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Monday 5 September 2016

Out into the country.

It was a bit of a gloomy morning but despite the mizzle in the air we didn't get wet. The canal seems to be very quiet again after the weekend surge in traffic.

There is plenty of art pieces by the canal. Apparently Barret Homes had to pay £60,000 for permission to build and it was to be for an art trail along the canal. This one is Japanese to commemorate the amount of Japanese companies arriving in Milton Keynes in 1980 and the opening of a Japanese International School.

I apologise for the poor focus but as we pass something close I am not good at steering and working a camera!

This shire horse sculpture is by Andrew Kay and is also part of the Gyosei Art Trail

We stopped at Gifford Park for water. The elsan looked spic and span but I was appalled at how lazy people are. There were piles of rubbish just heaped up by the services when the skip can clearly be seen in the car park below. I just don't understand folk that are happy to do this sort of thing. Whilst the water was filling I carried lots of full bags down to the skip but there was loads left there for C&RT.

This is the start of the Newport Pagnell Canal that left the Grand Junction at Great Linford wharf. It was started after an Act of Parliament in 1814 and was completed in 1817. It only went about a couple of miles and had seven locks so it is unsurprising that it was closed in 1864 and some of it had a rail line built on it.

Old Great Linford was mentioned in 944 AD and the old Manor House  was built in 1678. It is now converted to an Arts Centre and has been converted to a recording studio. It is owned now by Pete Winkleman who is the owner of Milton Keynes Dons.

The railway mural on the way into Wolverton has been there since 1985 when it was painted by Bill Binnings after an IWA National Festival. It has had a couple of restorations in 2005 and 2011. Whenever we have been past there has been no graffiti. 

We moored up at Wolverton to get some shopping  and then to wait for our friend Chris to arrive by train. As we walked there and back we noticed some pavement inserts that seemed to be a trail. There was no information on them really. It seems that they were some sort of a trail and they had inserts into them such as old bits of toys, buttons etc. The idea is to be like the fossilised past of the town. I later called into the Town Hall to see if there was any information but I couldn't find anything and I haven't found anything on line either.

Wolverton was a rail town, mainly building carriages. It has all gone but in the past the Royal Train was stored here.

Mike Heron has two sculptures just by the canal. This one is the past with the railway track making the body and him holding a Bloomer locomotive that used to be made here.

Across the canal is the stainless steel man holding bicycles with a reference to a velodrome that was here abouts. I have only just realised the rusty one is the old and the stainless one is the new.

Even the Tesco's has a nod to the old industry with this brick sculpture next to it.

1 comment:

Adam said...

If you walk down the steps by the bridge, between the two blocks of flats, you'll find a park across the road, which was the site of the velodrome. There are a couple of information boards with the history of the place.