Editing Milton Keynes (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of Milton Keynes}}

===Birth of a 'new city'<!-- Leave this as 'city', it's in inverted commas for a reason. All the 1960s government papers and MKDC design documents described it as a 'new city'. The term 'New City' remains in common use locally, particularly to distinguish the wider urban area from the existing towns that contributed to it. Towns within a town would be totally confusing. -->===
{{see also|History of Milton Keynes#Milton Keynes Development Corporation: designing a city for 250,000 people}}
{{Blockquote|It may startle some political economists to talk of commencing the building of ''new cities'' ... planned as cities from their first foundation, and not mere small towns and villages. ... A time will arrive when something of this sort must be done ... England cannot escape from the alternative of new city building.
 | source = T. J. Maslen, 1843<ref>{{cite book |title=Suggestions for the improvement of Our Towns and Houses|last=Maslen |first=T. J. |year=1843 |publisher=Smith, Elder |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/suggestionsfori00maslgoog}} (Quoted in Walter L Crease, ''The search for Environment'', Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1966, p319).</ref>{{sfnb|Bendixson|Platt|1992|page=265}} }}
In the 1960s, the UK government decided that a further generation of [[new towns in the United Kingdom|new towns]] in the [[South East of England]] was needed to relieve housing congestion in London.<ref name="ses1">{{cite report |title=South East Study 1961–1981 |publisher=HMSO |location=London |date=1964 |quote=A big change in the economic balance within the south east is needed to modify the dominance of London and to get a more even distribution of growth |url=https://archive.org/details/op1265576-1001}} cited in ''The Plan for Milton Keynes'' (Llewellyn-Davies et al (1970), page 3</ref> Since the 1950s, [[London overspill|overspill]] housing for several [[London borough]]s had been constructed in [[Bletchley]].<ref name="clutch1">{{cite web |url=http://clutch.open.ac.uk/schools/eaton-overspill00/begining.html |title=Bletchley Pioneers, Planning, & Progress |publisher=Clutch.open.ac.uk |access-date=23 November 2012 |archive-date=27 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927072106/http://clutch.open.ac.uk/schools/eaton-overspill00/begining.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="clutch2">{{cite web |url=http://clutch.open.ac.uk/schools/eaton-overspill00/housing.html |title=Early days of overspill |publisher=Clutch.open.ac.uk |access-date=23 November 2012 |archive-date=27 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927072059/http://clutch.open.ac.uk/schools/eaton-overspill00/housing.html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="times1">{{cite news |title=Need for more planned towns in the South-East |newspaper=[[The Times]] |date=2 December 1964}}</ref> Further studies<ref name="ses1" /><ref name="times2">{{cite news |title=Urgent action to meet London housing needs |newspaper=[[The Times]] |date=4 February 1965}}</ref> in the 1960s identified north Buckinghamshire as a possible site for a large new town, a new city,{{sfnb|Llewellyn-Davies|Weeks|Forestier-Walker|Bor|1970|p=xi}}{{efn|The Plan for Milton Keynes begins (in the Foreword by Lord ("Jock") Campbell of Eskan): "This plan for building the new city of Milton Keynes ...&nbsp;"}} encompassing the existing towns of Bletchley, [[Stony Stratford]], and [[Wolverton]].{{sfnb|Llewellyn-Davies|Weeks|Forestier-Walker|Bor|1970|p=8}} The New Town (informally and in planning documents, 'New City') was to be the biggest yet, with a target population of 250,000,<ref name="times3">{{cite news |title=Area of New Town Increased by 6000 acres |newspaper=The Times |date=14 January 1966}}</ref>{{sfnb|Llewellyn-Davies|Weeks|Forestier-Walker|Bor|1970|p=4}} in a '[[History of Milton Keynes#Designated area|designated area]]' of {{convert|21883|acre|ha|1|abbr=on}}.<ref name="longaz" /> The name 'Milton Keynes' was taken from that of [[Middleton, Milton Keynes|an existing village]] on the site.{{sfnb|Llewellyn-Davies|Weeks|Forestier-Walker|Bor|1970|p=3}}

