Places of Interest
Netherfield: a home of your own
The blocks of maisonettes on The Hide are easy to spot with their external staircases but the uniform front façades of most of Netherfield terraces disguise 17 more internal layouts that can be found inside the different houses. Some with garages, some with inner courtyards, and with the original plans ranging between one and seven bedrooms.
To help prospective tenants choose where they might live the MKDC produced promotional leaflets about every estate. The following text is from the Netherfield leaflet:
Set in 67 acres of rolling grassland, the Netherfield Development will have 1043 houses, ten shops, a pub, offices, meeting place, middle, first and special schools, church, local industry and an adventure playground.
The houses are in several terraces from one to four storeys, and are arranged in such a way that the roof line remains at a constant height regardless of the contours of the land.
The terraces are timber framed and clad with aluminium at the front and timber at the back. 190 dwellings are one bedroom flats in one, two and three storeys; 363 provide two bedroom accommodation in bungalows and two storey houses, 122 are three bedroom two storey houses, and 334 are three bedroom three storey houses. There are a further 34 four storey units with layouts yet to be determined.
An unusual feature of the development is that the majority of the houses have living rooms on the first floor so that they have the benefit of the best view of the large communal grassland at the front of the terraces. Here existing trees and hedgerows have been preserved to create a pleasant landscape.
All the houses have gardens except for the bungalows, which have a small court.
The three storey houses have integral garages, the remainder have mews parking at the rear with garages or hardstandings. Each house has a telephone point and a television socket. They have part central heating, the bungalows using an electric ceiling heating system, and all the others gas-fired warm air.
A regular bus service runs between Netherfield and nearby Bletchley.
Some individual features were included in the exterior design of the terraces. Primary colour detailing was applied to the edges of the fins that project between each house (red, blue and yellow, each colour applied to each different height of building). Also, the original front doors came with circular porthole windows which residents would adorn with curtains or other decorations to make their houses more individual and identifiable. Some remnants of the coloured fins and porthole window doors can still be found on some of the houses. Residents, especially since the houses have moved into private ownership, have since made all kinds of other improvements, from decorative doors to mock-tudor beams.
To help prospective tenants choose where they might live the MKDC produced promotional leaflets about every estate. The following text is from the Netherfield leaflet:
Set in 67 acres of rolling grassland, the Netherfield Development will have 1043 houses, ten shops, a pub, offices, meeting place, middle, first and special schools, church, local industry and an adventure playground.
The houses are in several terraces from one to four storeys, and are arranged in such a way that the roof line remains at a constant height regardless of the contours of the land.
The terraces are timber framed and clad with aluminium at the front and timber at the back. 190 dwellings are one bedroom flats in one, two and three storeys; 363 provide two bedroom accommodation in bungalows and two storey houses, 122 are three bedroom two storey houses, and 334 are three bedroom three storey houses. There are a further 34 four storey units with layouts yet to be determined.
An unusual feature of the development is that the majority of the houses have living rooms on the first floor so that they have the benefit of the best view of the large communal grassland at the front of the terraces. Here existing trees and hedgerows have been preserved to create a pleasant landscape.
All the houses have gardens except for the bungalows, which have a small court.
The three storey houses have integral garages, the remainder have mews parking at the rear with garages or hardstandings. Each house has a telephone point and a television socket. They have part central heating, the bungalows using an electric ceiling heating system, and all the others gas-fired warm air.
A regular bus service runs between Netherfield and nearby Bletchley.
Some individual features were included in the exterior design of the terraces. Primary colour detailing was applied to the edges of the fins that project between each house (red, blue and yellow, each colour applied to each different height of building). Also, the original front doors came with circular porthole windows which residents would adorn with curtains or other decorations to make their houses more individual and identifiable. Some remnants of the coloured fins and porthole window doors can still be found on some of the houses. Residents, especially since the houses have moved into private ownership, have since made all kinds of other improvements, from decorative doors to mock-tudor beams.
Netherfield: community art
The Owl and the Pussycat was a community art project conceived by artist Liz Leyh. With the help of other artists, residents and students at Stantonbury and Radcliffe Secondary schools the work, a series of concrete sculptures, was completed in 1977 and included the words of Edward Lear’s poem, a pea green boat, a pig, a pot of honey, plenty of money, and a turkey totem pole who lived on a hill.
