Canal in 1929.) and work began immediately at both ends of the intended waterway.

Only two years later, Saturday 31st May 1800, The Marquis of Buckingham and his fellow shareholders officially opened the first section of the canal from Tring to Fenny Stratford. It was a carnival of a day with bands, cannons firing, the ringing of church bells and a grand parade with members of the Buckinghamshire Militia.

Charges were set for freight on the canal at:Three quarters of a penny per ton per mile for coal, half a penny per mile for livestock, one quarter of a penny per mile for limestone, one penny per mile for all other goods.

The Marquis of Buckingham and his fellow shareholders looked forward to enjoying considerable profits from their investments. And they were not to be disappointed. In 1832 a £1 share in the company, had risen in value to two pounds ten shillings and a dividend of 13% was declared.

So Fenny Stratford saw the opening of The Grand Junction Canal and with it came a period of some considerable change in the area. But it is not just the initial opening that entitles Fenny to claim fame within the history of Britain's inland waterways. The lock opposite The Red Lion is the smallest lock in the entire system, adjusting the water by only twelve inches.

One explanation for Fenny being the smallest lock on the network is the two sections of the canal being navigated to meet there but it was found the two sections were at different levels. Fenny Lock was installed to correct the error. This explanation is widely accepted and has formed into a legend among those who live in the locality. It's a nice little story and I rather hope it is true but the odds are against it.

The more accepted explanation among those who profess to be authorities upon this part of our heritage claim that the lock was indeed installed  to correct an engineering difficulty but not one of the dug levels.It was intended to run the course of the canal all the way north to Cosgrove without a lock but that would have entailed banking up the canal side by several feet all the way from Fenny Stratford to Woughton. No matter how the engineers tried to overcome the problem the bank persisted in leaking. They were faced with either cementing the bank in order to make it watertight or installing a lock and so reducing the water level. They chose the latter.

I concluded that original chapter in Not The Concrete Cows with: My father-in-law recalls as a boy being taught in school that the engineer responsible for the Fenny Stratford section of the waterway committed suicide. It would appear whichever the error he could not face up to the disgrace. So Fenny Lock has gone down in history both as the site of the official opening of the waterway and as a cover up for a monumental engineering mistake.

SS Chellwood:

The following I put together from the school record books of Bletchley Road School where the headmaster tells how pupils did their bit for the war effort during World War Two

The teachers and children of Bletchley Road School threw themselves wholeheartedly into the war effort. They were adopted by Royal Navy battleship SS Chellwood and held a number of fundraising activities to buy items and equipment with the RAF.

Recorded in the school log book: This morning at 9:30 AM a very pleasing ceremony took place. The presentation of a rubber dinghy to the RAF by the school. The idea was conceived by a boy named Horn in form 1A. It was announced to the school that during the Christmas Holidays a competition would be arranged, the making of toys of all kinds out of scrap metal. When these had all been brought in an exhibition followed by a sale of work would be held. Prize winners would be awarded saving stamps this was duly held and £30 pounds raised.

At the end of March 1942 Bletchley held up Warship Week to raise finance in support for the Royal Navy. A concert in the school raised £33 pounds which was donated to the cause.

The SS Chellwood’s crew responded the next March presenting a cup to be used for house competitions. They also gave the school the casting from a shell that fired to bring down an enemy aircraft.

But no further mention is made in the school log of the Chellwood after 22nd May 1942 when it seems likely that she was lost to enemy action. From then on until the end of the war the school directed his attentions and efforts towards the RAF.

A couple of Milton Keynes Boat Legends within our heritage. Something we can all be very proud of.

MK Today - Monday 27th March 2023

MILTON KEYNES RAILWAY LEGENDS – Lots of them…..

Who remembers The White Hart pub on Whaddon Way Bletchley ? For a short time a friend of mine was the landlord. He put Billy J Kramer on stage. He asked me to help out on the night of Bill J’s performance. My job was to look after Billy J ! What a privilege that was.

Who remembers some of Billy J Kramer’s hits ? Little Children. Trains and Boats and Planes.