On 23 January 1967, when the formal "new town designation order" was made,<ref name="longaz" /> the area to be developed was largely farmland and undeveloped villages. The site was deliberately located equidistant from London, [[Birmingham]], [[Leicester]], [[Oxford]], and [[Cambridge]],<ref name="Interim report">{{cite book |last=Llewellyn-Davies |author2=Forestier-Walker |author3=Bor |title=Milton Keynes: Interim Report to Milton Keynes Development Corporation |publisher=[[Milton Keynes Development Corporation]] |date=December 1968}}</ref>{{sfnb|Llewellyn-Davies|Weeks|Forestier-Walker|Bor|1970|p=xii}} with the intention that it would be self-sustaining and eventually become a major regional centre in its own right.<ref name="ses1" /> Planning control was taken from elected [[Local government|local authorities]] and delegated to the Milton Keynes Development Corporation (MKDC). Before construction began, every area was subject to detailed archaeological investigation: doing so has exposed [[History of Milton Keynes|a rich history of human settlement]] since Neolithic times and has provided a unique insight into the history of a large sample of the landscape of North Buckinghamshire.<ref>{{cite book| first1= R. A. |last1=Croft | first2= Dennis C. |last2=Mynard |first3= Margaret |last3=Gelling |title= The Changing Landscape of Milton Keynes |publisher=Buckinghamshire Archaeological Society | series=  Buckinghamshire Archaeological Society Monograph Series |number =5 |isbn= 9780949003126 | quote = "The creation of Milton Keynes provided an opportunity to study an extensive rural landscape before it was changed irreversibly. This book brings together the results of 20 years of excavation, fieldwork and documentary studies carried out by the Milton Keynes Development Corporation." | location = Aylesbury | date = 1993 }}</ref>

The corporation's strongly [[Modern architecture|modernist]] designs were regularly featured in the magazines ''[[Architectural Design]]'' and the ''[[Architects' Journal]]''.{{sfnb|Bendixson|Platt|1992|p=107}}<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.mkcdc.org.uk/shop/architectural-design.html| title=Architectural Design 6, 1973. Special issue: Milton Keynes| publisher=[[Architectural Design]]| date=1973| access-date=26 February 2019| archive-date=26 February 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190226172922/http://www.mkcdc.org.uk/shop/architectural-design.html| url-status=live}} Staff of MKDC on the cover of Architectural Design</ref><ref>{{cite magazine| url=https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/culture/aj-archive-milton-keynes-planning-study-1969/10016661.article| title=AJ archive: Milton Keynes planning study (1969)| magazine=The [[Architects' Journal]]| date=1969| access-date=10 February 2019| archive-date=19 January 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190119121727/https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/culture/aj-archive-milton-keynes-planning-study-1969/10016661.article| url-status=live}} reprint 23 January 2017</ref> MKDC was determined to learn from the mistakes made in the earlier [[new town]]s,{{sfnb|Bendixson|Platt|1992|pp=1, 47}}<ref name=Guardian100516>{{cite news |author=Barkham, Patrick |url=https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/03/struggle-for-the-soul-of-milton-keynes |title=The struggle for the soul of Milton Keynes |date=3 May 2016 |access-date=11 May 2016 |newspaper=The Guardian |archive-date=23 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190723174633/https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/03/struggle-for-the-soul-of-milton-keynes |url-status=live }}</ref> and revisit the [[garden city movement|garden city ideals]].{{sfnb|Clapson|2014|p=3}}{{sfnb|Bendixson|Platt|1992|p=xii}} They set in place the characteristic [[Milton Keynes grid road system|grid roads]] that run between districts ([[#Grid roads and grid squares|'grid squares']]), as well as a programme of intensive planting, [[balancing lake]]s and parkland.<ref>''Milton Keynes: A Living Landscape'', [[Fred Roche]] Foundation, 2018</ref> [[Central Milton Keynes]] ("CMK") was not intended to be a traditional [[town centre]] but a [[central business district|central business and shopping district]] to supplement local centres embedded in most of the grid squares.{{sfnb|Llewellyn-Davies|Weeks|Forestier-Walker|Bor|1970|p=33}}  This non-hierarchical devolved city plan was a departure from the English new towns tradition and envisaged a wide range of industry and diversity of housing styles and tenures.