John Wardley, Engineer

John grew up in Wakefield and Bradford and studied civil engineering at Leeds University. Initially he worked on contracts for housing and flats and then joined George Wimpey’s to work on the M1. In the coldest winter (1962-3) he was out on site, building a concrete batching plant, and transporting gravel and sand to a tunnel at Kilworth, producing something like 100 tons of concrete an hour. Following this he worked as engineer for the air traffic control centre at West Drayton. Aged 25, he wanted design experience, so took a job with Oxfordshire County Council designing highways and bridges in their Town Development Group. He is pleased that a much of the design work they produced (in towns such as Banbury, Bicester and Witney) still exists. He says: ‘We did all the planning work & documentation (for the expansion of Banbury from 25,000 to 70,000), for example’. (John designed the whole highway network) …but the Council turned it down by one vote in 1966′. He found his four years’ experience there very interesting, working closely with a mixed team, including architect Peter Thompson. John recalls that in 1968 Peter suggested that he attended an RIBA talk by Walter Bor, a key planner for MK. John became an enthusiast for MK’s development at this time, with the South East Study stating that there was a need to build a new Milton Keynes-sized town every two or three years.