Further Apologies

WestofWatlingStreet is written on my home! Desktop PC.  There have been a series of problems which required hours working with Microsoft’s support staff – and eventually the problems were successfully resolved. However, it never rains but it pours! Our Sky router died. Unfortunately Sky encrypt their products – so we were entirely dependant upon Sky to send us a new router (and I hate being held over a barrel by any provider – I hate anti-competitive behaviour). As they ensure that a customer is dependant upon them, we are left to live with the poor  level of  their service, or go elsewhere. As a new router would take a week – we have chosen to cut our ties with Sky.

We are moving to BT. While it will take until 6th December to effect the changeover, we can at least use (as I am doing now) use their extensive network of hotspots. However I can’t use my PC, as that is, unlike this iPad,immovable.

WestofWatlingStreet, and my other blogs ‘Positively European’  (WordPress) and Washminster (http://Washminster.blogspot.com) will therefore be suspended until after that date.

I look  forward to returning a full, regular service to you after that date.

David

Resolving Computer Problems

Due to computer problems, this blog has been “off air” for the last few days – and will continue to be until early next week. My apologies.

Gorgeous Bread

I like Stony Stratford. It’s got character (and a lot of history). I’m particularly taken by the artisan bakery which opened this summer in the High Street, “Woodstock’s.”

It has to be admitted that I’ve made a couple of early morning trips to Woodstock’s to purchase their gorgeous bread. This morning I was there just after opening time at 8.00 and the bread was hot – it still was by the time I had got back to Furzton. It was just like being on holiday in France – a tasty baguette; cheese and coffee. [The coffee was also bought at Woodstock’s – Union Hand-Roasted Coffee – revelation blend coffee beans 6-extra strong]. The best thing is that there is a wide selection of breads and cakes available – and the bread is made thorough-out the day – so none of that sad feeling so common in the supermarkets, of picking up a cold and hard baguette.

I thoroughly recommend giving Woodstock’s a try!

Their website can be found at http://woodstocksbakery.co.uk/ – the artisan bakery can be found at

6 High Street, Stony Statford Milton Keynes MK11 1AF

Opening Hours: Monday – Saturday 08:00 – 17:00hrs Sunday CLOSED

Watling Street

Today the V4 is just another of the grid roads that run through Milton Keynes – but it was proably the most important road in British history. It has been the major South East to North West artery for almost 2000 years, perhaps for even longer.

The full route ran from the ports on the English channel. Richborough was the site of the landing during the invasion – and remained a key port, though it was later overtaken in importance by Dover. As previous posts mention, it may have originally crossed the Thames where the Palace of Westminster now stands – but after 50AD when through  the new city of London. It was crossed in Leicestershire by the less important SW to NE road from Exeter to Lincoln known as the Fosse Way. There were probably two destinations – Chester and Wroxeter.

The Watling which saw the end of Boudicca’s rebellion took place at some point close to this highway.

In the Saxon period most of it was, briefly, a major frontier – between Anglo-Saxon England and Danelaw. Most of the frontier was on the Watling Street, but at Stony Stratford the boundary left Watling Street and followed the Ouse – so Milton Keynes, east of Watling Street, was an outpost of the English kingdom.

In the Middle Ages it was a key transport route – and it was in this period that Stony Stratford became important. The coaching inns still remain! Until the A5 was diverted through a new grade-separated dual carriageway in our city, what we know as the V4 was a major national trunk route.

Back!

WOWS is back after a busy few days. I went to see the Walsall game – which I’m pleased to say marked a return to winning ways for the MK Dons.

On Monday I spent the day in London. This month marks the 50th anniversary of the death of President. I don’t remember that momentous day – but as a child of the 1960s it was a key date. I do however remember some of the earlier anniversaries. That made me feel old – the 20th was one I remember vividly – and that was 30 years ago! I attended a conference at the Eccles Centre in the British Library – about the life and legacy of JFK. Very interesting – but a long day. (Made longer by purchasing a new audiobook about the Kennedy White House – which I have been listening to when I should have been sleeping!

Most of the rest of the week was spent in Birmingham. While my mother has left Walsall (see my post on the MK Dons v Walsall game) – she’s now living on the Hagley Road in Birmingham. I was in our Second City doing various things, but also visited her & took her into the City Centre. Christmas has arrived – the lights are going up – and I indulged in the Egg Nog Lattes which Starbucks sell.

I’m just back from another MK Dons will – this time in the first round of the FA Cup. 4-1, not bad!!!

Libraries

Yesterday, I was able to write about which branches of Milton Keynes libraries have “The Changing Landscape of Milton Keynes” by Croft & Mynard available to lend.

Information about the holdings of books can be found at

https://miltonkeynes.spydus.co.uk/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/MSGTRN/OPAC/BSEARCH

New Year’s Day

The Celts apparently celebrated 1st November as the start of their year. One website I found states:-

“November 1 is the Celtic feast of Samhain. Samhain, Gaelic for “summer’s end,” was the most important of the ancient Celtic feasts.

The Celts honored the opposing balance of intertwining forces of existence: darkness and light, night and day, cold and heat, death and life. The Celtic year was divided into two seasons: the light and the dark, celebrating the light at Beltane on May 1st and the dark at Samhain on November 1st. Therefore, the Feast of Samhain marks one of the two great doorways of the Celtic year. Some believe that Samhain was the more important festival, since it marked the beginning of a new dark-light cycle. The Celts observed time as proceeding from darkness to light because they understood that in dark silence comes whisperings of new beginnings, the stirring of the seed below the ground. Therefore, the Celtic year began with the season of An Geamhradh, the dark Celtic winter, and ended with Am Foghar, the Celtic harvest.”

If this was the case, then there would have been plenty of celebrations “West of Watling Street” on this day a couple of thousand years ago. When our new city was being built, archaeologists were given a great opportunity to discover our ancient history. There were a number of iron age sites – including a settlement in the centre of Furzton; and close to the site of the Roman Villa in Bancroft.

The map below (from Croft and Mycroft’s excellent “The Changing Landscape of Milton Keynes” [copies available for loan from the libraries at Bletchley; Stony Stratford; Wolverton; and Woburn Sands – and at the MK Local Studies Library in the Central Library]) show the main sites. You may be able to enlarge the picture by clicking on it.