{{sfnb|Llewellyn-Davies|Weeks|Forestier-Walker|Bor|1970|p=14}} The largest and almost the last of the British New Towns, Milton Keynes has 'stood the test of time far better than most, and has proved flexible and adaptable'.<ref name="bishop1">{{cite book |first=Jeffrey |last=Bishop |title=Milton Keynes{{snd}} the Best of Both Worlds? Public and professional views of a new city. |publisher=[[University of Bristol]] School for Advanced Urban Studies |date=1981 |isbn=9780862922245 |oclc=756979521}}</ref> The radical grid plan was inspired by the work of [[Melvin M. Webber]],{{sfnb|Bendixson|Platt|1992|p=46}} described by the founding architect of Milton Keynes, [[Derek Walker (architect)|Derek Walker]], as the 'father of the city'.<ref name="walker2">Walker ''The Architecture and Planning of Milton Keynes'', Architectural Press, London 1981. Retrieved 13 February 2007</ref>  Webber thought that telecommunications meant that the old idea of a city as a concentric cluster was out of date and that cities which enabled people to travel around them readily would be the thing of the future, achieving "community without [[wiktionary:propinquity|propinquity]]" for residents.<ref name="webber">{{cite book|first=M |last=Webber |date=1963|chapter=Order in Diversity: Community Without Propinquity|editor-first= L|editor-last= Wingo |title=Cities and Spaces|publisher= Hopkins|location= Baltimore}}</ref>

The government wound up MKDC in 1992, 25 years after the new town was founded. Control was transferred to the Commission for New Towns (CNT) and then finally to [[English Partnerships]], with planning functions returning to the local council (Milton Keynes Borough (now City) Council). From 2004 to 2011 a government [[quango]], the [[Milton Keynes Partnership]], had development control powers to accelerate the growth of Milton Keynes.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://milton-keynes.cmis.uk.com/milton-keynes/Document.ashx?czJKcaeAi5tUFL1DTL2UE4zNRBcoShgo=pKuWcI%2Bd%2BN8WSDJ%2F4qLBt3sRSvp4j6yR9bkyofvUDqCG6ml%2BsAsXfg%3D%3D&rUzwRPf%2BZ3zd4E7Ikn8Lyw%3D%3D=pwRE6AGJFLDNlh225F5QMaQWCtPHwdhUfCZ%2FLUQzgA2uL5jNRG4jdQ%3D%3D&mCTIbCubSFfXsDGW9IXnlg%3D%3D=hFflUdN3100%3D&kCx1AnS9%2FpWZQ40DXFvdEw%3D%3D=hFflUdN3100%3D&uJovDxwdjMPoYv%2BAJvYtyA%3D%3D=ctNJFf55vVA%3D&FgPlIEJYlotS%2BYGoBi5olA%3D%3D=NHdURQburHA%3D&d9Qjj0ag1Pd993jsyOJqFvmyB7X0CSQK=ctNJFf55vVA%3D&WGewmoAfeNR9xqBux0r1Q8Za60lavYmz=ctNJFf55vVA%3D&WGewmoAfeNQ16B2MHuCpMRKZMwaG1PaO=ctNJFf55vVA%3D |title=MILTON KEYNES PARTNERSHIP COMMITTEE ROLE AND REMIT |date=7 September 2005 |access-date=18 February 2019 |publisher=Milton Keynes Council |archive-date=29 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200229130857/https://milton-keynes.cmis.uk.com/milton-keynes/Document.ashx?czJKcaeAi5tUFL1DTL2UE4zNRBcoShgo=pKuWcI%2Bd%2BN8WSDJ%2F4qLBt3sRSvp4j6yR9bkyofvUDqCG6ml%2BsAsXfg%3D%3D&rUzwRPf%2BZ3zd4E7Ikn8Lyw%3D%3D=pwRE6AGJFLDNlh225F5QMaQWCtPHwdhUfCZ%2FLUQzgA2uL5jNRG4jdQ%3D%3D&mCTIbCubSFfXsDGW9IXnlg%3D%3D=hFflUdN3100%3D&kCx1AnS9%2FpWZQ40DXFvdEw%3D%3D=hFflUdN3100%3D&uJovDxwdjMPoYv%2BAJvYtyA%3D%3D=ctNJFf55vVA%3D&FgPlIEJYlotS%2BYGoBi5olA%3D%3D=NHdURQburHA%3D&d9Qjj0ag1Pd993jsyOJqFvmyB7X0CSQK=ctNJFf55vVA%3D&WGewmoAfeNR9xqBux0r1Q8Za60lavYmz=ctNJFf55vVA%3D&WGewmoAfeNQ16B2MHuCpMRKZMwaG1PaO=ctNJFf55vVA%3D |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Formal award of city status===
Along with many other towns and boroughs, Milton Keynes competed (unsuccessfully) for [[city status in the United Kingdom|formal city status]] in the 2000, 2002 and 2012 competitions.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.open.edu/openlearn/society-politics-law/geography/not-city-milton-keynes |title=This is not a city: Milton Keynes |publisher=The [[Open University]] |access-date=17 February 2019 |archive-date=18 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190218021240/https://www.open.edu/openlearn/society-politics-law/geography/not-city-milton-keynes |url-status=live }}</ref> However the Borough (including rural areas, in addition to the MK urban area<ref>{{cite web |title=Milton Keynes city status application |date=December 2021 |url= https://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2022-06/Milton%20Keynes%20city%20status%20application.pdf|access-date=31 October 2023 |publisher=[[Milton Keynes City Council]]}}</ref>) was successful in 2022, in the [[Platinum Jubilee Civic Honours|Queen's Platinum Jubilee Civic Honours]] competition. On 15 August 2022, the [[Crown Office in Chancery|Crown Office]] announced formally that [[Elizabeth II|Queen Elizabeth II]] had ordained by [[letters patent]] that the Borough of Milton Keynes has been given city status.