Wolverton Walk: Town Centre【4K】

Located in the county of Buckinghamshire, and around 50 miles northwest of central London, is the town of Wolverton.

The name 'Wolverton' is derived from Old English for 'Wulfhere's farm/settlement'. During the medieval era, Wolverton was a village which would later all but disappear completely by the 17th century, leaving only field patterns behind.

In 1838 a locomotive repair shop was set up at the approximate midpoint between London and Birmingham. At the time, the London and Birmingham Railway was under construction with Robert Stephenson overseeing the project. To house its workforce, a town was founded. Due to its location just adjacent to the old medieval village of the same name, it became known as Wolverton, and its streets were laid out in a grid formation. Its proximity to the Grand Union Canal, or Grand Junction Canal as it was known at the time, ensured that there was easy access to goods.

From the 1840s a series of redbrick terraced houses, shops and public buildings were constructed. The London and Birmingham Railway became the London and Northwestern Railway around this time and the station became part of the West Coast Main Line which links London Euston with Glasgow Central and Edinburgh Waverley via the west midlands and northwest England. In 1862 Wolverton's work in locomotive construction was transferred to Crewe. After this point, manufacturing in Wolverton shifted towards carriages.

During the Second World War, Wolverton's railway works were repurposed towards building, maintaining and repairing military aeroplanes. In 1963, in the wake of the Beeching closures, Wolverton's final carriage was produced. From this point on, its role shifted towards carriage repair. Within the space of a year its workforce halved from around 4,000 to around 2,000. Further reduction occurred in 2013 when its operators went into administration.

In 1967 Milton Keynes was officially founded as a new town as a means of relieving housing congestion in London. Its designated area incorporated neighbouring towns including Wolverton, thus making it a constituent town of Milton Keynes.

👇 SUBSCRIBE TO 4K EXPLORER FOR NEW VIDEOS EVERY WEEK 👇
https://www.youtube.com/4KExplorer?su...

Filmed: 5th March 2023

Link to the walk on Google Maps: https://goo.gl/maps/QLa1AiE5ReUGPnun8

Filmed on a Sony FDR-AX700 with a Zhiyun Crane 2 and a Sony ECM-XYST1M Stereo Microphone.

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Stratford Road
2:10 Creed Street
3:56 Church Street
4:09 St George the Martyr Church
4:29 Church Street
6:50 Radcliffe Street
7:58 Stratford Road