Liz was the city’s first artist in residence, responsible for the infamous concrete cows, and often alongside other artists, communities and the fledgling arts charity Inter-Action MK, originally based just across the grid road at Peartree Bridge, who also facilitated various fetes, galas and school projects in Netherfield and beyond. More artworks around Netherfield, produced with and by the local community have included the thirty metre long concrete Giraffe set into one of the landscaped hills, a wooden Totem Pole welcoming visitors to the Oliver Wells School (since renamed The Redways School), a Concrete Model Village in the grounds of the same school, and the willow Butterfly woven into the playground at Langland School. Other unofficial works have been built and removed, most notably the concrete Beach Buggy and Train, installed by Bill Billings and his neighbours in 1974 in response to the lack of playground facilities in the estate at the time. The Alphabet Works sculptures, part of a more recent regeneration project, can still be seen around this park. The estate has also not escaped the attentions of other artists. Stephen Willats, ‘a pioneer of conceptual art’ produced an exhibition, Person to Person, People to People for Milton Keynes Gallery. Eugene Fisk, ex-monk turned artist described Netherfield as: “A bow-shaped curve of land in the south of the city …The top of the bow slopes down towards the canal, with views of Woughton and Walton beyond. The long rows of houses are corrugated metal {like Beanhill} but the height and change of colour bring us to a different place. Three-storey lengths of silvery-grey stretch across a marvellously planted site.” |
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Netherfield: connected communities
In a city known for its roundabouts and grid roads, cars have always been well catered for and Netherfield houses with their hardstanding, angled driveways and mews garaging behind was no exception. Many of the architects’ models, and architectural photographs and drawings of the estate include cars as part of the view.
But not everybody in Milton Keynes owns, or owned, a car and when the city was still being built even if you did have a car there were not that many roads to drive it along. “In the early days, there was no city centre, hardly any buses. You had to walk to Bletchley, and there were hardly any roads. There was the V8 but it stopped at the Rectory.” Book in a week As new estates were finished the local bus company, United Counties, gradually extended their rural services into and around the new city. By 1976 Netherfield was directly served by six different buses which took people along various routes to Stony Stratford, Bletchley and a special shopping service to Luton. There was also the experimental “Dial-a-bus” service, a fleet of yellow Mercedes minibuses that could be called up from special telephones on lampposts around the estate and would then take you door to door, anywhere on the Dial-a-bus map for a flat fare of 6 pence. It wasn’t always the quickest way to get around as the same bus might be stopping to pick up other people on the way but the idea was ahead of its time. A new version of a similar service, MK Connect, was set up in 2021. |
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Netherfield: education, education, education
The working principle for education in Milton Keynes was to make education available to everyone. “Without the fullest education programme, the planners proclaimed, you won’t have a productive community. And without a productive community you haven’t got a city.” An extensive school building programme was undertaken (there are now over 90 primary schools and 14 secondary schools across the Borough).
In Netherfield the Langland Combined School opened in 1975 situated, as the Corporation described in their “A New City Comes to Life” publication, “only a stone’s throw from the housing areas. Just around the corner the Oliver Wells School opened in 1978, providing more specialised educational support for children with multiple disabilities. Both schools have grown up and adapted as the estate, the city, and the country’s educational system, have expanded and changed. Langland School was the place where disgruntled residents were finally able to make their voices heard to the Development Corporation executives who it was thought were dragging their heels over the need for remedial works to the poor build quality of houses on the estate. A local group of bikers used to “borrow pub signs and ransom the signs back to the landlords to raise money” for Oliver Wells School which has since been rebuilt, renamed and re-opened as the Redway School. Many of the community projects in Netherfield have involved children from the schools and many of the artists who have worked locally have left a legacy behind, either at the schools or in the memories of the children who attended them. Netherfield schools have seen fetes and circuses, owls, pussycats a whole alphabet of sculptures in the park. |
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Netherfield: fields, hedgerows, trees and paths
The land that Netherfield is built on had been classified as being of moderate to poor agricultural quality, suited to grazing livestock or capable of growing grass and cereal. The area had been farmed for generations, often by the same local families, and when the plans for the new city were first published the farming community were not entirely supportive.
The site was made up of about 20 fields before building begun and as with much of Milton Keynes it is possible, here and there, to spot a relic of its agricultural heritage. The design of the shops at the local centre precinct included a short stretch of original hedgerow and around the estate there are still some trees, usually hawthorn or oak, remaining from the original field boundaries. Most of the street names used were chosen to reflect this history: Netherfield: low lying land; Langland: a long piece of land; Beadlemead: the parish officer`s meadow; The Hide: the amount of land which could be tilled with one plough in a year Broadlands: a wide, spacious area of land. The original open fields were crossed by one old footpath which linked the village of Woughton on the Green, just across the canal at Peartree Bridge, to the Simpson Road on the outskirts of Bletchley (now called Old Groveway where it still exists). Brief sections of this old track can still be walked, diagonally across the green spaces between The Hide, Farthing Grove and Broadlands. The redway footpath and cycle network now connects Netherfield with the whole of Milton Keynes and beyond. The whole of the estate was landscaped by the Development Corporation using a mixture of ground cover shrubs and avenues of trees. Plants were chosen to reflect the different facets of the buildings they were planted alongside, for example yellow St John’s Wort was planted in the front gardens of houses which had yellow fins. Other plants included London Plane, Silver Maple, Small-leaved Lime, Snowberry, Privet Honeysuckle, Cherry Laurel and Roses, many of which can still be found amongst subsequent replantings. From Netherfield News, November 1975: “I wonder how many people in Netherfield realise that you can go for a real country walk, complete with sheep grazing in water meadows, a winding reedy stream, trees and many varieties of birds to be see? And all within a few minutes walk or drive from the mud, roads and half-finished houses that surround us!” |
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Netherfield: grand designs
Building a new city in the middle of the countryside in the early 1970s came with a unique set of problems. Materials had to be delivered, tradesmen had to be employed and while the Government was funding the project there were strict rules on how much money could be spent on each house and how much land could be used in the process.
