Interview with Sue Malleson (b.1949).
Sue Malleson was brought up in Stewkley, Buckinghamshire where her father was headmaster. She recalls his anger about the imposition of Milton Keynes upon countryside. She and her husband lived briefly in Mellish Court Bletchley; she comments on her opinion of high-rise flats. They were then able to buy a cottage in Bow Brickhill in 1969, and she recalls that living on the hill, they could look out over MK as it grew. She talks of her job as group secretary to the industry group of the architects department at Milton Keynes Development Corporation and remembers it as an exciting time, because of all the new ideas from the architects, ‘talented and very committed people’ and everyone’s enthusiasm about MK. She is now a PR consultant. Her main interest is folk-singing and dancing; she talks of singing and compering events with her group Poacher’s Folly in the early 1970s in venues such as pubs and the Stables at Wavendon and was also involved with the Milton Keynes Medieval Society.
She comments on transport, in her opinion still MK’s major problem. Initially they shopped in Bletchley and Woburn Sands; now, she comments: ‘John Lewis’ in ten minutes. Wow and we’re still living in the country.’ On healthcare, she notes that their surgery is still the Red House in Fenny Stratford and that she had her three children at the Whalley Drive Maternity unit. The lack of hospital was: ‘a great big hole in this area in terms of health provision’. For her the most memorable experiences of MK were her work with MKDC, walking on to the stage at the new Theatre to perform in All Change, and many other performance events. She talks of her great enthusiasm for the concrete cows. She comments that living in MK as it grew: ‘ has been a very rich experience and, in a way, it probably keeps me young because there’s always new things going on.’
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