Hidden gems!

If you look closely enough you will find beautiful historical hidden gems right on your doorstep!

Coming from a small country village near Market Bosworth (Battle of Bosworth) in Leicestershire – I spent my childhood fascinated by the history that surrounded me, as I’ve gotten older that hasn’t changed if anything I’ve needed to know more.

Living a stone’s throw away from Great Linford Manor Park i’ve wheeled around many times imagining what life was really like back then and the people that worked and lived around the Manor House. It’s been a while since I’ve enjoyed a little wonder around soaking everything up and just watching the world go by. Especially since The Packs Trust Milton Keynes had appointed Ground Control as contractors to carry out their Masterplan for restoration works.

I have been itching for the better weather to visit the Manor Park to see how much restoration work has been done and uncovered. After a chance meeting with someone from The Parks Trust talking about accessibility and of course toilets, i met up with fabulous Ellie, to see how more accessible the park had become and get my history fix.

You can imagine just how excited I was when Ellie was showing me around while showing me and explaining what the gardens would have looked like and all the hidden gems found. The park isn’t quite in it’s full glorious bloom yet but you can see the start of something beautiful in every corner.

Did you know it has the oldest trees in Milton Keynes over 500 years old. If only trees could talk the stories it could tell – the tails of romance. Family picnics with parents watching their children running around. Children climbing it over the years. I wondered how many walks of life had just sat leaning on the tree reading or just watched the world go by.

I’ve always thought the two houses either side of the pathway at the top of the hill where maybe guard houses or something along those lines by no. They are two very posh horse stables!

I don’t want to give to much away about the history of Great Linford Manor Park as it’s definitely somewhere I would recommend visiting.

A little history – the reference to Linford occurs in 944, when “King Edmund gave to his then thegn, the Aelfheah land at Linforda with liberty to leave it to whom he wished. Something new I found out was the original manor was built on the hill where the Arts Center stands today. It’s thought from remains of the original manor it burnt.

Toward the end of the 17th century by the wealthy London merchant Sir William Prichard, (who had purchased the Great Linford estate in 1678) the Manor House we see today replaced the older medieval house. The remains of that old manor house are today buried beneath the Arts Centre car park, though some of the stonework may have been recycled in building Pritchard’s manor.

The Restoration’ project, uncovered and intepreting the history of the park. Finding out juicy bits of history – that Great Linford was first settled by the Saxons in the 7th century, evidence found by archaeological finds beneath St. Andrew’s Church.

This is what you can do.

Alphabet Trail

Discover the park’s heritage through the free alphabet trail. There are 26 letters to find on yellow circles around the park.

Accessibility

A network of surfaced paths gives access to most of the park’s main features and up to the canal, though some paths are quite steep. A set of deep steps leads down to the Cascade Pond, but alternative routes to this area are provided via Campion (What3Words location) and from the canal towpath (What3Words location)