Rambling Around milton Keynes
I’m a bit behind in my writing as we’ve moved again! We’re now in London itself. I’ll try and catch up as quickly as I can but I want to do justice to Milton Keynes as I’ve come to find out it’s a much maligned place in the UK. Which isn’t fair at all! Milton Keynes was a fantastic place to start our UK adventure!
I’ve written a tiny bit about Milton Keynes (MK) already when I wrote about exploring the remains of the local Roman villa. But we saw so much more than the Roman ruins! I’m going to try to cover Bradwell Abbey, All Saints Church (with accompanying cemetery) and highlights from our ramblings all in one post. Fasten your seat belts because we’re going to move quickly!
Bradwell Abbey
Up first is Bradwell Abbey! (Technically it should be Bradwell Priory, as that is what it was named by the Benedictine monks in 1154.) I was unfamiliar with the differences between a priory and an abbey, so I looked them up. The biggest difference is the names of the leaders: a priory is led by a prior/prioress and an abbey by an abbot/abbess. I also discovered that an abbey must have 12 members of a monastic order housed on the grounds for it to count. A priory doesn’t have such rules, which works out well for our little site. At one point it was down to 5 monks!
The abbey managed to hold on until 1524, when most of the crumbling buildings were pulled down and incorporated into the nearby manor house. The only building that has survived nearly entirely is the Chapel of Our Ladie of Bradwell, built in the 1330s. That building was saved because the incoming landowners of Bradwell Abbey used it as their private chapel. Nowadays the Abbey grounds are home to an urban studies center, community meetings, the chapel and archeological sites.
Ok, now for the fun stuff. My absolute favorite part of our repeated wanderings around Bradwell Abbey was going through the haunted tunnel pictured above. Legend has it that the entire monastery site is haunted, but particularly the chapel and the tunnel. There are many stories of monks wandering around and if you’re there on a foggy early morning you’ll probably see one walking through this tunnel. We were not so lucky, but I loved how it felt like we were traveling through a portal back in time by going through it.
The neighborhood church
Next we have All Saints Church of Loughton! Loughton (pronounced l-OW-ton) is one of the small villages that was absorbed into Milton Keynes. We walked past it often because the public footpath went through the churchyard! The cemetery was on both sides of the road, since the church has been there since the 13th century. Obviously this building isn’t quite that old, but it still has a working bell tower and holds services. I really enjoyed walking past such a pretty sight all the time!
Ok last but not least, we’ve got to talk about the fairy gardens dotting the area. We probably found 5 of them in different parts of the woods or cemeteries. This one was certainly the most well decorated! I loved the idea that fairies were hiding all around us, waiting to be discovered. Walking through the parks of Milton Keynes helped me see where some of the stories about fairies came from!
And that’s it for now! Check out my post on Milton Keyne’s most famous residents – the concrete cows!