lord_seagrave Posted March 23, 2010 Report Share Posted March 23, 2010 I don't wish to offend anyone, but Milton Keynes does not (in my mind) evoke images of gamboling lambs and the thwack of leather on willow. I think shopping centres, roundabouts and car parks. HOWEVER, there is a slim possibility of Lady Seagrave and I relocating from the rolling fields of Peckham to the battle-ravaged ganglands of Buckinghamshire and I wonder if anyone knows any nice villages within a reasonable (preferably cycling) commute of Milton Keynes that might suit the next incarnation of Seagrave Towers (two bedrooms, separate kitchen and a garden). Somewhere with a nice pub and maybe a fish & chip shop and some fields. Google maps is showing me a lot of the latter, but that's no substitute for first-hand expereince. What have you got? LS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beardo Posted March 23, 2010 Report Share Posted March 23, 2010 Woburn just to the south is rather nice. plenty of decent gun shops around MK as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy. Posted March 23, 2010 Report Share Posted March 23, 2010 Roundabout, followed by roundabout, followed by roundabout. The whole place is run on a grid system, so if you're a resident, you direct someone to your house by the horizontal (H) and vertical (V) roads. So you can basically say "go down the V12 and go left on the H33 and I live on the right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al4x Posted March 23, 2010 Report Share Posted March 23, 2010 I Hate it with a passion, a grid system should be easy to navigate but its not, look to the side away from the M1 as it gets scenic pretty fast Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zapp Posted March 23, 2010 Report Share Posted March 23, 2010 Olney is rather nice, and within striking distance. ZB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al4x Posted March 23, 2010 Report Share Posted March 23, 2010 ah Olney used to know a few people played rugby for them, nice village though always seemed to leave slightly the worse for wear after watching rugby Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digger Posted March 23, 2010 Report Share Posted March 23, 2010 (edited) Plastic town populated by plastic fans of a plastic mockery of a football club Edited March 23, 2010 by digger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allthegearandnoidea Posted March 23, 2010 Report Share Posted March 23, 2010 I used to play against Olney when I lived up that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malkiserow Posted March 23, 2010 Report Share Posted March 23, 2010 Given your "industry", can you realy relocate or are you changing careers as well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan73 Posted March 23, 2010 Report Share Posted March 23, 2010 Woburn, Heath and Reach, Stewkley, Stoke Hammond, Great Brickhill, Bow Brickhill, Little Brickhill. All of the surrounding villages are superb. As for MK itself, I live in one the villages mentioned above and having MK on my doorstep is great - loads of places to eat, lots of lakes for sailing, fishing, walking, running, you can always find parking, a decent gun shop (R&K), theatre, John Lewis, good train links to London and Manchester. Its really not that bad - I'm originally from Hemel Hempstead so anywhere else is a god-send...... - apologies if you are from Hemel - but as we used to say 'gimme 6 brother'!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lord_seagrave Posted March 23, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2010 Given your "industry", can you realy relocate or are you changing careers as well? Ah, well spotted. MK is only half an hour to Euston, and Euston is walkable from the office. I will at least attempt to commute for a while. There is a little something on the back-burner involving a career-change, but it's not up for public discussion just yet... My mother used to work in Olney, and although it counts for nothing these days my bank accounts live there as well. Interestingly, I have a chum in Filgrave, which is just down the road from Olney. Nick, will look at Woburn. I could have my own polharska noč! Hmmm... Any more ideas? LS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodcock11 Posted March 23, 2010 Report Share Posted March 23, 2010 OLNEY is good or just across the border in Northants try SYRESHAM or some of the villages around WINSLOW. This is real pretty middle England and you can find wonderful juxtapositions of the M1 motorway,the west coast main line and the Grand Union Canal - old & new side by side we went through the Blisworth tunnel on a narrow boat a couple of years ago - took about 30 minutes and it was some experience. Incredible too to be pottering along in a narrowboat at about 2 mph and to be passed by a Virgin train doing what - maybe 125 mph! MILTON KEYNES is pretty grim but the shopping centre I seem to remember was quite good with John Lewis etc. At the time we lived at ASHWELL, near to BALDOCK in Herts - that is another very nice part of the world, just off the A1 [M] real countryside and with The Three Tuns [Greene King] & Bushel & Strike [Charles Wells] plus the Rose & Crown giving choice for drinking. The church is very very old and has some fascinating pictures carved in the stone of the old St Pauls Cathedral - work done by unfortunates who got sick in the great plague in 1665 or 1666 - very old graffiti! There are also a number of good pheasant & partridge shoots around with opportunities for beating or picking up. However, this is within car rather than cycle commute of MK so apologies all round if this tasty information is useless but ASHWELL would make for a decent weekend day out for you & her Ladyship. Wish you well with your move wherever it is and it will be a lot quieter than Peckham. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duncan Posted March 23, 2010 Report Share Posted March 23, 2010 OLNEY is good or just across the border in Northants try SYRESHAM or some of the villages around WINSLOW. This is real pretty middle England and you can find wonderful juxtapositions of the M1 motorway,the west coast main line and the Grand Union Canal - old & new side by side we went through the Blisworth tunnel on a narrow boat a couple of years ago - took about 30 minutes and it was some experience. Incredible too to be pottering along in a narrowboat at about 2 mph and to be passed by a Virgin train doing what - maybe 125 mph! MILTON KEYNES is pretty grim but the shopping centre I seem to remember was quite good with John Lewis etc. At the time we lived at ASHWELL, near to BALDOCK in Herts - that is another very nice part of the world, just off the A1 [M] real countryside and with The Three Tuns [Greene King] & Bushel & Strike [Charles Wells] plus the Rose & Crown giving choice for drinking. The church is very very old and has some fascinating pictures carved in the stone of the old St Pauls Cathedral - work done by unfortunates who got sick in the great plague in 1665 or 1666 - very old graffiti! There are also a number of good pheasant & partridge shoots around with opportunities for beating or picking up. However, this is within car rather than cycle commute of MK so apologies all round if this tasty information is useless but ASHWELL would make for a decent weekend day out for you & her Ladyship. Wish you well with your move wherever it is and it will be a lot quieter than Peckham. ASHWELL a pretty little village ,the baker shop is the best i`ve been to .I used to go beating over in Barkway and the owner was one of the guns and bought us beaters hot jam doughnuts ,,, nice part of Hertfordshire Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al4x Posted March 23, 2010 Report Share Posted March 23, 2010 The bakers are famous but Ashwell is bleeding miles from MK as a commute it would be truely horrendous and thats before you try it on a pushbike. The only plus point I can see is about the first mile would be downhill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nial Posted March 23, 2010 Report Share Posted March 23, 2010 ASHWELL a pretty little village ,the baker shop is the best i`ve been to .I used to go beating over in Barkway and the owner was one of the guns and bought us beaters hot jam doughnuts ,,, nice part of Hertfordshire It also has (had) a good butcher, stereotypical cricket pitch, Norman church and the headquarters of the Veteran Car Club. We lived there for a couple of years, lovely wee place (3 pubs). Nial. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al4x Posted March 23, 2010 Report Share Posted March 23, 2010 its where Top gear planted rape to grow biodiesel and Richard Hammond blocked trying to go to the shop in a quad trac Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pyr8 Posted March 23, 2010 Report Share Posted March 23, 2010 spent a week in milton keyes one afternoon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duncan Posted March 23, 2010 Report Share Posted March 23, 2010 spent a week in milton keyes one afternoon. you were lucky i have to work there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodcock11 Posted March 23, 2010 Report Share Posted March 23, 2010 Golly, it looks as if everyone has lived in ASHWELL at some stage - I had forgotten about the excellent bakers and butchers - I think the latter also sells fresh fish and there certainly was also a deli at one time. Lord Seagrave mentions a commute to London & Euston. Well, Ashwell has a pretty little train station right out in the country [Ashwell & Morden] with a fast electric service starting from Cambridge or Royston into Kings Cross so dead handy for St Pancras & Eurostar if his Lordship is thinking of taking her Ladyship to Paris or Bruxelles. Being near the start of the line, there was never a problem with getting a seat on the train either. The train station is about one mile from the village and a nice level cycle ride and with the bonus of yet another good pub just next to the station called I think The Jester in which to have a pint before cycling home. They used to sell [1982] Adnams amongst other beers. There is or was a cricket green with a local team and also a very good surgery with three friendly & sociable doctors, all of whom became good friends plus I seem to remember a chemists shop as well. The shoot incidentally was at NEWNHAM, another very small village between the A1 [M] / A 505 and Ashwell and was owned by a family called Farr - a great shoot to be out on and good fun all round. Oh, and by the way, if Lady Seagrave is hooked on the retail opportunities of Milton Keynes, it is only about 40 minutes by car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DSPUK Posted March 23, 2010 Report Share Posted March 23, 2010 Funny how you get pre conceptions --- I always thought MK was a part of London -- like a suberb - sorta Tower hamlets of somewhere or other - Where all the £1m premium bond winners live before they won then moved to countryside like Battersea on sea. - Haven't been to London since 1978 so perhaps it's changed. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imperfection Posted March 23, 2010 Report Share Posted March 23, 2010 Oh gawd-not Milton Keynes. Fine if you like (lots of) roundabouts and (lots of) parrarel roads,but the town itself is rather uninspiring.Home wise-why not stretch it out a little to Leighton Buzzard? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wookie Posted March 23, 2010 Report Share Posted March 23, 2010 Don't go there. Just choose one of the outlying villages that are not part of the sprawl. Otherwise it is a case of The Truman Show, but with roundabouts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nial Posted March 23, 2010 Report Share Posted March 23, 2010 I forgot but Ashwell's also got it's own nuclear observation bunker just up the road.... http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&sour...mp;t=h&z=20 It's the light blob in the centre of the picture. It was opened for 'Ashwell day' or whatever it was when we were there and I got down into it. A couple of observers were supposed to monitor for nuclear blasts and report back to a central control room in case of nuclear war! Nial. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beardo Posted March 23, 2010 Report Share Posted March 23, 2010 i'm working in MK this Friday funnily enough - good excuse to visit the gunshops as i should finish early Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zapp Posted March 23, 2010 Report Share Posted March 23, 2010 Otherwise it is a case of The Truman Show, but with roundabouts. And where Truman gets stabbed for his mobile and has his car nicked by joyriders. ZB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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