It’s trains and boats and planes I am going to talk about over the course of this week with each related to Milton Keynes. I am dipping into my book MILTONKEYNES THE CITY OF LEGEND to share some special icons within Milton Keynes, some of which are in danger of being lost.

So today let’s start with TRAINS.

Leon Bridge: I guess this is the logical place to start.

Prior to September 1838 the southern part of this railway terminated at this bridge when passengers were conveyed by coach to rugby where they re-joined the railway to Birmingham. This commemoration by Sir Herbert Leon Bart of Bletchley Park by kind permission of the LRMW railway August 1920

Words placed by Sir Herbert Leon on Denbigh Hall Bridge, a legend I discuss in great length within Milton Keynes The City Of Legend.

Who built the London to Birmingham Railway via Denbigh Hall Bridge ? Robert Stephenson was the engineer behind the first inter-city line to be built into London. The Parliamentary Act authorising its construction was passed on 6^th  May 1833.

Denbigh Hall Bridge aka Leon Bridge is not just a Milton Keynes legend but one of great importance across the entire British railway network.

Three dates here:

6^th May 1833 – That was a Monday by the way: King William IV was on the throne and Charles Grey 2nd Earl Grey was Prime Minister. (Did he have anything to do with a cup of tea and the Bletchley Teabag by any chance !)

September 1838: Queen Victoria was our monarch and William Lamb 2^nd Viscount Melborne was prime minister.

August 1920: George V was on the throne and David Lloyd George was living in 10 Downing Street.

Sir Herbert Leon who was knighted within the coronation honours of King George V was a friend of David Lloyd George who I am sure knew of Leon’s celebrating the importance of Denbigh Hall Bridge.

That importance has long been lost and forgotten. Now in 2023 with King Charles III as our monarch and Rishi Sunak with his feet under the desk at 10 Downing Street I want so much to help restore the words of Sir Herbert Leon and place this Milton Keynes landmark of legend in the place of honour it deserves. SADLY our present member of parliament is not interested.

Let me take a few words from the bridge’s inscription: Park by kind permission of the LRMW railway August 1920. Leon and the railway were not exactly best of friends.

The railway ran alongside one side of the Leon estate and in the days of steam trains soot collected on Sir Herbert’s property. Large metal plates were put in the trees and cleaned every week to try and stop soot collecting in Bletchley Park. However, they failed to stop it entirely and Sir Herbert sued the London Midland and Scottish Railway Company winning the case but being awarded damages of just one shilling (5p).

Night Mail by W H Auden:

This is the night mail crossing the Border,

Bringing the cheque and the postal order,

Letters for the rich, letters for the poor,

The shop at the corner, the girl next door.

Dating from 1936 there are no fewer than nine versions to be found on YouTube.

Listen to the words and you will hear the genius of poet W H Auden beating the rhythm of the train in the verse.

The Night Mail is a 1936 documentary film produced by the General Post Office (GPO) Film Unit. GPO = Royal Mail today. The twenty-four minute film documents the nightly postal train operated by the London Midland and Scottish Railway (The same railway Leon had sued in court) from London to Scotland and the staff who operate it. The route passed through Milton Keynes and the train crossed Leon Bridge.

This was a TPO train. TPO – Travelling Post Office. Mail was collected along the route, sorted by postal workers and dropped off here, there and everywhere from London to Scotland. The train did not need to stop to pick up and collect letters. They were hung out in sacks by the side of the line and scooped up by a net hung out by staff. Sorted letters were bagged up and thrown out to be caught in similar nets.

Letters of thanks, letters from banks,

Letters of joy from girl and boy,

Receipted bills and invitations

To inspect new stock or to visit relations,

And applications for situations,

And timid lovers’ declarations,

And gossip, gossip from all the nations,

News circumstantial, news financial,

Letters with holiday snaps to enlarge in,

Letters with faces scrawled on the margin,

Letters from uncles, cousins, and aunts,

Letters to Scotland from the South of France,

Letters of condolence to Highlands and Lowlands

Written on paper of every hue,

The pink, the violet, the white and the blue,

The chatty, the catty, the boring, the adoring,

The cold and official and the heart’s outpouring,

Clever, stupid, short and long,

The typed and the printed and the spelt all wrong.

