Cynthia Hargate, Arts and Cultural Development officer for MKDC and Stroud Watson, Architect

Cynthia, born in Baldock, Herts, left secondary modern school at 15. Following her passion to draw, she trained and worked as a technical illustrator, then moved into the arts, spending some time in India, studying at Hornsey College of Art, & returning to India to develop the Gallery Camuld in Calcutta. Returning to England after illness, she studied for a Management Diploma at the London School of Economics. Her past management experience led to her appointment to a post at the Arts Council, responsible for the North East, assessing the potential of small towns for more artistic activity, in libraries, films, etc. Then an advertisement appeared for Milton Keynes Development Corporation (MKDC), seeking someone with an arts background to join the Social Development team in the very early period. Cynthia was appointed in early 1971.

Stroud Watson, born in New York City, studied architecture and then worked in private practice, but returned to the University of Illinois to teach. At Arizona University in 1966 he began to put into practice his ideas about building communities within cities, streets and buildings, working with some artists. Then a sizeable grant from Illinois University enabled him to sail to the Caribbean and South America, where he studied small island communities and their structures. In 1971/72, British Overseas Development Corporation (BODC – Chairman Lord Campbell) was building a resort community on the island of St Lucia, and the project was not going well. BODC arranged for MKDC’s chief planner Bill Berrett and general manager Fred Roche to visit and make recommendations. Encountering Stroud there, they agreed that Stroud should take on the project. By 1973 it was going well and Stroud was invited to MK, where he met Derek Walker and spent time with Fred. Stroud felt that MK would be ‘the perfect thing’ for him; the plans tallied with his ideas. So in 1975, he was appointed to MKDC.