Milton Keynes

Coordinates: 52°02′N 0°46′W / 52.04°N 0.76°W / 52.04; -0.76

Milton Keynes (ⁱ/ˌmɪltən ˈkiːnz/ mil-tən-KEENZ), locally abbreviated to MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, England. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes and was formally designated as a new town on 23 January 1967, with the design brief to become a "city" in scale. It is located about 45 miles (72 km) north-west of London.

At designation, its 89 km² (34 sq mi) area incorporated the existing towns of Bletchley, Wolverton, and Stony Stratford, along with another fifteen villages and farmland in between. It took its name from the existing village of Milton Keynes, a few miles east of the planned centre.

At the 2011 census, the population of the Milton Keynes urban area, including the adjacent Newport Pagnell and Woburn Sands, was 229,941, and that of the wider borough, which has been a unitary authority independent of Buckinghamshire County Council since 1997, was 248,800, compared with a population of around 53,000 for the same area in 1961.

Borough of Milton Keynes

The Borough of Milton Keynes is a unitary authority area and borough of the ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire. It is the northernmost district of the South East England Region.

It borders the non-metropolitan counties of Buckinghamshire (the area under the control of Buckinghamshire County Council), Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire. The principal settlement in the borough is Milton Keynes itself, which accounts for about 33% of its area and 90% of its population.

History

The district was created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, by the merger of Bletchley Urban District, Newport Pagnell Urban District and Wolverton Urban District, Newport Pagnell Rural District and that part of Wing Rural District within the designated New Town area. The district council applied for and received borough status that year.

It was originally one of five non-metropolitan districts of Buckinghamshire, but on 1 April 1997, under a recommendation of the Local Government Commission for England it became a self-governing unitary authority, independent from Buckinghamshire County Council.

Middleton, Milton Keynes

Coordinates: 52°02′32″N 0°42′17″W / 52.0422°N 0.7047°W / 52.0422; -0.7047

Middleton is a civil parish in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The parish is centred on Milton Keynes Village, the village that gave its name to the 'New City' of Milton Keynes, which began to be developed during the late 1960s. The Village also gives its name to the local civil parish, of which Middleton is the more populated district.

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). After the Norman invasion, the de Cahaines family held the manor from 1166 to the late 13th century as well as others in the country (Ashton Keynes, Somerford Keynes, and Horsted Keynes). During this time the village became known as Middleton de Keynes eventually shortening to Milton Keynes.

The original core village of the district, along Walton Road and Broughton Road, has retained its "Milton Keynes" road signs and has an attractive collection of rural village houses and a thatched pub which dates back to the 13th century. It is now known as "Milton Keynes Village".

Broughton, Milton Keynes

Coordinates: 52°03′00″N 0°41′38″W / 52.050°N 0.694°W / 52.050; -0.694

Broughton /ˈbrɔːtən/ is a historic village in North Buckinghamshire that has been a constituent element of Milton Keynes since the latter's designation in 1967; a civil parish; and modernly a suburb and new district of the 'city'.

History and Location

The name is Old English and meant village by the brook. In the Domesday Book, it is listed as owned by a Walter Giffard and the tenant was a Hugh de Bolbec. In the 6th century, its name was spelt Brotone, which is still its customary pronunciation. The original Northampton to London turnpike came through the village (to join Watling Street [now the A5 road] near Woburn). The current main route, the M1 motorway, is very near and Junction 14 is barely half a mile away.

The Milton Keynes grid road, Portway (H5), forms the district's northern boundary and Tongwell Street (V11) provides its western. The section of the old turnpike, once the A50, is now part of the A5130. The original route through centre of the old village, named 'London Road', was bypassed in the early 1970s, the newer route runs between it and the another MK district, Brook Furlong, and provides the eastern boundary. Finally, Chaffron Way (H7), provides the southern boundary: in mid-2009 this was extended to meet the A5130 and was opened to traffic in March 2010.

Milton Keynes (UK Parliament constituency)

Milton Keynes was a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1983 until 1992.

It covered the north Buckinghamshire Borough of Milton Keynes, including Milton Keynes itself (and thus its older settlements such as Bletchley) together with Newport Pagnell, Olney and the rural area to the north of Milton Keynes.

The Borough of Milton Keynes was established in 1974, seven years after the new town was first designated. Before 1983, the Borough was part of the Buckingham constituency; however, its population had expanded to such an extent that a new constituency was created. The sitting Buckingham MP, William Benyon of the Conservative Party, was elected for the new seat, and was its only ever MP.

In 1992, in a rare interim review of constituency boundaries, Milton Keynes was split into two separate constituencies: North East Milton Keynes and Milton Keynes South West.

Boundaries

The Borough of Milton Keynes wards of Bradwell, Church Green, Danesborough, Denbigh, Eaton, Fenny Stratford, Lavendon, Linford, Loughton, Manor Farm, Newport Pagnell, Newton, Olney, Pineham, Sherington, Stantonbury, Whaddon, Woburn Sands, and Woughton.