Furzton is a district in south-west

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 Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

, England and in the

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 ...

Shenley Brook End Shenley Brook End is a village, district and wider civil parish in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. Together with its neighbouring districts of Shenley Church End, Shenley Wood and Shenley Lodge, the districts are collectively known as " ...

The man-made Furzton Lake is a

balancing lake A balancing lake (also flood basin or Sustainable urban drainage scheme) is a term used in the U.K. describing an element of an urban drainage system used to control flooding by temporarily storing flood waters. The term balancing pond is also ...

that covers approximately half of the district.

History

The housing in South Furzton was built sometime around the early to mid-1980s, with the Parkside/Favell Drive housing to the East coming first – development then moved West along Blackmoor Gate. The shops were constructed after 1984 – prior to this time, the nearest local shops were at Melrose Avenue, in

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 ...

. Prior to the construction of North Furzton, the land on the northern side of the brook in the linear park was farmland – thus, residents of South Furzton had only a short walk to reach open countryside. When plans were announced for North Furzton, in particular the extension of Dulverton Drive to form the link between the two sides, residents' meetings were held in protest at what residents expected would be a significant increase in traffic. Most of the South Furzton housing was complete when the construction of the lake started. North Furzton housing and shops were built between 1990 and 2004.

Furzton Lake

Because of its clay soils and relatively flat topography, the designers of Milton Keynes had to make provision for flood control. A key element of this strategy is to restrain floodwater from reaching the

River Great Ouse The River Great Ouse () is a river in England, the longest of several British rivers called "Ouse". From Syresham in Northamptonshire, the Great Ouse flows through Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk to drain into the Wa ...

lest it create problems for downstream settlements, using balancing lakes and managed

flood plain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

s. Loughton Brook, which rises in

Whaddon Whaddon may refer to several places in England: *Whaddon, Buckinghamshire *Whaddon, Cambridgeshire *Whaddon, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire * Whaddon, Stroud, in Brookthorpe-with-Whaddon, Gloucestershire *Whaddon, Wiltshire, hamlet near Trowbridge * Wh ...

(just beyond Tattenhoe) and joins the Ouse at

New Bradwell New Bradwell is (mainly) an Edwardian era village, modern district and civil parish in north-west Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. Together with Wolverton (on the other side of the West Coast Main Line), it was built primarily to hous ...

, is usually a very minor tributary, little more than a metre wide here. It has quite a large catchment area, added to by the hard surfaces of the surrounding developments. Built in the 1980s, and with an area of , Furzton Lake is the first major balancing lake it encounters. The flood plain of the brook forms a

linear park A linear park is a type of park that is significantly longer than it is wide. These linear parks are strips of public land running along canals, rivers, streams, defensive walls, electrical lines, or highways and shorelines. Examples of linear p ...

about 200 metres wide that runs through the district west to east. The lake and its surroundings provide an important local leisure facility.

Church of the Servant King

The Church of the Servant King, Furzton is an

ecumenical Ecumenism (), also spelled oecumenism, is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjec ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

located in Furzton. The church forms part of the

Watling Valley Ecumenical Partnership The Watling Valley Ecumenical Partnership is a Local Ecumenical Partnership (LEP) in Milton Keynes, England which belongs to the Church of England, The Baptist Union, the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church The United Reformed Ch ...

. The congregation of the church started meeting in a community house in the local area, led by a

Church Army The Church Army is an evangelistic organisation and mission community founded in 1882 in association with the Church of England and now operating internationally in many parts of the Anglican Communion. History The Church Army was founded in E ...

sister. As numbers grew, they moved first to the Meeting Place in South Furzton, then to Coldharbour School. The present church building was used from June 1992 onwards, with the official opening in September 1992. The building, on Dulverton Drive, is shared with the Ridgeway Community Centre.

References

{{reflist Areas of Milton Keynes Articles containing video clips Parks and open spaces in the Borough of Milton Keynes Churches in Milton Keynes