The MK People's Stories - a Museum for a New City Project
A Museum For A New City is a project intended to help to shape the new permanent exhibition in MK Museum’s New Gallery, telling the story of how Milton Keynes was planned and built. The Museum wanted to know what people who call Milton Keynes home want to see, learn and discover. As the Museum was founded by local residents they felt that its future should be determined by local residents.
As part of the project Living Archive MK recorded filmed interviews with local residents to capture their stories and memories of life in Milton Keynes in order to help tell the “People’s Story”.
The project was made possible with support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
To view the digital stories created as part of this project visit our You Tube channel
https://www.youtube.com/@LivingArchiveMK
Creator
Living Archive MK in collaboration with MK Museum
Place
MIlton Keynes and surrounding areas
Reference number
MNC
Records in this Collection
Laxman Kastala talks of his young life in Southern India and his move to the UK after graduation in 2005; after three years in Crawley, he found better job opportunities in MK in in the manufacturing industry. MK’s main benefit to him was its central location, also he heard it was modern tand a good ...
Sheniah Asiamah was born and raised in Milton Keynes, living in Stantonbury until she was 10 when she then moved to Neath Hill. Sheniah grew up with Caribbean influence; her mother is from Jamaica and she was regularly involved in activities held by a predominantly West Indian church. Sheniah attended Stantonbury Secondary school, a school ...
Tim was born in Norfolk in 1954. He joined Milton Keynes Development Corporation in 1979 as a Negotiation Surveyor in the Private Housing Unit. He rented a flat in Fishermead (which he later bought) and joined the Hockey Club. He was in the Corporation tent for the Homeworld exhibition to advise people about self-build plots.
He ...
Victoria was born in Croxley Green, Hertfordshire in June 1986. She first visited Milton Keynes in 2014 for a shopping trip with her husband. She knew nothing about it before the visit. They walked from the station to the shops and she was taken by all the trees. She had her photo taken with the ...
Chinwe Osaghae was born in June 1965 in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. She came to the UK to visit her mother after graduating and stayed. She moved to Milton Keynes with her husband in August 2012. She’d known about the green spaces – but not the concrete cows – before she moved. They settled in Oldbrook ...
Scott was born and raised in Norwich after his parents emigrated from Hong Kong to start a new life in the UK. His parents ran a Chinese takeaway. Scott spoke only Cantonese until he went to school. During his teenage years he helped prepare meals in the takeaway – mostly cooking fried rice.
After University Scott ...
Aran Lemaur was born in Spain in 1990. She first came to England, to London, in 2009, but returned to Spain the following year because university tuition fees were so high. She graduated with a degree in Translation in Servicing. After working in Spain, she joined a company in Cambridge in the fashion industry in ...
John Clough was born in 1969 and started working for Abbey National in 1987 in the Milton Keynes branch. He progressed to Mortgage Advisor, then Kempston Branch Manager, then a branch in Lloyds Court and then into Fraud at Head Office in 1992. His personal highlights were the early days in Fraud and getting the ...
Martin Neville was born in Hackney, London, in 1953. After university, he became a civil servant, working in Hackney and then Aylesbury. He moved to Milton Keynes in 1991 in order to be closer to a synagogue; he also worked at the Court in Bowback House. In his professional life, Martin helped set up the ...
Nisha Makwana was born in Nairobi, Kenya in 1973. She met her husband in London and moved there initially; they moved to Milton Keynes twenty years ago because of its convenience for commuting. She didn’t know much about Milton Keynes before moving here but found it peaceful and quiet. She currently lives in Bletchley. She ...
Star O’Donnell was born in 1991 in Milton Keynes and grew up in Stony Stratford. She is Head of Media Studies at the Radcliffe School. Currently she lives in Hanslope, a large village which she says feels safe, with a lot of green spaces. She had a great childhood because her mum drove, so they ...
Nnenna Bamgboye was born in 1963 in Lagos, Nigeria. She lived in London for most of her life; she moved to Milton Keynes in 2015 because her brother was already living here. She now works as an administrator at the Radcliffe School. Having visited her brother many times in the school holidays, she liked the ...
Valerie was born in Newport Pagnell in 1960. She’s lived in Leighton Buzzard for 12 years and for a year in Lincolnshire, but the rest of her life has been in Milton Keynes.
She went to Castlethorpe school, then to Radcliffe. She worked two nights a week and Saturdays at Maisies from 13 until she left ...
Sas was born in Asakraka in Ghana in 1982. His family moved to a high rise flat in Camberwell in London and then to Milton Keynes, when Sas was four or five. He thinks his parents moved to MK for a better quality of life – he remembers the space and the green, in contrast ...
Serena Robb was born at Milton Keynes hospital on October 1994. She grew up on Fishermead; she has fond memories of her schools, Penwith and Meadfurlong, which were very diverse but well integrated. She says Fishermead people always helped each other, no matter their race or religion. Because Serena’s mum worked part time they spent ...
Penny Miller was born in Northampton in 1959. In 1970 her father became Head of English at Ousedale School in Newport Pagnell; in l972 her Mother became the Headmistress at Stoke Goldington School and they moved into the school house there; they later moved to Newport Pagnell when Penny was 16. She spent most of ...
Steve Truan was born in Truro, Cornwall, in 1969. He moved to Milton Keynes after university, in 1993, to find a job in teaching; he met his wife here (she was also a teacher, then in New Bradwell). He now teaches at Radcliffe School, where he is Assistant Headteacher. Living in Wolverton, he enjoys the ...
Frozan Marofi was born in 1974 in Kabul City, Afghanistan; her father worked for the government of Afghanistan. After graduation, Frozan worked for the Ministry of Education, developing and implementing teacher training, particularly for women. This work was interrupted during the 3-year civil war, when the family fled to Pakistan. Later, from 2012, she worked ...
Ansar Hussian was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire in 1970 and moved to Milton Keynes with his parents in 1985. He started as a student at boarding school in New Bradwell to acquire a more detailed knowledge in the Islamic sciences. He has fond memories of this time, playing football and cricket in the local ...
Born in London to Zimbabean parents, Debra moved to MK in 2004 to join her parents, to escape the high costs of living and working in London. She knew that MK was different, with lovely lakes and parks, and she had good memories from visiting family there. She describes her ‘idyllic childhood’ in Zimbabwe, from ...
Joan was born Arkansas in the US in 1947 and moved to Milton Keynes in 1995, where she lived and worked at Camphill Community MK, a residential community providing work and housing for adults with a range of learning disabilities. Camphill communities exist across the world and are inspired by the work of pioneering educator ...
Nigel Chappell recounts his memories of living in Bletchley whilst his father worked for the Milton Keynes Development Corporation. His father specialised as a street lighting expert, but as the City grew, he had to diversify and adapt to the demand. As such, he was involved in various design projects ranging from The Point and ...
She was born in Slough in 2008, moved to Pakistan when she was five and came to Milton Keynes when the family returned to the UK. She had lived in Islamabad and Lahore and she saw that Milton Keynes had less pollution and more greenery.
Her family lived in Oxley Park and she did years five ...
She was born in Karachi, Pakistan in 1974. She moved to Milton Keynes after she married because her husband came from there and had a job there. She had three children. She worked as a child-minder.
She did not know much about Milton Keynes before she moved. She found it green and clean. She lived in ...
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