Well Here We Are - This Is Me!!

I've lived in Milton Keynes for 31 years now, since I moved here with my Mum & Brother way back in 1974, when it was already infamous for its concrete cows.

When we first came to MK, it consisted of just three or four new estates dotted around between the towns of Newport Pagnell, Wolverton, Stony Stratford & Bletchley, which form the rough triangle, that is Milton Keynes. With a few other small villages that fell inside the city boundaries. It is now a large, bustling modern city covering some 30sq miles, full of modern housing & industry, with a 'state of the art' shopping & leisure complex at it's heart. The city has expanded at an amazing rate, especially during the early 80's and late 90's, to the point that there are no longer large 'open' spaces apart from the generous 'planned' park & green areas. I can remember when I first came to MK (or Tree City as it's often called), that you could drive down the old A5 Watling St to Bletchley, passing through mainly open farm land & without having to stop at any junctions or round-a-bouts!!

I was born at the cottage hospital (long since gone) in the picturesque town of Llangollen, Denbighshire, North Wales on a very cold day in January 1964.

Since then I've moved around a fair bit, after staying in a very small cottage on Hall St in Llangollen for about 6 months, we moved to Baker St, Lutterworth, Leicestershire, which is where my Mum's parents lived and still do! My Mum often tells the story of me being taken in a pram to the school in Shawell (a small village outside Lutterworth), where she was teaching, in a taxi and being looked after by the dinner lady! So much for this 'modern' idea of a creche at your place of work!! -)lol

After a couple of years in Lutterworth, we moved to a large house on Derwent Drive (right on the corner as I remember) in Loughborough, Leicestershire. Where my Dad got a job lecturing at the Technical College, as it was then called. Whilst living here my brother Chris was born, I can just remember his christening & playing with my 'Blue Bus' in the front garden (apparently Dad has cine-film footage of me doing this!). I can also remember going to what must have been Nursery School, somewhere on the Nanpanton Road. Then graduating to Infants, which must have been close to Derwent Drive, as I can recall walking home. One other important note here, is Mum also spent some time teaching here & I can remember having the dubious honour of being in her class! Gulp (can't remember if it was in Infants or Middle School though..?). I also seem to remember falling asleep in class one day.

After another couple of years at Derwent Drive, we moved to a bungalow in Sandalwood Road, Loughborough. About the only thing I have clear memory of here is Dad's Triumph Herald standing on the drive (most likely rusting away quiet happily :-) lol) & some neighbours down the road having a Sunbeam Rapier, must of been 1970/71. Ohh yes, I've just remembered BBC's Tomorrows World came to our house to film one day! There were wires everywhere, I think it was something to do with a 'new' rotary bread knife (something like a meat slicer??), a portion of the film used to be in the opening titles....ahh, fame at last! -)lol. UPDATE: After talking to Mum about this, I got a little more detail. We had a lodger staying with us at this time (who I can't really remember??), Tania, who was a student at the Ergonomics Faculty at the University and the TW people came to film good/bad ergonomic kitchen design, with a focus on disabled people, at the time Mum was getting around in a wheelchair.

 Around 1972 (I think?), we moved out to the small village of Packington, near Ashby De-La-Zouch, Leicestershire, again another bungalow at the bottom of Homecroft Drive. I can remember Dad fiddling with his motorbike in the garage here & me riding pillion on the back to Mallory Park on many occasions to see the likes of Mick Grant, Phil Reed, Ron Haslam, Barry Sheen (as a very young man riding 125's) & the great Agostini riding an MV Augusta, the sound of which still lives with me today! School wise I recall that the Head of the village school (combined infants/middle I think) was Mr Palmer & I got in to mega-trouble for running away one day when I had a bad migraine.

Then in 1974, as I said above, Mum, my brother Chris & I moved to Milton Keynes. Boy! what a change, funny shaped houses and lots of things going on & my first exposure to 'Londoners'! Lots of whom moved out to Milton Keynes during its early years. The First house we lived in was on Galley Hill, on the edge of Stony Stratford, I remember thinking it was very strange because it had a single pitch sloping roof and no radiators (it had a hot air heating system). As for school, I went to Watling Way Middle School (which was just over our 'back fence') for about a year & a half, then graduated up to the Radcliffe Secondary School in Wolverton, where I met many of my friends & formed a close circle of really good 'mates', including Jim (aka Lumpy), Rob (aka Dr. Bobs), Lee (aka Chivers or Stoat) & Gary (aka Mr Intellect), you can find most of us on Friends Reunited in year 1980 HERE. After some 9years at Galley Hill, we moved down the hill into Stony 'proper', a nice Victorian terraced house in Park Road which had been renovated & extended.

What happened next?....I hear you say...click HERE to view my 'bio' page.

I also have a News & Blog page HERE

We now have a growing photo gallery look HERE