Exploring north Buckinghamshire- part 2 (From Bucks Free Press)

Exploring north Buckinghamshire- part 2

11:29pm Thursday 5th August 2010

• Print
• Email
• Comments(6)

Buckingham was our most recent destination as we headed east on the A421. We wanted to stay longer but I had a day planned and was going to stick to it. Our next stop though was barely a few miles out of town anyway: the bridge at Thornborough.

This is another feature that you have to know about to see- otherwise you will whizz by at 60 totally unaware of what you have just passed. But is worth a stop, for here is the oldest surviving medieval bridge in the county. Dating from roughly 1400, it was in constant use until 1974, when the adjacent bridge was constructed for the A421. The new one may not be as pretty but it does the vital job of relieving the pressure off the old, and so aiding in its preservation. It is now grade I listed.

The bridge must have carried countless historical figures over the Padbury Brook over the years; it is one of the main routes between Oxford and Cambridge. How many Kings, Queens, Dukes, Lords and more would have crossed here?

There is a picnic site beside the bridge from where you can cross it and walk down beside the waterway, which for a brook is rather large (I’d say bigger than the River Wye in Wycombe). The Padbury Brook and the Claydon Brook together form a tributary of the Great Ouse. You can even walk beneath the new bridge out towards a footpath which we didn’t explore.

Time was not on our side so we headed back to the car and back east on the A421 towards Milton Keynes, our next destination. The town of MK is the by far the largest in Buckinghamshire, though spread out over a much larger area giving the area a lot more breathing space. Incidentally publications will often tell you that Wycombe is the largest town in the county- this is an inaccuracy stemming from misunderstanding of local government which would be too boring for me to go into here. Suffice it to say: saying that MK is not in Bucks is like Derby is not in Derbyshire. Which it rather evidently is, just not for some administrative purposes.

Away from politics, MK is justly famous for its roundabouts and it is true that there are many of them. However they are not difficult to navigate- we simply followed signs for Central Milton Keynes. Being a new town, MK has had its fair share of detractors, but in actual fact I believe MK is one of the best designed places in the country, as planners of the day laid out several key rules- one of which was the distinction between local and main roads. As a result, most main roads are dual carriageway and national speed limit. All local roads branch off from the main roads into local estates, which mean that houses are located well away from main road traffic noise in their own pockets of development with their own parks and greens. Not like Wycombe where every residential road seems to be used as a shortcut for main road traffic. Every road crossing is done by under- or over-pass so pedestrians need never cross traffic in the suburbs.

Central MK is comparatively small and where the “foreign” but refreshing system of boulevards, gates and vertical and horizontal road numbers begins. It takes a while to get used to but if you follow the signs you won’t get lost. Parking in MK is easy as car parks are seemingly everywhere, with charges depending on your distance from the shops. We however decided to use a multi story and I confess to going in the wrong one (but that was my fault!), at the theatre. And on we went.

TO BE CONTINUED