Newton Leys is a district that covers the southern tip of

Bletchley Bletchley is a constituent town of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated in the south-west of Milton Keynes, and is split between the civil parishes of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford and West Bletchley. Bletchley is best know ...

(a constituent town of Milton Keynes) and straddles the boundary between the

City of Milton Keynes The City of Milton Keynes is a unitary authority area with both borough and city status, in Buckinghamshire. It is the northernmost district of the South East England Region. The borough abuts Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and the remainder ...

and the rest of Buckinghamshire. The larger fraction of Newton Leys lies within Milton Keynes and forms a part of

Bletchley and Fenny Stratford Bletchley and Fenny Stratford is a civil parish with a town council, in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It was formed in 2001 from the unparished area of Milton Keynes, and according to the 2011 census had a population of 15,313. Togeth ...

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

. It is separated from central

, Water Eaton and the Lakes Estate by the

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

. The remaining fraction of Newton Leys lies within the (former)

Aylesbury Vale The Aylesbury Vale (or Vale of Aylesbury) is a geographical region in Buckinghamshire, England, which is bounded by the Borough of Milton Keynes and South Northamptonshire to the north, Central Bedfordshire and the Borough of Dacorum (Hertford ...

district and forms a part of the

Stoke Hammond Stoke Hammond is a village and also a civil parish situated in the north of the unitary authority area of Buckinghamshire, England, about two and a half miles south of Fenny Stratford (Milton Keynes). The village was first recorded in the Domesda ...

, although the village of Stoke Hammond is situated on the other side of the A4146 Newton Leys within Milton Keynes is a

brownfield In urban planning, brownfield land is any previously developed land that is not currently in use. It may be potentially contaminated, but this is not required for the area to be considered brownfield. The term is also used to describe land prev ...

development and within the

Buckinghamshire Council Buckinghamshire Council is a unitary local authority in England, the area of which constitutes most of the ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire. It was created in April 2020 from the areas that were previously administered by Buckinghamshire Cou ...

area is greenfield. The full district covers some and comprises development land with housing for up to 1650 homes with employment areas, shops, a school, community facilities, new park, hotel, a care home and leisure facilities built on two former brickworks and farmland. The site is being developed by

Taylor Wimpey Taylor Wimpey plc (formerly Taylor Woodrow plc) is one of the largest home construction companies in the United Kingdom. The company was created from the merger of rivals Taylor Woodrow and George Wimpey on 3 July 2007. It is listed on the Lo ...

. Houses have been built at the development by Taylor Wimpey South Midlands, Taylor Wimpey North Thames,

Persimmon The persimmon is the edible fruit of a number of species of trees in the genus '' Diospyros''. The most widely cultivated of these is the Oriental persimmon, ''Diospyros kaki'' ''Diospyros'' is in the family Ebenaceae, and a number of non-per ...

, and

Bovis Homes Group Vistry Group, formerly Bovis Homes Group, is a British house-building company based in Kings Hill, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History Vistry Group was the result of a 2019 me ...

. The development area sits next to a man-made lake created from the brick making industry, a claypit was flooded to form Jubilee Lake, which has since become known as Willow Lake. The lakes at Newton Leys form part of a

sustainable drainage system Sustainable drainage systems (also known as SuDS,balancing lake A balancing lake (also flood basin or Sustainable urban drainage scheme) is a term used in the U.K. describing an element of an urban drainage system used to control flooding by temporarily storing flood waters. The term balancing pond is also ...

system designed to manage excess water caused by heavy or prolonged rainfall. Jubilee Brooks runs through the centre of the development, which rises north of

Drayton Parslow Drayton Parslow is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority area of Buckinghamshire, England, about south of Bletchley. In the 2001 census the parish had a population of 596, increasing at the 2011 census to 614. Toponym In the 1 ...

and flows through the settlement towards the West Coast Mainline passing through to the Lakes Estate where it joins with the Water Eaton Brook, eventually flowing into the

River Ouzel The River Ouzel , also known as the River Lovat, is a river in England, and a tributary of the River Great Ouse. It rises in the Chiltern Hills and flows north to join the Ouse at Newport Pagnell. It is usually called the ''River Ouzel'' ...

. Newton Leys is bordered by the A4146, the Bletchley Landfill Site operated by

FCC Environment FCC Environment (UK) Limited is a waste management company headquartered in Northampton, United Kingdom and a wholly owned subsidiary of Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas. It was formed in May 2012 through the merger and rebranding of Focsa ...

Blue Lagoon Local Nature Reserve The Blue Lagoon Local Nature Reserve is a Local Nature Reserve in Bletchley, Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom. The Blue Lagoon is the only Local Nature Reserve in the City of Milton Keynes. The diverse habitat, including shallow ...

