SOUNDING SPACE #030
Fred Roche Gardens, Milton Keynes
Field Notes compiled by Miss Evelyn Summerfield (intern)
Ed. Dr Stella Barrows
INTRODUCTION and HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
Milton Keynes is the largest settlement in Buckinghamshire, it is bordered by the River Great Ouse on the Northern boundary, and unlike many urban centres is at least ¼ set to park or woodland. Although known as a ‘New Town’ there have been plentiful settlements in the area over millennia which might account for some of the sonic ‘hot spots’ we have so far experienced during our investigations.
FRED ROCHE GARDENS
According to the Buckinghamshire Gardens Trust the “Fred Roche Gardens lie in the heart of the city centre, behind Christ the Cornerstone church and The Guildhall, and overlooked by offices on Silbury and Midsummer Boulevards. They provide a tranquil haven in the busy commercial district of Central Milton Keynes. The gardens include lawns, borders, formal features, and quiet seating areas, all laid out on a number of different levels by the original designers of Central Milton Keynes. A remnant of a lane predating Milton Keynes is preserved in one corner, and a number of sculptures by Bernard Schottlander are given an attractive setting.”
The Fred Roche Gardens were previously known as City Gardens, with the area renamed in 2012 to honour Fred Roche CBE who was appointed in 1970 as the first General Manager of Milton Keynes Development Corporation 1970-1985.
FRED ROCHE and the MILTON KEYNES DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
Fred Roche's vision for Milton Keynes developed from his fascination with the Garden City Movement. He guided the development of the city into a richly landscaped place, integrating the surrounding countryside, with a network of parks, which provided a beautiful environment for its new population. He was Vice President of the Royal Institute of British Architects 1983-1985.
Modern Milton Keynes was part of a hopeful and optimistic time of new home building and City-making:
The thinking behind the city was set out in bold, if rather vague terms: “The purpose of our future cities, for which Milton Keynes could be the prototype, must be to provide a setting for learning, for the development of imagination, and for exchange of information”.
-John Grindrod, pg.387, Concretopia, 2013 (quoting Judy Hillman)
Dr. S. Barrows (President of the NISG) has posited that building work in the environs of this park over the past 50 years may well have stimulated conversational, melodic, ambient and proto-historic sonic phenomena through its disturbance of the underground strata over multiple years. This fortunate occurrence, as well as the potential effect of the surrounding buildings acting as sonic ‘baffles’ offers NISG an opportunity to record and analyse this extraordinarily rich urban field site.
GEOLOGY
With reference to the British Geological Survey’s notes on the area, in general terms Milton Keynes can be considered as a portion of more or less dissected boulder clay plateau. With streams falling fairly steeply to the Ouse and Ouzel flood plains, across slipes cut chiefly in Oxford Clay, Middle Jurassic rocks. In particular, the Blisworth Limestone and Cornbrash form strong features in the lands bordering the Ouse Valley to the North.
The final stages (in geological terms) of the physiographic evolution can be related to the erosional and depositional events of the Quaternary period. It is considered that there were several glacial and interglacial intervals in Pleistocene times, but locally evidence of only one major ice sheet has been found. The buried channels beneath the present Ouse and Ouzel valleys were cut before the advance of the Chalky Boulder Clay ice sheet over the area. They are infilled with alternations of laminated lake sediments and boulder clays which can be related to oscillations of the ice front.
[NOTE: there is fascinating research into post-glacial river morphology and sounding spaces being undertaken by Dr Wolfgang Lovejoy into this field in his popular science book: Meander With Me Awhile! Adventures in Alluvium. – SB]
HISTORY
At designation, Milton Keynes incorporated the existing towns of Bletchley, Fenny Stratford, Wolverton and Stony Stratford, along with another fifteen villages and farmland in between. These settlements had an extensive historical record since the Norman conquest; detailed archaeological investigations prior to development revealed evidence of human occupation from the Neolithic period to modern times. A further consideration is the Earth Trauma caused during the building required to make a city, in which countless works were completed, dislocating surface geologies and exposing the ground in a manner conducive to seeding and percolation of contemporary ambient phenomena and thereby LAYERING and FOLDING lithological soundscapes of wildly differing timeframes together.
[NOTE this is a particularly interesting phenomena you’ve picked up upon Evelyn, and one which I hope to demonstrate to you more fully during the course of our field research. Well done, excellent work in drawing on your own research notes. SB]
EARLY HISTORY
As with most of Britain, during the Palaeolithic era (50000 – 10000 BC) most of the area was covered with ice but with intermittent warmer periods. Flint hand axes have been found in river gravels from this time. During the Mesolithic (10000-4000 BC) more technologically advanced flints were found as were narrow blades. In the Neolithic (4000-2200) there is evidence of settlement and the removal of tree cover.
