• Skip to content
  • Donate
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
Living Archive
A living history of
Milton Keynes
  • Home
  • About us
  • Local history
  • Archive
  • Events
  • Online Shop
  • Contribute
You are here: Home

See what’s new

  • Vicki Shakeshaft

    FOG/009
    Vicki Shakeshaft
    Vicki Shakeshaft’s story is woven right through the fabric of Folk on the Green. Born in Hampshire in 1952, she came to North Buckinghamshire in the early 1970s to train as a teacher at Bletchley Park, where she was introduced to folk music for the first time. Like many others, she found herself drawn into ...
  • Watching For And Fighting Fires (25 November 1977)

    TRM/245
    Watching For And Fighting Fires (25 November 1977)
    The firemen’s strike coming immediately after Remembrance Sunday put me in mind of the days when fire-fighters were needed as never before nor since – the days of the last war. The established brigades were heavily reinforced; retained men became full-timers; many thousands of new part-timers were enlisted; and in 1940 or 1941 all were ...
  • Memories of Bradford and Gracie (18 November 1977)

    TRM/244
    Memories of Bradford and Gracie (18 November 1977)
    I was pleased to see the inimitable Gracie Fields interviewed by Mike Parkinson on tv the other night.  Her voice had lost its old range and quality, but its strength was still there and so also was much of the old vigour, which was remarkable in a woman now “pushing 80” as she called it.  ...
  • Gipsies Start Off Common Problem (11 November 1977)

    TRM/243
    Gipsies Start Off Common Problem (11 November 1977)
    I raised an eyebrow at the Gazette’s report that at a meeting of the Milton Keynes Borough’s planning committee, Cllr Charles Head said the piece of land known as Newton Common would make an ideal site for gipsies.  Surely, I thought, Newton Common is part of Newton Longville and Milton Keynes can have no jurisdiction ...
  • Tish Hall-Wilkinson

    FOG/008
    Tish Hall-Wilkinson
    Tish Hall-Wilkinson (born 1945) spent her early years in Liverpool, where she first became involved in folk music. She began singing in a popular church-run folk club, performing alongside Rod, who accompanied her before the two became a duo. When they later settled in the Stony Stratford area, they found the local folk scene fairly ...
  • Sue Malleson

    FOG/007
    Sue Malleson
    Sue Malleson grew up in Stewkley after being born in St Albans, and her route into folk music began early: her aunt worked for the English Folk Dance and Song Society, her father was coaxed into drumming for folk bands, and holidays at Folk Camps exposed her to major figures like John Kirkpatrick. As a ...
  • Paul Martin

    FOG/006
    Paul Martin
    Born and raised in Stony Stratford, Paul Martin grew up in the middle of a lively 1960s music scene. Before Folk on the Green (FOTG) existed, Stony already had “pop groups” everywhere, and by the time the new town of Milton Keynes was developing, the place was attracting musicians and arty types from all over. ...
  • Monty Lynds

    FOG/005
    Monty Lynds
    Monty Lynds, born in 1949, grew up in Stony Stratford and was surrounded by the crowd that would eventually create Folk on the Green (FOTG). He’d known many of the early organisers since childhood — people like Bob Shakeshaft, Dave Whetstone and Silk Martin — all part of a tight-knit group who’d grown up together, ...
  • Ian Rowe

    FOG/004
    Ian Rowe
    Ian Rowe recalls first encountering Folk on the Green (FOTG) in the mid-1980s, long before he became involved. He’d been drawn to Stony Stratford through playing folk sessions at the Vaults Bar, and like everyone else, wandered down to The Green one sunny June Sunday to see what the fuss was about. Having only ever ...
  • Rod Hall

    FOG/003
    Rod Hall
    Rod was born in Harrow in 1946. By 1973 he was living on Horsefair Green in Stony Stratford. There were lots of local musicians and groups like Smoky Bacon, Leaf and Phillip The Toad. The germ of the idea for Folk on the Green came from an outdoor performance by about 40 musicians in Nash. He ...
  • Bob Adams

    FOG/002
    Bob Adams
    Born: 1949, Stony Stratford, Milton Keynes Bob Adams grew up in Stony Stratford and became central to the development and longevity of Folk on the Green, one of Milton Keynes’ most beloved community music festivals. His story traces the event’s grassroots origins, evolution, and enduring community spirit. Beginnings and Early Folk Scene In the early 1970s, before Milton ...
  • Di Thompson

    FOG/001
    Di Thompson
    Di was born in Bidford-On-Avon in 1944 and moved to Stony Stratford with her husband Eric in 1972. She went to Folk on the Green because she knew Rod Hall as a teacher of her sons at Whaddon Way School. She liked folk music and loved the event. Her favourite group was the  ‘Cock and ...
PAGE:<< First< Previous5678910111213141516Next >Last >>
Heritage Lottery Fund (opens in new window) Milton Keynes Community Foundation (opens in new window) Local Giving (opens in new window)
  • Admin login
  • Register
  • Privacy and cookies
  • Accessibility
  • Terms of use
  • Contact us
  • Subscribe to our newsletter
If you would like to support the work of Living Archive please donate via Local Giving.

Donate now

Copyright Living Archive. Website by CommunitySites