Wolverton, Milton Keynes
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Wolverton is a constituent town of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It is at its northern edge, between Stony Stratford and Newport Pagnell.
It is one of the places in historic Buckinghamshire that went into the development of Milton Keynes in the 1960s.
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[edit] History
[edit] Old Wolverton
The town name is an Old English language word, and means 'Wulfhere's estate'. It was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Wluerintone. The original Wolverton was a medieval settlement just north and west of today's town. This site is now known as Old Wolverton, although the medieval village is all but gone. The Ridge and Furrow pattern of agriculture can still be seen in the nearby fields and the Saxon (rebuilt in 1819) Church of the Holy Trinity still sits next to the Norman Motte and Bailey site. Only the earth mound remains of the Norman castle, though the Saxon tower still stands as central to the rebuilt church, clad in the early nineteenth century 'Anglo-Norman' style. Next door to the Church is the old Vicarage, built in 1729; the front door has stonework from the previous house (1500s) including the de Longueville family coat of arms, and pieces from the earlier church building.
Of the historic village itself, only field patterns marking a deserted village remain. The desertion of Old Wolverton was due to enclosure of the large strip cultivation fields into small "closes" by the local landlords, the Longville family, who turned arable land over to pasture. By 1654, the family had completely enclosed the parish. With the end of the feudal system, the peasants had lost their land and tillage/grazing rights and were forced to find other work or starve. Thus Old Wolverton was reduced from about thirty peasant families in the mid 1500s to almost none, within the space of a century.[1]
The newer area, built about 1km to the east for the railways in the 19th century, assumed the Wolverton name.
[edit] Canal village
The Grand Union Canal passes around the northern and eastern edge of the modern town. The canal originally crossed the River Ouse by descending 10 metres to the river by nine locks, crossing the river on the level and ascended by eight locks on the other side. This was time consuming for navigators and subject to disruption in time of flood. It seems inevitable, therefore, that there were some facilities to serve the barges at least until the Iron Trunk Aqueduct was built across the river to Cosgrove, but little remains except a wharf and a pub.
[edit] Railway town
In 1836 Wolverton was chosen as the site of the locomotive repair shop at the mid-point of the London and Birmingham Railway then under construction. For some years it was the Northern end-point of this line, from where passengers would transfer into horse-drawn vehicles.
In 1846 the L & B became part of the London and North Western Railway, who subsequently decided that locomotives would be built and repaired at Crewe. The last locomotives at Wolverton were built in 1863 and repaired until 1877 after which it concentrated on carriages including railway owned road vehicles. It has also been and still is[citation needed] the home of the Royal Train fleet. During the Second World War, the Works were used to build parts for Lee-Enfield rifles, bomber plane timber frames, Hawker Typhoon wings, Horsa Gliders, and ambulances. Like many older industrial sites, camouflage paint from the period can still be seen on the factory buildings. A pillbox remains opposite the Works Wall.
The railway built some 200 houses for its workers by 1844 along with schools, a church and a market.
[edit] Wolverton railway station
A "toy town" wooden ticket office that stood on the railway bridge, facing out onto Newport Road, with steps leading down to the platform was actually the third location for a station in Wolverton. The original temporary stop was on the embankment above Wolverton Park, a larger station and refreshment rooms were soon built at a location behind what is now Glyn Square. In the 1880s the main line was re-routed to the east to allow for expansion and the current station site has been in use since. The wooden station stood here for over 100 years, however Milton Keynes Borough Council did not make it a listed building and British Rail demolished it in 1991.
The present station is a 'temporary' shed in the car park (at track level). The Council's 'Regeneration Strategy for Wolverton'[1] aims to build a new station in the original position, providing an appropriate gateway to town.
[edit] Football ground
The football ground beside the works and the station was home to the works team and subsequently to Wolverton AFC / Wolverton Town FC football clubs. The stand, built in 1899, is believed to be the first football stand in England. It is set to be demolished by September 2006 because its owners wish to redevelop the site for housing and a community park.[2]
[edit] Secret Garden
In 1999 a group of Wolverton residents clubbed together to persuade National Rail to sell them a piece of derelict land for £1. This piece of land parallel to the Grand Union Canal has been turned into a small parkland known locally as the 'Secret Garden', something the residents felt was missing from the largely industrial area.
[edit] Civil parish
Wolverton formed a civil parish within the Stratford and Wolverton Rural District from 1894 to 1919, which also contained the parishes of Calverton, Stony Stratford East and Stony Stratford West. In 1919 these parishes, combined with New Bradwell, became part of the Stratford and Wolverton Urban District (renamed the Wolverton Urban District in 1920). This urban district would remain in existence until 1974 when it became part of the borough of Milton Keynes. Today, Wolverton is the larger element of the modern parish of Wolverton and Greenleys.
[edit] See also
[edit] Reference
- ^ Buckinghamshire Historical Service plaque on site, of which this section is a summary.
- ^ BBC news item about the spectator stand at Wolverton football ground
[edit] External links
- "Rides on Railways by Samuel Sidney" at Project Gutenberg. See pages 36 to 43 for a contemporary account (and critique) of the early years of the new railway town and the Works.
- Wolverton Words at the Living Archive project : Accents in Wolverton/New Bradwell and how they have changed between the generations, playground games, and memories of older Wolvertonians, as collected by Year 7 children at Bushfield Middle School