In Netherfield this meant a system of building was used to build the houses quickly and cheaply. Any possibility of copying the stucco facades, or even brick exteriors, of other grand terraces was soon rejected in favour of timber frames covered in what would eventually become the estate’s trademark aluminium cladding. In 1974, as the first residents began to settle into their new homes in their new city the space and novelty was seen by some as a welcome change from the overcrowded parts of London from where many had come from (one of the main aims of the Corporation was to help the housing situation in London). But the building work had been done quickly, the tradesmen were not always skilled and the materials they used not always up to the job. By 1976 the MKDC were undertaking remedial repairs to help sort out the problems with leaking roofs and springy floors (some of the houses on the estate now have pitched roofs). These structural issues, combined with changes in ownership, tenancy management and maintenance overheads led to the estate being less sought after as a place to live than some other parts of Milton Keynes. The council launched its “Community Led and Regeneration and Estate Renewal Strategy” in 2020. Netherfield, people have been saying for years, had only been built as temporary housing, prefabs for builders to stay in, rather than the grand designs that can be seen in the architects’ original drawings. |
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Netherfield: health centre and hospital
In 1972, as the city was first becoming established, publicity material had asserted in a progressive embrace of preventative medicine that Milton Keynes would have the best facilities available for “minimising everyday health hazards such as pollution, mental stress and injury risk”. In the meantime the nearest hospitals were in Northampton and Aylesbury.
Netherfield became part of the progressive healthcare programme in Milton Keynes when the Red Cross Society took on responsibility for day care facilities from the County Council. This "unique arrangment" saw the opening of a flagship 60 placement centre for frail elderly and disabled of Bucks in the Netherfiled local centre, Facilities included a coffee bar, a cheap hairdresser, craft sessions and baths and by the lat 1980s were used by up to 300 clients a week. As the Netherfield population continued to grow, residents were divided in 1975 over the future of their healthcare. A petition had been circulating around the estate, collecting over 60 signatures, calling for the resignation of the local GP, practicing across the road at the Eaglestone Health Centre. The Netherfield News carried a letter suggesting that the petition was misguided, and a response was published in the following edition suggesting that truth would prevail. |
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Netherfield: meeting places
New towns often found that new arrivals could get “new town blues” as people tried to adjust to their strange surroundings and without their old communities around them. To try to avoid this, all of the early new housing estates in Milton Keynes were given resources to help to build a sense of community among the people who moved into them. A “Community House”, just one of the houses on a street set aside for people to meet up with each other and with the arrivals and community workers who were employed to help with settling in.
A more flexible community space known as the meeting place had been installed 1975, by which time the “Netherfield News” was reporting frustration at, among other things, how long it had the MKDC to provide one. The newsletter was also a mouthpiece for residents’ complaints about the poor build quality of the houses, the numerous problems arising from that and to advertise meetings where grievances could be aired. Meetings would sometimes need to be held in Langland School to accommodate the crowd. The meeting place was a space for discos, whist drives, and for example in 1975, a free to enter Christmas bingo where a full house could bring home a prize turkey, a bottle of whisky, a bottle of sherry or £15 worth of toys. The community spirit also flowed through Netherfield News where poems, recipes, walks in the countryside, and thanks for good deeds were commonplace. Many of these community conversations have now shifted onto more direct, and arguably more impersonal, online platforms. Three members of staff worked in the Netherfield community house, based at 226 Farmborough. Residents were encouraged to set up newsletters, organise events and then in turn welcome newcomers. “Some people just haven’t got the courage to come out of their houses. The Community House does a lot to help. It brings people together. Just having the washing machine here means that people have to come and use it – it gives them an excuse to get out of their houses and see some other people. Everyone is always welcome here. New City Milton Keynes 1975, p7 |
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Netherfield: parks and playgrounds
The importance of safe outdoor play areas for the children of the new city had always been part of the plan for Milton Keynes. The Development Corporation employed a Children’s Play Officer who worked with designers to create “an environment where play facilities are being provided as an integral part of the city”.
