A Town By Other Names (22 July 1977)

Milton Keynes Borough Council have set themselves a nice problem in attempting to divide Bletchley into easily definable areas.

The suitable naming of areas, roads and streets has been an interest of mine ever since the day, 24 years ago, when I returned to my house in St George’s Road, West Bletchley, to find bags of coal being shot into my barn which were intended for a house in George Street, Fenny Stratford.  I thought then, as I think now, that it was a mistake to include George among the saints of the Saints Estate when there was already one George in the local postal area.

I suppose that the giving of group names to particular estates is of some value, but it has led to some terrible anomalies in the build-up of Bletchley. This has not been altogether the fault of the old council.  Many of the estates were named while the permitted population was only up to 22,000 and when the present spread of 40,000 or more could hardly have been imagined.

It began with the council’s “own” post-war housing programme.  Chestnut Crescent was the first estate.  This was named after the Chestnuts, the house at the corner of Manor Road and Water Eaton Road.  The council then hit on the notion of giving a tree-like name to every new street all the way from Willow Way in Water Eaton Road to the Watling Street end of Manor Farm.

This was not a bad idea at the time, however odd it might seem in the changed circumstances of today.  But there is no Elm among the streets, because there was already an Elm Terrace off Church Green Road, a mile or two away.  This was the first anomaly and a minor one.  But it was followed by others more serious as the “ex-London” estates – Saints, Castle, Rivers, Counties and Abbeys – made their way across the north-west of Bletchley.

Thus, St Martin is not numbered among the saints; he was already down town.  Windsor is not among the castles; that also was down town, along with royal residences Sandringham and Osborne.  In addition, Kenilworth and Harlech are obvious, but does Dover or Glamis indicate a castle in the average mind?

The Rivers are fairly easy, always supposing your geography is good enough to recognise Kennet and Derwent as such.  But no shire is among the counties because of the existence of York, Warwick and similar names on the Castles Estate and also of Oxford, Bedford and Cambridge down town.  Instead, you are expected to know that Forfar and Angus are counties, even if they are in another country.

But the Abbeys really do take the cake.  Once you have had Westminster, what else do you have in the average mind?  Not enough to be any guide as to location, I would say.  Besides, if you were inquiring at Fenny, you might even be directed to the small Bletchley Council estate at Abbey Road, Simpson.

The old council’s last big development took place at Water Eaton (where Eaton Avenue in not quite. . . (sic).  Water no doubt suggested the group name of Lakes for the estate, though it had little to do with the Rivers two miles away.  But there is only one “lake” there – Bala – which is in Wales – all the rest being “meres,” “waters” and “lochs.”  Derwent, of course, is not among the “waters,” the council having already decided it is a river.

So much for group names.  Mind you, some of the names on private estates are not all that helpful either, unless you happen to be a rose-grower or a poetaster.

Then what about names for areas?  Well, there is Old Bletchley and there is Far Bletchley, and I have never known when one ends and the other begins.  It seems that somewhere in the middle they are just two different names for much the same potato.  However, when the Saints and Castles estates were added, the whole lot – more or less – was lumped together as West Bletchley, as per this article’s first paragraph.  It was the first attempt at an area name, and most locals now understand it.

The development corporation have suggested 12 divisions or areas, named Central Bletchley, Bletchley Park, Far Bletchley, South Bletchley, West Bletchley, Denbigh, Denbigh Park, Fenny Stratford, Granby, Mount Farm, Staple Hall and Water Eaton.

The borough council committee have accepted this in principle, but has advised its Bletchley members to consult the people.  As one-forty-thousandth of the people I offer this advice without being consulted:

1. Reduce the number of divisions or areas to 10.  Too many divisions can be as ineffective as too few.
2. Base their naming on old, familiar titles: Water Eaton (Domesday Book, 1086), Simpson (Domesday Book, 1086), Bletchley, (1100 AD) and Fenny Stratford (1269 AD or earlier).
3. Do not introduce anything unfamiliar, like “Granby.” The only reference to that name locally which I know of is a story that the now-demolished Denbigh Hall Inn was once known as the Marquess of Granby.
4. Do not use “Bletchley Park.” Instead, use “Church Bletchley.”  The park, though big and important, is tucked away.  The church is practically next door and is much more obvious to the stranger, for whose benefit the exercise is supposed to be all about.