Archive & Reference Library.
Our archive collections contain unique material providing evidence and information on how the new town of Milton Keynes was designed and built. Subjects focus on the design, building, and development and cover urban planning, architecture, landscape design, and land use. The types of material in the archive collections include drawings, maps, plans, documents, photographs and artwork.
Contact us
library@mkcdc.org.uk
-
Please click here for more information on visiting
-
Please click here for more information about donating library books and archive collections
-
If you need help please email us:
library@mkcdc.org.uk
-
Archive Catalogue
Search or browse our online archive catalogue.
-
Image Archive
View the catalogue for our Image Archive of over 14,000 images covering the development of Milton Keynes new city.
-
Reference Library
Browse our online catalogue for published material relating to the development and history of MK Borough.
-
Other Resources
Here you will find other resources available online using material from our Archive & Reference Library.
Featured collections
-
Kitchener collection
Maurice Kitchener was a photographer in Newport Pagnell who cycled around North Bucks between 1925 and 1936 photographing local villages and towns. He produced picture postcards which he sold to the local post offices and shops. Milton Keynes City Discovery Centre looks after nearly 2,000 of his original glass plate negatives
-
Adrian Morrow Collection
Copy drawings and digital images of schemes worked on by Adrian Morrow as architect with Trevor Denton Wayland Tunley Architects and Urban Planners, and Adrian Morrow Architects. Schemes: Neath Hill D, Great Holm (Hilltops) Medical Centre, Oak Chapel, Studio on the Green, Tattenhoe Pavilion, Caroline Haslett.
-
Women Who Made Milton Keynes
Biographies of the ten women featured in the exhibition 'Women who made Milton Keynes' produced by the Milton Keynes group of The Fawcett Society. The exhibition explored the lives and contributions of ten pioneering women notable for their work and achievements in developing Milton Keynes.
-
John Seed Collection
Architectural drawings, urban plans, photographs and files on Milton Keynes and other locations. John Seed (d.2011) was an architect for Milton Keynes Development Corporation between 1971 and 1985. He was responsible for the structure planning and urban design of seven residential grid squares of the new city ...
-
Brian Cudmore Collection
35mm slides showing Beanhill, Netherfield, Conniburrow and other parts of Milton Keynes, taken by Professor Brian Cudmore on trips as part of his academic and personal interest in urban planning and geography.
-
Bernard Madden Collection
Posters designed by Bernard Madden as part of his role at Milton Keynes Development Corporation
-
Architectural Models Collection
Architectural models showing the design of housing developments, industrial units, leisure facilities, transport facilities and commercial accommodation in the development of Milton Keynes as a new town. Many were created by Milton Keynes Development Corporation, others were created after their existence. None have specific dates of creation. The objects have been listed using previous MOD reference numbers, ...
-
John Csáky Collection
Photographs, drawings and posters of designs for projects in Milton Keynes worked on by John Csáky, including The Bowl, Loughton balancing lakes and Willen Lake promontory. John Csáky moved to Milton Keynes Development Corporation in 1971 and stayed until 1981. Previously he studied sculpture and painting at the Portsmouth School of Art, and then Environmental Media ...
-
Malcolm Anderson collection
35mm slides taken by Malcolm Anderson during his time as Chief Land Surveyor at the Milton Keynes Development Corporation and papers written giving information on the methods used by the Corporation to survey land.
-
Milton Keynes Postcard Collection
Postcards featuring images of locations in and around Milton Keynes. Also includes a a small amount from Letchworth. Most were published by the Milton Keynes Development Corporation to advertise the town in the 1980s.
-
Objects Collection
Objects not part of an archive collection that contribute to the story of the development of Milton Keynes new town and acquired prior to the implementation of the Collections Policy, or the story of the Bradwell Abbey site.
-
One World Quilt Collection
Papers, photographs and film recordings of the One World Quilt project.
Visit the Archive
The Archive & Reference Library is open for all who would like to visit. Fore more information on opening times and making an appointment, please click below.
