Interview with three Bletchley residents about employment for women in the 1950s, Bletchley housing, shopping and local politics (1995).

Interview with Monica Austin, Daphne Taylor and Brenda Monaghan, Bletchley residents.

After leaving school Monica Austin was employed by W.S. Johnson, and involved with cattle sales; she describes aspects of the market; other interviewees join in the discussion, talking of the locations of the market, its burning down and its future. They recall that in the 1950s it was thought to be unacceptable and degrading for mothers to work.

Daphne Taylor moved from London with her husband and son in 1975, to the Wimpey development in Hunter Drive. She recalls her son’s education at Eaton Mill and Leon schools. Brenda Monaghan moved from London with her husband and two sons to get better housing. She worked in Woolworths.

The interviewees discuss Bletchley housing developments, attitudes to London incomers and local shopping. They recall entertainment in the early days: the two cinemas in Bletchley and Fenny Stratford, also a theatre in Fenny Stratford. They remember fundraising for Queen’s Pool, and dismay about its closure: ‘we all felt when the Leisure Centre was built … it was such an eyesore’. They also recall the bandstand on Leon recreation ground, where the town band played; this closed down in the 1950s.They discuss the thriving Labour Party, which included a high number of railway workers. They recall that in 1970, Robert Maxwell lost his seat as local M.P. to Bill Benyon, and the town turned Conservative.

They discuss the decline in Bletchley and the closing of many shops. Their general opinion is that Central Milton Keynes takes shoppers away from Bletchley. Finally they discuss the current state of Bletchley; their view is that it has no soul and has lost its sense of community, with Milton Keynes overshadowing it.