, Newton Longville and

. The OxfordBletchley railway line runs along the northern border of the site, whilst the

runs to the east of the site.

History of the site

The Bletchley area is rich in

Oxford Clay The Oxford Clay (or Oxford Clay Formation) is a Jurassic marine sedimentary rock formation underlying much of southeast England, from as far west as Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the ...

, which has long been used for bricks.

Brick-making A brickworks, also known as a brick factory, is a factory for the manufacturing of bricks, from clay or shale. Usually a brickworks is located on a clay bedrock (the most common material from which bricks are made), often with a quarry for ...

has taken place on the Newton Leys site and the surrounding area from the late 19th century, circa 1897. The brickworks were named Newton Longville Brickworks and were made up of two sites - Jubilee Brickworks which was located on what is now the south of the Newton Leys site, and Bletchley Works which was in the northwest corner of the development site, adjacent to the OxfordBletchley railway line. Jubilee Brickworks closed in 1978 and has since been used as farming land for the adjacent Slad Farm. The lake formed by clay extraction at this site was used by anglers for many years and was known as Jubilee Pit The developer has since renamed it Willow Lake. Phase 1, 2 & 3 of the Newton Leys development is in this part of the site. Bletchley Brickworks closed in September 1990 and was planned to be used as landfill, initially by London Brick Landfill, a division of the brick-making company which owned the site, and was subsequently bought out by Shanks & McEwan. Permission was granted in 2002, and the landfill site has been operated since 2004 by

. The original claypits (Fletton Pit, Water Eaton Pit) for the Bletchley Works closed in 1970 and have since become the

. In 1991, a plans to develop the unused parts of the brickworks and the adjoining farmland they owned at Slad Farm were created by

The London Brick Company The London Brick Company, owned by Forterra plc, is a leading British manufacturer of bricks. History The London Brick Company owes its origins to John Cathles Hill, a developer-architect who built houses in London and Peterborough. In 1889, ...

with input from Aylesbury Vale District Council,

Buckinghamshire County Council Buckinghamshire County Council was the upper-tier local authority for the administrative county and later the non-metropolitan county of Buckinghamshire, in England, the United Kingdom established in 1889 following the Local Government Act 1888 ...

Milton Keynes Council Milton Keynes City Council is the local authority of the City of Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, England. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. It has both borough status a ...

, and

Milton Keynes Development Corporation Milton Keynes Development Corporation (MKDC) was a development corporation operating from 1967 to 1992 oversee the planning and early development of Milton Keynes, a new town midway between London and Birmingham. Establishment MKDC established o ...

. Outline planning permission was granted in June 2006, and development is expected to be complete by 2021.

Iron Age History

Parts of the site have a history going back as far as the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

, an archaeological evaluation commissioned by the developer in 2006, found an area of occupation in the floor of a stream valley in the southern part of the site, just west of Willow Lake. This comprised at least one circular enclosure interpreted as either a roundhouse or stock enclosure, and a series of

ditches A ditch is a small to moderate divot created to channel water. A ditch can be used for drainage, to drain water from low-lying areas, alongside roadways or fields, or to channel water from a more distant source for plant irrigation. Ditches ar ...

gullies A gully is a landform created by running water, mass movement, or commonly a combination of both eroding sharply into soil or other relatively erodible material, typically on a hillside or in river floodplains or terraces. Gullies resemble lar ...

and small pits and postholes as well as several spreads of occupation deposits including a significant find of

pottery.

Newton Longville Brickworks

Newton Longville Brickworks were located on land between Bletchley and Newton Longville and were made up of two sites - Jubilee Brickworks and Bletchley Works. Brick-making started onsite circa 1890s and ceased within 100 years. As noted below, both works have been demolished and their sites subsequently redeveloped as Newton Leys. Nothing remains of the original structures.

Jubilee Brickworks

Jubilee Brickworks closed in 1978 and was mainly used as farming land for the adjacent Slad Farm. The

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

formed in the claypit at this site was used by anglers for many years and was known as Jubilee Pit. The lake is now known as Willow Lake.

Bletchley Brickworks

Bletchley Brickworks closed in September 1990 and was proposed for reuse as landfill, initially by London Brick Landfill and subsequently by Shanks & McEwan. Permission was granted in 2002 and the site has been operated since 2004 by FCC Environment. The original claypits (Fletton Pit, Water Eaton Pit) for the Bletchley Works closed in 1970 and have since become the

.{{cite web, title=Newton Leys Residents Association, url=http://www.newtonleys.org.uk/history.html, accessdate=16 October 2015

References

Areas of Milton Keynes Buckinghamshire