MK50 Exhibition update: September-October 2017

Our exhibition exploring the first twenty-five documents that we think represent Milton Keynes' history, has now moved to Winslow Community Library.  It will be there until 20th October 2017. Details of Winslow Library's opening times and location can be found here:  https://www.buckscc.gov.uk/services/libraries/find-a-library/winslow/

#32 Mr Pooley’s files: The Cost of Monorail, circa 1963-1968

Post #21 looked at the idea of “North Bucks New City”: the proposal for a new town on the eventual Milton Keynes site, developed by Buckinghamshire County Council in the 1960s. This new city did not come to fruition and Milton Keynes Development Corporation was later created to plan and build a new urban centre in …

#31 Illuminated pedigree of the Chester family, compiled by the herald Peter Le Neve (Rougecroix), 1697-1701

This is an example of an illuminated pedigree, displaying the lineage of the Chesters, who were connected to Chicheley Hall, in the area that is now Milton Keynes.  The current Hall was built by Sir John Chester, the 4th Baronet, between 1719-1725, although the family connection is much older than this: William Chester had inherited the Chicheley estate and the earlier …

MK50 Exhibition Update: September 2017

Yesterday we moved our exhibition to Wolverton Library.  The exhibition tells the story of twenty-five of the fifty documents that represent the long history of the area that is now Milton Keynes. Whilst you can see the exhibition from today, the Library is featuring it as part of its Heritage Open Day, details are here: …

#30 ‘Cowper’s Summer House at Olney: An Appeal to the Public’

Summer: a chance to sit back and enjoy our gardens. Today you might find yourself doing this on a balcony or patio; Hymn-writer and poet William Cowper (1731– 1800) found seasonal sanctuary and inspiration in a summer house in his gardens at Olney. Our archive document this month is a small pamphlet, dating to 1919, …

MK50 Exhibition Update: July 2017

Our exhibition Milton Keynes in Fifty Historic Records is currently on display in Kingston Library, Milton Keynes.  It will be here until mid-August. Details of opening hours etc. are here: https://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/libraries/about-libraries/library-opening-hours    

#29 Catalogue of Agricultural Implements and Livestock, Upper Weald, Calverton, 1926

Our reference: AR 97/2016, un-numbered This auction catalogue is a good reminder that farming was a dominant part of the economy in the area that became Milton Keynes. Indeed, the meaning of the place name ‘Calverton’ is ‘the place where calves are reared’. The sale was triggered by the death of farmer George Lovell, who …

#28 Account book of Francis Coales and Son Limited of Town Mills, Newport Pagnell, Tring and Bedford, 1929

How does a family business endure for ninety years? In the case of Francis Coales and Son, it appears to have been a combination of well-timed take-overs, hereditary business acumen, and diversification. In 1885 Francis Coales purchased a Corn Merchants business in Newport Pagnell, and throughout its long-life Francis Coales and Son Ltd. remained a …

#27 Invitation to the Inaugural Dinner and Dance of the Bletchley Football Club, 1967

“Bletchley Football Club requests the pleasure of the company of…” 1967 was an interesting year for the residents of Bletchley; they would have been aware of the decision that was passed into law in January of that year, to build a new town around it: “Milton Keynes”, threatening to swallow the town and turn Bletchley into …

#26 The First Ten Years: A Special Edition of Sesame to Mark the Tenth Anniversary of the Open University 1969-1979

This is a special edition of Sesame, the student publication of the Open University.  It was published in 1979, and celebrates the first ten years of the Milton-Keynes based institution. The cover was drawn by Chris Masters, a Watford-based cartoonist, and it contrasts the flexible world of the Open University, to the more rigid factory-style …