Netherfield's Great History

Netherfield

NEVER JUDGE A BOOK BY IT’S COVER 

Netherfield Residents Association has been going for over 35 years, we do Trips to the seaside, fun days, Parties and help the community get the best from our Estate, we have a history we want to share.

 


Did you know?

Netherfield was one of the earliest completed rental housing grid squares in MK.  It was built between 1972 – 1977, and is the second largest rental scheme in the city.
The first houses were available in 1974 and by 1981 2,650 people had moved in making Netherfield the 4th largest new housing community in MK.

 Criticism

Despite criticism, Artists have been drawn to Netherfield: Eugene Fisk, writing in 1981 described Netherfield in a bow-shaped curve of land in the south of the city… the top of the bow slopes down towards the canal, with views of Woughton and Walton beyond.  The long rows of houses are corrugated metal (Like Beanhill) but the height and change of colour bring us to a different place.  Three-storey lengths of silver-grey stretch across a marvellously planted site.  Each house in the terraces is separated from the next by a projecting fin……
And sculptors have created two special features which are still in the ABC park on Netherfield: The Owl & the Pussycat by Liz Leyh (1976) and the Totem Pole by Lesley Bonner (1979).

 The meaning of Netherfield and it’s roads

The word Netherfield comes from an old field name recorded in 1781, and literally means “Land that is Low-Lying”, in the same way that Holland is known as the Netherlands, or Lowlands.
The street names came from the times of the “Lord of the Manor” in the Middle Ages (1200 – 1500A.D), using words connected with fields, ploughing and land measurements – as follows:

 “Langland” – A long piece of land. 

“Beadlemead” –  The parish officer’s meadow. 

“Farmborough” – The manor-house farm.

 “The Hide”   –  

The amount of land which could be tilled with one plough in one year or was needed by one free family and its dependants.

“Farthing Grove”- A quarter of an acre, or a quarter of a “Hide”.

“Broadlands”- A wide spacious area of land.  

Buckland”- Fields where deer can be found.

 Barnfield” – A Barley field.

 

 

Comments about this page

  • Does anyone know where the totem pole has been moved to .Last remember seeing it near the hospital, after its original site in Netherfields,Owl and the pussy cat park ?

    By Virginia Cripps (23/09/2022)
  • Interesting to read these comments. My dad ran the Co-Op shop on Langland Road. We were the 2nd family to move there, the first family ran the newsagents.
    I also remember being part of creating the giraffe and other playparks around Netherfield. What an amazing forward way of living / social experiment. Shame it kinda failed when we look at it today

    By Nicholas Pellatt (31/07/2022)
  • I used to live on beadlemead in the early 80s, I remember playing on the giraffe and sitting on those steps I had a friend who’s dad owned a ice cream van the street behind, I remember saving loads of 2ps and spending it on gobstoppers from her dads van. There used to be loads of children playing at the giraffe, I also remember the owl and the pussy cat such beautiful art work.

    By Louise mason (29/09/2020)
  • I moved to 280 langland rd netherfield in 1974, I was 7 years old, there was a shop in langland road, because farthing grove wasn’t yet built. I lived there until I grew up and had kids of my own.
    I help make the giraffe with bill billings and other various art projects around netherfield. It was a great place to live and explore..

    By Liz Wright (25/03/2019)
  • I have lived on Netherfield for 42 years and the shop on Langland road was the co op

    By Barbara Samuels (29/01/2017)
  • Lived opposite the giraffe and used to sit on it and sulk when I got told off by mum

    By Debs savage (27/01/2017)
  • Lived opposite the brontosaurus and used to sit on it and sulk when I got told off by mum

    By Debs savage (27/01/2017)
  • Hi there
    It’s not a brontasauraus it’s a giraffe and I helped make it. I was one of the first residents of Netherfield and lived there before Langland Road was finished. I was 7 when I moved there and there was a shop in Langland Road for a little while as well.

    By lizzie (05/01/2015)
  • Can anyone tell me about the Brontosaurus shown in the picture.
    We are going to rebuild it but would like any information on it to help us.

    By Janette Bobey (08/04/2014)
  • I can remember them going up. There was a shop on the Marlborough Street side where I used to pop in when I passed on my way to the building site that was to become the city centre. People who were moving in at Netherfield were delighted with their houses and loved being in the middle of open countryside (as it was then) with gardens and fields and trees all round.

    By Sue (05/04/2014)

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