Series on Milton Keynes History

This week I started a series (about 30 posts are currently planned - but that may well rise.) on the sister blog  jdm's history explorer.

I'm re-posting the first in the series here. If you are interested, do subscribe to (or regularly visit) that blog.

Last month the city of Milton Keynes celebrated its 50th birthday - but the area has much of historical interest. It is overlooked by the iron-age fort of Danesborough, includes the Roman settlement of Magiovinium, a Roman villa, the historic Watling Street coaching town of Stony Stratford, Bletchley Park and transport routes from across the ages (Watling Street, Grand Union Canal, Railway, M1). It includes a number of ancient villages and the historic towns of Bletchley, Stony Stratford, Wolverton and Newport Pagnell.

In this and subsequent posts, I will share something of that history. There is an excellent map called "Milton Keynes Heritage". I believe that it may still be available from the Visitor Information Centre in Centre:MK [the huge indoor shopping centre]

I've always believed that to understand the history of an area, it is necessary to study its geography. Milton Keynes is built on a low plateau, crossed by three rivers.

The biggest river forms the Northern boundary of the city itself, then crosses through some of the rural parts and through the town of Newport Pagnell. The Great Ouse runs 143 miles from its sources in Northamptonshire (near the village of Syresham), through Brackley, Buckingham, Milton Keynes, Olney, Bedford, St Neots, Huntingdon, St Ives and Kings Lynn before entering the Wash. The Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum - which settled the border between the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and Danelaw ran along the Great Ouse between Stony Stratford and Bedford.

The second river is the Ouzel (also known elsewhere and in other eras as the Lovat). It rises not far from Whipsnade Zoo - and flows through Leighton Buzzard and through the city close to the site of Magiovinium; past the Open University, meeting the Great Ouse in Newport Pagnell.

The third 'river' is a brook - but it has carved out a pleasant valley which is partly used by the railway. Loughton Brook rises a little outside the City to its south west. It flows through the estates of Tattenhoe Park, Tattenhoe, Emerson Valley, and Furzton - where it feeds Furzton Lake, past the Milton Keynes (National) Bowl, Knowlhill (where the Teardrop lakes are), Loughton, past Bradwell Abbey and close to the Roman Villa in Bancroft, eventually meeting the Great Ouse in New Bradwell.

How to Learn a Second Language

You'd think that I'd be good at learning other languages. After all, I was bilingual as a child. Though I was born and grew up in the West Midlands, my family were from South Wales - and my parents spoke both English and Welsh to me at home. Yet I've always struggled to learn languages. I don't have the ear for it - and the way we were taught French made it tedious and ultimately failed for me (lots of rote-learning - and writing out verb tables and vocab lists). In fact, while I just scraped an O-Level (my worst performance by far), I happily gave up French the day the minute the exam concluded.

It was a trip to Paris (won at a holiday show in Northampton), that ignited my interest in the language. Over time I learned enough for getting by on the holidays we took in France with the children. I came to enjoy reading it (my idea of paradise was, and is, to read Le Monde whilst sitting in the sun and sipping red wine). In fact, I followed the first year of a D.E.U.G. mention Droit (University course in Law at at Université de Poitiers) through attending the first week of each term, getting and buying the reading list, and studying at home. The exam was a disaster - I could read the question - know in my own mind what I wanted to say - but had very poor skills in writing French. (To be honest, I had almost none).

The trouble is, being able to read in a second language, doesn't help you communicate. So when I would pop across to France for a trip - the shopkeepers and waiters would regard me as any other hapless English visitor.

But learning french (or any other language) isn't impossible.

There are lots of books available - and CDs to listen to, but on their own they didn't work for me. I now attend weekly french conversation classes in Milton Keynes with Marie Da Silva. Marie is french, but has lived in Milton Keynes for some years. She's also keen to promote "real learning". She set up a meet-up group for speakers of French (and other groups for other languages - and has organised fun events bringing together people from many different language backgrounds. Recently she set up Lingo Mix. I thoroughly recommend her website - http://lingomix.co.uk/ - and the activities which she runs in Milton Keynes.

I'm finally making real progress. Having the opportunity, in a friendly environment, to practice speaking the language is essential. So whether it's the Tuesday conversation class - or playing Scrabble in French with teams including a wide range of language skill level (last Wednesday) - or a meal with patient French nationals - my skills improve. I had always concentrated on vocab - but Marie has helped me to appreciate how the structure of grammar aids (rather than hinders) learning.

I hope I can persuade Marie to share some of her thoughts in guest posts in the future.

As a teacher myself, I know that a learner can't delegate learning to the tutor. The learner needs to put in the time and effort themselves. So as well as class, and social events - I use other tools at home. I'll be sharing with you what works for me.