Bletchley and Fenny Stratford is a

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

with a town council, in

Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city and the largest settlement in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of its urban area was over . The River Great Ouse forms its northern boundary; a tributary ...

, Buckinghamshire, England. It was formed in 2001 from the unparished area of Milton Keynes, and according to the 2011 census had a population of 15,313. Together with

West Bletchley West Bletchley is a district and civil parish that covers the western part of Bletchley, a constituent town of Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, England. The parish consists of that part of Bletchley which is south of Standing Way/H8 ( A421) ...

, it forms the

Bletchley Bletchley is a constituent town of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated in the south-west of Milton Keynes, and is split between the civil parishes of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford and West Bletchley. Bletchley is best known ...

built-up area. The parish includes Brickfields (includes the Blue Lagoon), Central

(that is, Bletchley east of the

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

), Denbigh (

Denbigh North Denbigh is a district in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England, to the north of Fenny Stratford and on the eastern side of the West Coast Main Line (and on the opposite side to the rest of Bletchley). It is in the civil parish of Bletchley ...

, Denbigh East and Denbigh West),

Fenny Stratford Fenny Stratford is a constituent town of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England and in the Civil Parish of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford. Originally an independent town, it was included in the Milton Keynes " designated area" in 1967. From 189 ...

, Fenny Lock, Granby, Mount Farm and Water Eaton (includes "Lakes Estate").

Central Bletchley

Originally, Bletchley was exclusively west of the railway line (which is why the station faces that way) and was centred on St. Mary's Church (

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following ...

, and the Freeman Memorial

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

chapel on Buckingham Road. This area is now known as "Old Bletchley", Another settlement was situated between the crossroads of Shenley Road, Newton Road, and Buckingham Road, and the T-junction of Tattenhoe Lane and Buckingham Road. By 1926, this had become known as "Far Bletchley". However, as Bletchley developed, a new centre grew up around Bletchley Road (the road from Fenny Stratford to ldBletchley). The new settlement became known as "Central Bletchley", distinguishing it from Old Bletchley and Far Bletchley, and from the later development of

, which embraced these two. In 1966, after a Royal Visit, Bletchley Urban District Council renamed Bletchley Road as "Queensway". Central Bletchley is bordered by the

to the west, the

Water Eaton Brook The River Ouzel , also known as the River Lovat, is a river in England, and a tributary of the River Great Ouse. It rises in the Chiltern Hills and flows north to join the Ouse at Newport Pagnell. It is usually called the ''River Ouzel'', e ...

and Water Eaton Road to the south, North Street and Bletchley Leisure Centre to the North and Knowles School/Leon Recreational Ground to the East. The dividing line between Central Bletchley and Fenny Stratford is largely a notional one.

Denbigh

For many years, Denbigh has been an important employment area: perhaps its most famous resident is

Marshall Amplification Marshall is a British company that designs and manufactures music amplifiers, speaker cabinets, brands personal headphones and earphones, drums and bongos. The company also owns a record label called Marshall Records. It was founded in London ...

. In 2005, large commercial developments occurred on the immediate outskirts of Bletchley, although still in the

of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford. The supermarket chain

Asda Asda Stores Ltd. () (often styled as ASDA) is a British supermarket chain. It is headquartered in Leeds, England. The company was founded in 1949 when the Asquith family merged their retail business with the Associated Dairies company of York ...

Wal-Mart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

and the

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

furniture retailer

IKEA IKEA (; ) is a Dutch multinational conglomerate based in the Netherlands that designs and sells , kitchen appliances, decoration, home accessories, and various other goods and home services. Started in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA has been t ...

built and opened large stores at

, northeast of the town centre on

Watling Street Watling Street is a historic route in England that crosses the River Thames at London and which was used in Classical Antiquity, Late Antiquity, and throughout the Middle Ages. It was used by the ancient Britons and paved as one of the main R ...

, and

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...

responded by expanding its

store (also on Watling Street). Whether or not these new developments accelerate the decline of the town centre remains to be seen. This same area of development is also home to the new stadium:mk for

Milton Keynes Dons F.C. Milton Keynes Dons Football Club (), usually abbreviated to MK Dons, is a professional association football club based in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the third tier of the English football league system. The ...

Many away fans will arrive via

Bletchley railway station Bletchley is a railway station that serves the southern parts of Milton Keynes, England (especially Bletchley itself), and the north-eastern parts of Aylesbury Vale. It is 47 miles (75 km) northwest of , about 32 miles (51 km) east of ...

, and this may bring some added business to the town on their way to the ground. However, most fans will use intercity services to and be bussed to the stadium.

Brickfields

The Blue Lagoon

Bletchley is home to the only Local Nature Reserve in the City of Milton Keynes, the Blue Lagoon, which attracts many local visitors every day. School children in Bletchley are often taken on trips to learn about the history of this site.

Water Eaton

Water Eaton is a small village to the south of Fenny Stratford, which was absorbed by Bletchley and Fenny Stratford, before the latter in turn became part of Milton Keynes. The village was first mentioned in the Domesday book of 1086 and was simply called Eaton and was the home of Geoffrey de Montbray and listed as a mill. The Lakes Estate, south of Bletchley was the last

London overspill London overspill communities are the communities created as a result of the government policy of moving residents out of Greater London into other areas in the South East of England between the 1930s and the 1970s. These largely consisted of coun ...

estate to be built by the

Greater London Council The Greater London Council (GLC) was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council (LCC) which had covered a much smaller area. The GLC was dissolved in 198 ...

. It took some time to build – beginning in about 1970 and not being fully completed until 1975."http://clutch.open.ac.uk/schools/eaton-overspill00/Lakes_estate_houses.html from "Bletchley Pioneers, Planning & Progress": Lakes Estate. Oral history collected by Knowles Middle School parents Clutch Club. The Lakes Estate is bordered by Drayton road to the North and West, Stoke road to the East and Lomond drive to the south.

City Council ward

The parish is divided for election to Milton Keynes City Council into the Bletchey & Fenny Stratford ward (which includes the eastern part of

parish and Eaton Manor ward covering Water Eaton.

References

External links

Town Council
Oral history collected by Knowles Middle School parents Clutch Club describe the post-war expansion of Bletchley by migrants from London.

External links

'Parishes : Bletchley with Fenny Stratford and Water Eaton'
–

Victoria History of the Counties of England The Victoria History of the Counties of England, commonly known as the Victoria County History or the VCH, is an English history project which began in 1899 with the aim of creating an encyclopaedic history of each of the historic counties of En ...

, A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 4 (1927), pp. 274–283. {{Milton Keynes parishes Civil parishes in Buckinghamshire Milton Keynes

Central Bletchley

Denbigh

Brickfields

The Blue Lagoon

Water Eaton

City Council ward

See also

References

External links

External links