Shop
Part of the Britain in Old Photographs series by History Pin, this vivid, full-colour book showcases old and modern images of the Bradwells in Milton Keynes. The photographs sit alongside stories and reminscences of the areas.
New Town Heritage. Papers from the annual seminars of the Historic Built Environment, a collaboration between the Historic Towns and Villages Forum, the Herbert Lane Trust and Kellogg College, Oxford.
HomeWorld 81 was the first major housing exhibition held in Britain since the Second World War and developers from around the world were invited to come to Milton Keynes to build their “House for the Future”. It was a great success, attracting 150,000 visitors and bringing the growing city to wider attention. Using a variety of sources (including the Milton Keynes Development Corporation archive) this book contains copious colour illustrations and plans throughout and tells the full story of the exhibition.
Social Development in Early Milton Keynes. Part memoir, part recollections from the front line of new town social development., the Social Development Officer at Milton Keynes Development Corporation, Peter Waterman, explains how he and his colleagues promoted social development in the city.
The history of Bradwell Priory is well known, but for 220 years it was a working farm before the new city of Milton Keynes came along. Who were the farmers who tended the land? What did they grow? What were their lives like and how did the constant changes and innovations affect them during that time?
For the first time, the story of Bradwell Abbey farm has been examined in detail, with the owners and tenants researched and explored through the records left behind of their lives.
Please note - these copies are second-hand and show their age, they are not in new condition.
AD issue published June 1973 dedicated to describing progress on Milton Keynes new city.
Articles include:
History of Milton Keynes City
LordCampbell of Eskan and Fred Lloyd Roche Interviewed
Derek Walker Interviewed
The City as a Rug
Infrastructure - unifying features within the city
Linear Parks
Archaeology and Conservation
The Planning of the Villages
Central Area Housing
Central Milton Keynes
Specific Schemes - Kiln Farm AFUs, activity centres, Galley Hill local centre, Fullers Slade, Greenleys, Cofferidge Close, Netherfield, Coffee Hall community workshop, Tinkers Bridge, Eaglestone, Stantonbury, Great Linford, Denbigh hostel, Melrose Avenue activity centre, Brunel Centre, Water Eaton AFUs,
The Financing of Milton Keynes
This is a great in-depth look at the history of the Chapel and its unique medieval wall paintings.
We hope that this booklet will help to elevate the wall paintings of St Mary's chapel at Bradwell Abbey to their proper place within the landscape of English medieval church decoration. The paintings are unique in portraying a group of contemporary men and women kneeling at the end of their pilgrimage to offer gifts at a shrine. The chapel offers us a wonderful relic of Milton Keynes' medieval past; an important piece of evidence for the uses and function of the chapel; and a revealing glimpse of medieval pilgrimage in general.
This booklet places the paintings in their historical context, with comparisons drawn from other local and national survivals. You will find general introductions to medieval pilgrimage and wall painting, as well as an outline of the conventions of Christian imagery, to better aid an understanding of the iconography, narrative and function of the paintings
Nadia Witkowski
Milton Keynes City Discovery Centre, [2011].
36pp pbk.
International shipping: please contact us before ordering.
Derek Walker was the chief planner for Milton Keynes Development Corporation in the 1970s. He then went on to set up his own practice. This is a look at his many projects around the world, and also a few in Milton Keynes. Introduction by Stephen Gardiner.
(Architectural Monographs No 43)
Academy Editions ISBN 1 85490 282 2 144pp over 400 illus, mostly in colour
International shipping: please contact us before ordering.
On 23rd January 2017 Milton Keynes celebrated its 50th anniversary. Starting the 50th birthday celebrations a major exhibition was held from 10th to 23rd January in Middleton Hall, centre:mk shopping centre.This book brings together many elements of the exhibition and is based on its information and exhibits.
Heritage MK, 2017.
199pp colour illus.
ISBN 978 1 5272 1318 0
Urban Design Issue 104, 2007. Special Issue: Milton Keynes at 40
This special issue celebrates the 40-year anniversary of the designation of the new town in 1967.