Netherfield was one of the original sites for an adventure playground and MKDC designed and commissioned a whole range of play equipment that would be installed in parks and playgrounds across the city. Although this was not always in place before people arrived in their new homes: “In early `74, I saw a sign in a heap of mud and remember taking Lady Campbell round the back of my house when she visited me. Showing her this, she said “Good God! How do people put up with this?” She found it a terrible mess herself and she couldn`t walk across it. I said “People have to push prams across that”. The sign said `Designated Children`s Area`.” Bill Billings Netherfield Park, the green space between Farthing Grove and The Hide, variously known as The Owl and Pussycat Park and the pig park, has since become the Alphabet Park. Alongside the play equipment, and spread around the whole green space, are 26 sculptures based on letters of the alphabet. The work was created by artist Pete Codling with children from Langland School, Netherfield Activity Club, members of the HOG (House of God) Youth Group, children from Netherfield Playzone Day Nursery, and residents from Buckland Lodge Sheltered Housing. The different letters included ‘A’ for angles, ‘J’ for jigsaw, seating (the key ‘K’ bench), play equipment (the golden ‘G’ and ‘H’ for horse goalposts), planted letters (the daffodil ‘D’ and the Lavender ‘L’) and a ‘B’ for bird box). The alphabet was completed in 2003, as part of that year’s Regeneration Scheme and launched with a party that included a treasure hunt, and a penalty shootout in the goalposts with Wimbledon football club, just before the team migrated to become MK Dons. The idea was, according to the publicity at the time, to make Netherfield Park a more attractive and fun place to play, and to encourage more people to use and explore the park. Aside from the formal playgrounds and play areas Netherfield was designed to incorporate large swathes of green space. The distance from one street to the next, and the landscaping of the spaces in between, gives most of the houses a view of grassland, trees and parkland from their windows. |
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Netherfield: shopping
Shopping options were limited in Netherfield until the Co-op supermarket opened at the local centre in 1975. A small temporary shop had been serving customers in Langland Road in the meantime but otherwise shopping usually meant a bus ride, or a potentially muddy walk, to Bletchley where there was a traditional high street, busy street market, and a sparkling new Sainsbury supermarket. It had always been the plan for big shopping trips to take place at the city centre but local centres were also imagined to play an important role in the community where shops, schools, bus stops and other facilities could be found in one place.
The centre was designed by the same architects who worked on the whole estate. The building was completed in 1975 and originally included extensive roof level planting that would appear as an early kind of green wall. There was also a pathway through the middle where the hedgerow and trees from the original field boundaries were left to grow, a space now occupied by a series of pillars that look like a sculpture but are in fact a traffic calming measure for errant cyclists and local footballers. At one time the list of shops at Netherfield was not unlike those found on any number of high streets around the country: Co-operative store; General store; Newsagent & post office; Chemist; Butcher; Greengrocer; Hairdresser; Launderette; Fast-food outlet; Shoe repair; Bookmakers; Estate agent; and a Public house. Another Netherfield retail landmark was the opening of a Texas Homecare retail warehouse at the junction of Buckland Drive and the V8, Marlborough Street. A precursor to the now ubiquitous DIY stores Texas opened its 20,000 square feet discount warehouse in Netherfield in1974. Although this was advertised on TV as “the big one” it would now feel small next to Milton Keynes’ more recent B&Q store built in 2005 which is six times the size of Texas. |
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Netherfield: the english lanscape tradition
Netherfield has been described as a set of “tower blocks lying on their sides. The effect produced by the constant height, long terraces and flat roofs across the whole estate had been likened to the uniformity and grandeur Regency terraces of London and Bath. The large scale and formal landscaping around the estate reinforces the architects references to the English and pictoral landscape tradition
The design also reflects the iconic (but not universally popular) modernist lines and shapes of 1920s European house designs. The formal and minimalist exteriors of the terraces contains all kinds of different types of houses: bungalows, maisonettes and two or three storey houses and flats. Milton Keynes would as the Corporation chief explained “be a very mixed city. From the start there’ll be houses to suit workers, managers, vicars and doctors”. The idea was that Netherfield could accommodate all kinds of different people, different professions, different sized families, and different lifestyles in the various types of houses and flats that would be created here. But, in keeping with the prevailing post-war sense of social justice and democracy, from the outside everybody would appear to be equal. Architectural critic Robert Maxwell imagined Netherfield residents might keep chickens in their gardens, build boats in their garages, daughters listen to stereophonic music through headphones while the benign health visitor arrives to check that all is well. The architects’ drawings include a range of cars parked on driveways: a solid Triumph saloon, a stylish Citroen estate and the occasional Bentley. |
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