Bletchley, Milton Keynes
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- Bletchley redirects here. For other uses see Bletchley (disambiguation)
Bletchley is a town in the "New City" of Milton Keynes, England. It is part of the Borough of Milton Keynes unitary authority, in ceremonial Buckinghamshire. It is situated in the south-west of Milton Keynes but still retains a distinctive identity. Bletchley is split between the parishes of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford and West Bletchley.
Bletchley is the site of Bletchley Park, the headquarters of Britain's World War II codebreaking organisation, now a museum.
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[edit] Origin
The town name is Anglo-Saxon and means Blæcca's clearing. It was first recorded in manorial rolls in the 12th century as Blechelai.
[edit] Development
Bletchley is located on the Roman road Watling Street, and was also a major Victorian railway junction (the London and North Western Railway with the Oxford-Cambridge line), which led to the huge urban growth in the town in that period. Bletchley railway station is now one of the five stations which serve Milton Keynes.
At Fenny Stratford, Bletchley is also linked to London, the Midlands and the UK canal network via the Grand Union Canal.
In the urban growth of the Victorian period brought by the railway, the town merged with nearby Fenny Stratford. Fenny Stratford had been constituted an urban district (with Simpson) in 1895, and Bletchley was added in 1898 The urban district was renamed Bletchley in 1911.
In the early 1960s, there was a further substantial expansion of the town, with people from London being relocated by the Greater London Council, mainly to a London overspill estate to the south of Water Eaton. The population of the urban district increased from 5,500 in 1921 to 17,000 in 1961.
It was "The Plan for Milton Keynes" that would bring the most dramatic change to the future of Bletchley.
[edit] Milton Keynes
Bletchley was included in the "designated area" when the New City of Milton Keynes was founded in 1967. It should be noted that although Milton Keynes is commonly referred to as the "New City" it has yet to receive city status in the United Kingdom. Bletchley thrived in the early years of the growth of the new city, since it was the main shopping area. Bletchley centre was altered considerably when the Brunel Shopping Centre was built in the early 1970s. Previously, Queensway — formerly known as Bletchley Road — was a continuous run from Buckingham Road near the railway station right into Fenny Stratford. The boom came to an abrupt end when the new Central Milton Keynes Shopping Centre was built and, in recent years, commercial Bletchley has declined as a retail destination.
[edit] Bletchley and Fenny Stratford parish
The districts that make up this parish are Brickfields (includes the Blue Lagoon), Central Bletchley, Denbigh (including Denbigh North), Eaton Manor, Fenny Stratford, Granby, Manor Farm, Mount Farm and Water Eaton (includes "Lakes Estate").
[edit] Denbigh
For many years, Denbigh has been an important employment area: perhaps its most famous resident is Marshall Amplification.
In 2005, large commercial developments occurred on the immediate outskirts of Bletchley, although still in the civil parish of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford. The supermarket chain ASDA-Wal-Mart and the Swedish furniture retailer IKEA built and opened large stores at Denbigh North, northeast of the town centre on Watling Street, and Tesco responded by expanding its Fenny Stratford store (also on Watling Street). Whether or not these new developments accelerate the decline of the town centre remains to be seen.
This same area of development is also home to the new Denbigh Stadium for Milton Keynes Dons F.C., who will move from their current home at the National Hockey Stadium some time in 2006. Away fans may arrive via Bletchley railway station, and this may bring some added business to the town.
[edit] The Blue Lagoon
Image:Gnarled Tree.jpg Milton Keynes has its own nature reserve in Bletchley. The Blue Lagoon attracts many local visitors every day. School children in Bletchley are often taken on trips to learn about the history of this site.
[edit] Social issues
The Lakes Estate council estate has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in Europe: 59 in every 1,000 girls aged 15-17 have children.<ref>GMTV article</ref>
[edit] West Bletchley parish
West Bletchley parish covers that part of Milton Keynes that is south of Standing Way (A421), west of the West Coast Main Line and north of the Varsity Line.
The parish has a population of 20,994 according to the 2001 census. The districts and neighbourhoods in the parish are:
- Church Green (including Bletchley Park)
- Far Bletchley
- Old Bletchley
- West Bletchley (district)
- Whaddon (ward)
Most districts of West Bletchley Parish are residential, but the district of Bletchley Park is important enough to be sumarised here.
[edit] Bletchley Park
Within the West Bletchley parish, in the Church Green district, is Bletchley Park, which, during the Second World War, was home to the Government Code and Cypher School. The German Enigma code was cracked here by, amongst others, Alan Turing. Another cipher machine was solved with the aid of early computing devices, known as Colossus. The park is now a museum, although many areas of the park grounds have been sold off for housing development.
[edit] References
- Edward Legg, Early History of Bletchley Park 1235– 1937, Bletchley Park Trust Historic Guides series, No. 1, 1999
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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- Mapping from Multimap or GlobalGuide or Google Maps
- Aerial image from TerraServer
- Satellite image from WikiMapiade:Bletchley