<ref name="letters patent">{{cite journal |title=Crown Office|journal=[[The London Gazette]] |date=18 August 2022 |issue=63791|url= https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/4142642|access-date=19 August 2022 |publisher=[[The Stationery Office|TSO]]}}</ref> In law, it is the Borough rather than its eponymous settlement that has city status; nevertheless it is the latter that is more commonly known as the city.<ref>{{cite news |title=Milton Keynes named one of the best places to live in the UK |work=Bucks Free Press |date=16 March 2024 |first=James |last=Richings |url=https://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/24188276.milton-keynes-named-one-best-places-live-uk/ |quote= Forget the 1970s image of concrete cows, endless roundabouts and ugly architecture, the new town turned city deserves its place on the Sunday Times list.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Matthew |last=Davis |title=Why Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, is one of the best places to live 2024 |work=Sunday Times |date=15 March 2024 |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/milton-keynes-buckinghamshire-england-best-place-to-live-uk-2024-25ltsjsxq}}</ref>

===Name===
{{Quote box|Labour Minister [[Richard Crossman|Dick Crossman]] …looked at [a] map and saw [the] name and said "[[John Milton|Milton the poet]], [[John Maynard Keynes|Keynes the economic one]]. 'Planning with economic sense and idealism, a very good name for it.'"
 | source = [[Jock Campbell, Baron Campbell of Eskan]]<ref name=name>{{cite web |url=https://www.livingarchive.org.uk/content/local-history/topics/area-development/father-of-the-new-city |title=Father of the New City |author = Dave Persaud |publisher= Living Archive |location=Milton Keynes }}</ref>
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The name 'Milton Keynes' was a reuse of the name of one of the original historic villages in the designated area,<ref name=name /> now more generally known as '[[Middleton, Milton Keynes|Milton Keynes Village]]' to distinguish it from the modern settlement. After the Norman conquest, the [[Keynes family|de Cahaignes family]] held the manor from 1166 to the late 13th century as well as others in the country ([[Ashton Keynes]] in Wiltshire, [[Somerford Keynes]] in Gloucestershire, and [[Horsted Keynes]] in West Sussex).<ref name=VCH-MKV /> The village was originally known as Middeltone (11th century); then later as Middelton Kaynes or Caynes (13th century); Milton Keynes (15th century); and Milton alias Middelton Gaynes (17th century).<ref name=VCH-MKV>{{cite book |chapter-url= https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/bucks/vol4/pp401-405 |chapter= Parishes : Milton Keynes |series= [[Victoria History of the Counties of England]] |title= A History of the County of Buckingham |volume= 4 |date= 1927 |pages= 401{{ndash}}405 |publisher= [[Constable & Robinson|Constable & Co. Ltd.]] |access-date= 17 February 2019 |archive-date= 18 February 2019 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190218081919/https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/bucks/vol4/pp401-405 |url-status= live }}</ref>

===Prior history===
[[File:Milton Keynes Hoard.jpg|thumb|upright|The [[Milton Keynes Hoard]] of [[torc]]s and [[bracelet]]s, on display at the  [[British Museum]] ]]
The area that was to become Milton Keynes encompassed a landscape that has a rich historic legacy. The area to be developed was largely farmland and undeveloped villages, but with evidence of permanent settlement dating back to the [[Bronze Age]]. Before construction began, every area was subject to detailed archaeological investigation: this work has provided an insight into the history of a very large sample of the landscape of south-central England. There is evidence of [[Stone Age]],<ref>{{cite web | publisher = Milton Keynes Heritage Association | url = http://www.mkheritage.co.uk/mkm/mkarchaeology/Web%20pages/stoneage.html | access-date = 3 January 2007 | title = Archaeology in the Milton Keynes District: Stone Age | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061108044829/http://www.mkheritage.co.uk/mkm/mkarchaeology/Web%20pages/stoneage.html | archive-date = 8 November 2006 | url-status = dead }}</ref> late [[Bronze Age]]/early [[Iron Age]],<ref>{{cite web | publisher = Milton Keynes Heritage Association | url = http://www.mkheritage.co.uk/mkm/mkarchaeology/Web%20pages/Bronze%20Age.html | access-date = 3 January 2007 | title = Archaeology in the Milton Keynes District: Bronze Age | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061108044714/http://www.mkheritage.co.uk/mkm/mkarchaeology/Web%20pages/Bronze%20Age.html | archive-date = 8 November 2006 | url-status = dead }}</ref>  [[Romano-British]],<ref>{{cite web | publisher = British Museum | url = https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/cm/g/gold_stater.aspx | access-date = 10 September 2009 | title = Object 2234: "Gold stater ('Gallo-Belgic A' type) Roman, mid-2nd century BC Probably made in northern France or Belgium; found at Fenny Stratford near Milton Keynes, England" | archive-date = 18 October 2015 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151018121026/http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/cm/g/gold_stater.aspx | url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | publisher = Milton Keynes Heritage Association | url = http://www.mkheritage.co.uk/mkm/mkarchaeology/Index.html | access-date = 3 January 2007 | title = Archaeology in the Milton Keynes District: archaeological sites and artefacts found at Bancroft and Blue Bridge, part of the old farmland of Stacey Hill Farm, now Milton Keynes Museum. | archive-date = 9 December 2006 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061209140707/http://www.mkheritage.co.uk/mkm/mkarchaeology/Index.html | url-status = live }}</ref> [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo-Saxon]],<ref name="MynardHunt">{{cite book| last1=Mynard |first1=Dennis |last2=Hunt |first2=Julian | title=Milton Keynes, a pictorial history |	location=Chichester, West Sussex |publisher=Phillimore |isbn=978-0-85033-940-6|year=1994 }}</ref> [[Anglo-Normans|Anglo-Norman]],<ref>[[Domesday Book]], Buckinghamshire</ref> [[Medieval]],<ref name=vch-new /><ref name="MynardHunt"/> and late [[Industrial Revolution]] settlements such as the railway towns of [[Wolverton]] (with its [[Wolverton railway works|railway works]]) and [[Bletchley]] (at the junction of the [[London and North Western Railway]] with the Oxford{{ndash}}Cambridge [[Varsity Line]]).<ref name=vch-ble /><ref name=vch-wt /> The most notable archaeological artefact was the [[Milton Keynes Hoard]], which the British Museum described as 'one of the biggest concentrations of Bronze Age gold known from Britain and seems to flaunt wealth.'<ref name=bm-mkh>{{cite web|url=https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-milton-keynes-hoard/QQGgqMW-vTh2rA|title=The Milton Keynes hoard|publisher=[[British Museum]]/[[Google Cultural Institute]]|access-date=31 January 2018|archive-date=20 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210220173407/https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-milton-keynes-hoard/QQGgqMW-vTh2rA|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Bletchley Park]], the site of [[World War II]] [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] [[Cryptanalysis|code-breaking]] and [[Colossus computer|Colossus]], the world's first programmable electronic [[digital computer]],{{sfnb|Copeland|2006|loc=''Introduction'' p. 2}} is a major component of MK's modern history. It is now a flourishing heritage attraction, receiving hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/news/v.rhtm/Bletchley_Park_welcomes_2015s_200000th_visitor-908901.html |title=Bletchley Park welcomes 2015's 200,000th visitor |publisher=Bletchley Park |date=26 August 2015 |access-date=25 January 2017 |archive-date=2 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202043901/https://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/news/v.rhtm/Bletchley_Park_welcomes_2015s_200000th_visitor-908901.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

When the boundary of Milton Keynes was defined in 1967, some 40,000 people lived in [[#Original towns and villages|four towns and fifteen villages or hamlets]] in the "designated area".{{sfnb|Bendixson|Platt|1992|p=273}}<ref name=BBC50 />