St Lawrence Church in Bradwell Village, Milton Keynes is one of two surviving medieval churches in the Ecumenical Parish of Stantonbury.
Peter Lazard
Bradwell Church, 2014
20pp, illus.
This guided walk reveals some of the history and development of Stony Stratford. Published during Milton Keynes Year of the Environment 1989-1990.
Milton Keynes Borough Council, 1990
16pp, illus. fold-out map
Children from thirteen schools in Milton Keynes took part in this project which asked them to imagine they could send postcards to the future. They were asked to help 2 children living in Milton Keynes in 2047 with their homework by telling them all about the New City of Milton Keynes in 2007.
All the postcards were exhibited at Gulliver's Eco Park in Milton Keynes as part of the 40th anniversary celebrations, and some of the most imaginative have now been gathered together in a book.
International shipping: please contact us before ordering.
This book summarizes The Milton Keynes Planning Manual and is a good overview of the principles behind the design for Milton Keynes.
36pp, 25 illus.
Milton Keynes is the largest urban development project ever undertaken in the UK: a city with an ultimate population of more than 200,000 people. The original Master Plan broke new ground in establishing a flexible framework for development rather than a predetermined set of proposals. In implementing this flexible plan, Milton Keynes Development Corporation refined its planning policies over 25 years. These policies, described in the Planning Manual, make up "best planning practice" for Milton Keynes as it had evolved by the early 1990s
This publication is a useful source of information for urban planners and students in both the UK and abroad.
Chesterton Consulting on behalf of Milton Keynes Development Corporation, 1992.
278pp A4 paperback
PLEASE NOTE: These copies are ex-library stock and NOT new, they have been used and have stickers on the cover.
This issue gives a good in-depth report of the excavations at Bradwell Abbey carried out between 1968 and 1973.
Wolverton and District Archaeological Society
International shipping: please contact us before ordering.
A marketing brochure from pre-1992.
Milton Keynes Development Corporation
32 pp, map, colour illus.
PLEASE NOTE: These copies are ex-library stock and NOT new, they have been used and have stickers on the cover.
An in-depth insight into the planning and implementation of the new city of Milton Keynes, with quotes from the planners involved.
Granta Press.
hbk x, 301 pp, illus.
This edition of the ISOCARP Review is about the extremes of development and the planning response to them. Fast Forward addresses the realities of those extremes and the ways in which different countries and individual cities have sought to cope with them. It features a chapter, Milton Keynes, UK: an exemplary new city outpacing its peers, by John Best and David Hackforth.(ISOCARP Review 08)
International Society of City and Regional Planners, 2012.
pbk 322 pp, illus.
ISBN 978 94 90354 16 9
International shipping: please contact us before ordering.
Provides a visual and historical record of the highs and lows of twentieth century planned urban development in the context of garden cities and postwar new towns in the South East. Historical context by Christine Garwood, Senior Lecturer in Public History at the University of Hertfordshire, introduces photographs by James Smith.
Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press, 2014.
v, 72pp, 28 colour illus.
ISBN 978-1-909291-24-9.
International shipping: please contact us before ordering.
A century of memories of this important local building. Interviews conducted by Roger Kitchen and edited by Marion Hill.
Living Archive, 2011.
36pp black and white illus pbk.
ISBN 978 090484737 6
International shipping: please contact us before ordering.
This book outlines the early development of the new town through the 1970s, when Derek Walker was Chief Architect and Planner.
This book presents the debates held during a witbess seminar and conference on the origins and subsequent development of Milton Keynes held in 1995.
Donating material.
Milton Keynes City Discovery Centre (MKCDC) Archive & Reference Library relies on donations of book stock to the Library collections in order to provide a research facility for the local community and those interested in the development of Milton Keynes and New Towns in general. We are grateful to those who donate material as many of the works held in the collection would not otherwise be obtained and available for research
Glossy, illustrated map marking the locations of historic sites and finds in the Milton Keynes area, alongside their dates. Includes index and pictures. Published by the Homes & Communities Agency in conjunction with Milton Keynes Heritage Association, 2013.