In common with many of the best Sounding Spaces, the area we now know as ‘Milton Keynes’ saw significant activity in the Bronze Age (2500 – 700BC) particularly with burial mounds and barrows which were constructed close to the river.
[Evelyn, a general comment on style, the average enthusiast/interested amateur/citizen scientist will broadly know when the various historical eras are, you do not need to tiresomely quote dates at them! SB]
The Milton Keynes Hoard is a hoard of Bronze Age gold found in September 2000 in a field at Monkston Park. The hoard consisted of two torcs, three bracelets, and a fragment of bronze rod contained in a pottery vessel. The inclusion of pottery in the find enabled it to be dated to around 1150–800 BC. The hoard was described by the British Museum as "one of the biggest concentrations of Bronze Age gold known from Great Britain" and "important for providing a social and economic picture for the period". The hoard was valued at £290,000 and is now in the British Museum.
Several other antiquities, including Romano-British hoards, have been found within a 10 mile radius of the centre of Milton Keynes.
[NOTE: the phenomena we now know as sonic geology was first perceived by myself from a series of six bronze age burial mounds, the Bincombe Bumps, outside of Weymouth in Dorset, so we certainly know that Bronze Age landscapes are rich sounding areas - SB]
THE ROMANS
As every schoolgirl knows, in AD 43 the Romans invaded Britain and Watling Street was constructed shortly afterwards. During her revolt against the Romans by Queen Boudicca after destroying Verulamium (now St Albans) her forces marched northwards along Watling Street [we believe this to be the A5-ish - SB], through the Milton Keynes Area - her final bloody battle somewhere between St Albans [south of MK] and Wall (Staffordshire). According to Roman historian Tacitus, Boudicca’s rebels massacred 70,000 Romans and pro-Roman Britons and cut to pieces the Roman 9th Legion. Possible Roman Fort and remains (pottery, villas etc. etc.) have been found all over the area which might account for such highly charged sonic events which may well have percolated into the surrounding rock.
CONFLICT and BATTLE
During the first English Civil War in 1643 the Parliamentary Army of the Earl of Essex spent 6 weeks at Great Brickhill. Royalist forces encircle Newport Pagnell with defences, a short section of which still survives in Bury Field. Newport Pagnell subsequently taken by the Parliamentarians. John Bunyan was a member of the Newport garrison for several years. In our early research phase we perceived sounds of proto-historical battle emanating from the ground beneath our feet.
TWENTIETH AND TWENTY-FIRST CENTURIES
In 1939 the Government Code and Cypher School took over Bletchley Park to work on intercepting and transcribing German military communications. This work was very influential in numerous operations in WWII.
1952 the Town Development Act leads to Bletchley becoming an overspill town for London and in 1967 Milton Keynes New town was begun with 1969 seeing the Open University created at Walton and construction starting on the first ‘New Town’ flats in Simpson. 2008 saw the completion of the original plan for Milton Keynes. At the millennium, the nearby Midsummer Place Shopping Centre Opened.
BELLS
Although there is a distinct lack of church bells in central Milton Keynes which is at its oldest only around 60, there are several possibilities of where these sounds might emanate from.
Research shows that circa 1000 the Tower of the Church of St Michael, Lavendon was built. Medieval markets were established in 950 at Newport Pagnell, 1199 at Stony Stratford and in 1204 at Fenny Stratford and at similar times Churches were also constructed.
Woughton-on-the-Green is an area of south-central Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It takes its name from the original ecclesiastic parish of Woughton and its original village, Woughton on the Green. There is still a very active local band of ringers. Martin Petchey, Chair of the North Bucks Branch of the Diocesan Guild of Bellringers, said [in Milton Keynes…] “Bells have always rung out to celebrate national occasions”.
OTHER
One of the sonic hotspots seems to definitely have the sound of a tavern sing along, possibly circa the 18th century (from dating the songs). I have identified two possible sources of the music, which we believe might have percolated into the strata.
Ye Olde Swan pub (also at Woughton on the Green) is rumoured to be haunted by famous highwayman Dick Turpin.
The Old George Inn in Stony Stratford on Watling Street is a hotel and bar situated in the centre of the historic market and Roman town of Stony Stratford, Milton Keynes. This 16th Century inn is steeped in history.
OTHER contributing factor:
The Bernard Schottlander sculptures could be acting as a focusing antenna that channels electromagnetic frequencies into the ground, releasing dormant resonances in the manner of a lightning conductor. Geometry within the construction of the park itself may also be a factor here.
[Well-compiled site notes Miss Summerfield, a good first attempt and I’m sure the NISG team will agree. This last point is however sheer conjecture and I'd suggest you return to more rigorous data collection and observation - SB]