If you watch the film on YouTube you will find one of those postal nets is located, as the film’s commentary explains, in Bletchley . This is probably somewhere near where the Lakes Estate stands today.

Great Train Robbery:

Is what I am about to share truth or is it simply a legend ?

8th August 1963, I was twelve years old and remember it well. As the news broke the nation was stunned. Stunned but there was a bit of excitement and even admiration for the bravado of those involved.

A TPO train carrying used bank notes from bank to bank was robbed at Bridego Bridge, South of Milton Keynes.  Get it right, there was no Milton Keynes then - South of Bletchley. The robbers got away with £2.6 million - £53.5 million in today's money.

The bridge has not changed a lot in fifty-six years and is, rightfully, a legend. But what is not known is how Bletchley features in this legend.

In 1971, shortly after I moved to live in Milton Keynes, I was given a tour of Bletchley by the man who had been the editor of the Bletchley Gazette at the time of the robbery. He told me the train was towed into sidings at Bletchley Station for the police to investigate. I have since been told that it was not the original train in Bletchley Station but another placed there for the benefit of the media.

Bletchley played a major part in the investigation. Did it ? Or was it just a deception ?

In 1981 I was called to jury service at Aylesbury Crown Court where I sat in the very courtroom where The Great Train Robbers were sentenced. On.8th August 2019, the anniversary of the robbery,  I drove to Bridego Bridge and looked at the scene. The bridge has not changed but the railway has, Virgin Trains raced across it at speeds approaching 100mph. The train that was robbed was a TPO - Travelling Post Office. Postal Workers sorted the mail as the train moved along. Mail was picked up and dropped off along the way.

Let me take you back to W H Auden's poem The Night Mail ?

It was a night mail that was robbed. A night mail that was also being used to transport physical bank notes before the age we know today of electronic transfers

When you put a letter into a post box it becomes the property of The King until it is delivered. So, in effect, The Great Train Robbers were stealing from The Queen, Her Majesty Queen Elizbeth II. Ronald Biggs, Charles Wilson, Douglas Goody, Thomas Wisbey, Robert Welch, James Hussey and Roy James - were jailed for 30 years each. Incredibly harsh sentences but set as an example to other would-be train robbers.

It's about ten miles from Bletchley to Bridego Bridge yet both are locked together in history and in legend. Either as the location for the police to examine the train or just for a replica to

keep the media happy The Great Train Robbery has a legendary place in Bletchley and Milton Keynes.

Wolverton Works:

Too often when we talk about Milton Keynes Wolverton gets pushed aside. This is so wrong, so very wrong. It pours legend into our City’s heritage and is at the centre, literally, of our railway system.

The home once upon a time of Wolverton Works maintaining the railway the location of the works was chosen for Wolverton because it was mid-way between Birmingham and London. In the early days of our New City Wolverton Works was one of our biggest employers.

Sadly that has all gone, not into history but into heritage. Wolverton has found a new identity but never forget its importance within our railway. Within that importance is Royal Patronage, it was the home of The Royal Train. Of all the locations across all railway tracks in the country this honour was given to Wolverton.

Bletchley:

Wolverton Railway Station in the north of our New City and in the south Bletchley. Not a lot more in the childhood days of our New City than fields between them, fields with their grazing concrete cows.

In the early days of Milton Keynes Bletchley was the greater used station. As a student teacher in Bletchley Park it was my access point to and from my home in the Midlands. It was also the gateway to London, who remembers the 25p (Or was it 50p) Night Flier return tickets to London. I used this bargain ticket to watch Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar at the Palace Theatre in London.

I remember a super coffee shop on one of the platforms and I can recall the giant signal box, known as the power box controlling rail traffic way beyond Milton Keynes. I never went there but everyone knew of the Railway Club adjacent to Bletchley Station where only the very best entertainment was ever on offer.

Wellthere you go – Milton Keynes A City Of Legends – SO MANY RAILWAY LEGENDS.

On Wednesday we will let Billy J sing about BOATS. Boats in Milton Keynes ?  We are a bit far away from the coast are we not ?

Watch this space !