Welcome to the website for Bradwell Parish Heritage.

This website is being developed. We welcome comments as we want to encourage the construction of a shared, critical and inclusive understanding of the development of Bradwell.

The Parish covers the area of Milton Keynes enclosed by the Portway, Saxon Street and Monks Way grid roads with the western boundary being the area to the west of the railway line known as Bradwell Abbey. It includes the old village of Bradwell surrounded by modern development, Heelands and Bradwell Common, Bradwell Abbey and the industrial area of Rooksley. It is bounded at the north and south by H4 Danstead Way and H5 Portway; at the east by V7 Saxon Street. Almost 1000 residents live in Bradwell Common, Heelands and Rooksley.

 

Plenty has occurred around here and one aim of this site is to encourage greater understanding and further research.

Heelands was the location of a Roman farmstead, a Neolithic settlement and in Medieval times was worked using the ridge and furrow system.

The ancient track from Stanton Low to Loughton crosses both Heelands and Bradwell Common grid squares.

Buildings at Bradwell Abbey are home to Milton Keynes City Discovery Centre where there are many items about the development of the New City of Milton Keynes.

Bradwell contains a number of Listed Buildings. One of these, the Memorial Hall, commemorates the men connected to the village who served in the Great War.

Bradwell has also been subject of archaeological investigation. Look on the Archaeology page for material about dig under what is now 28a Vicarage Road and a  report on Bradwell’s medieval and post-medieval sites The tithe and earthworks maps reproduced below is from that report. A copy is available here.

Bradwell Common is home to the first of the Development Corporation’s three innovative housing exhibitions Homeworld, in 1981, Energy World and Future World.

Bradwell can be understood as far more than a geographical location. It can be imagined as a constellation of social relations, memories and imagination woven together at a particular site. There have been strong links, via Common Lane which ran from Bradwell village across the common to the 10th Century, to the nearby meeting place on Secklow Mound meeting place at the rear of Milton Keynes Central Library  Bradwell also has connections through trade and personal networks. Lace was produced in the village and straw plaited (see under the Work page) here and the railway helped to connect the village to the rest of the country and to the wider world. People have come here from around the world and travelled from Bradwell to many places. George Austin Charnock was born in Bradwell in 1861, the son of a man from Tipperary who married a woman from Bradwell. George moved to Crewe, migrated to Canada and ended up in San Francisco, California.

Having said that, while we aim to record the development and heritage of the area, currently the initial focus is on the area bounded, roughly, by Primrose Road, Loughton Road, Abbey Road and Sharman Walk.

The square pattern, as shown on the Tithe Map, 1839, with houses around a hollow centre, was common in this area. The map was made following a survey commissioned after the Tithe Commutation Act 1836, replaced the tradition of paying “tithes” (10% of agricultural produce) with fixed monetary payments.  A list of those who were liable for payments can be found under 1800s.

There are references to places outside this area such as the Abbey (after 1838 the village was separated from Bradwell Abbey by the railway line) and parts of the brook (called both Loughton and Bradwell). However, you might like to visit the site of the New Bradwell Heritage Group. Stantonbury has also been associated with what we now know as Bradwell Village.

If you would like to contribute to, or correct errors on, these pages, please get in touch with the editors via the ‘Contact’ link.

Do call back to the site from time to time to see what we’ve been able to add to the site.