Wolverton

Wolverton has existed as a minor parish since medieval times but was transformed in the late 19th century when the country's first railworks was built there, owing to its position on the newly built rail line between London and Birmingham. The town grew rapidly and was, for a time, a centre of British industry. The works have since declined to more or less nothing and Wolverton is no longer a place of much significance.

The second key event in its history was the construction of the new city of Milton Keynes, largely to the south of Wolverton but encompassing it within its city limits. On a map there is little to distinguish Wolverton from the other small, neatly defined postal districts of the city, although architecturally it is much more old-fashioned than the bold new housting estates of which Milton Keynes is almost entirely composed. Thus residents of Wolverton now have the unenviable choice of saying either that they come from an obscure, slightly depressing small town with more history than future, or from the fringes of a much-maligned artificial city whose main purpose is to provide self-esteem for people who live in Swindon.

There is at least in Wolverton (slightly) more life than in most of the city's residential estates, but as this life consists mainly of fish-and-chip shops, dingy pubs and the hugely unpopular Agora shopping centre, Wolverton is hardly like to attract the attention of many visitors - anyone who does come to Milton Keynes is going to concentrate on the increasingly successful city centre. Nevertheless, Wolverton does have, for the benefit of the imaginary tourist, various parks, a canal (the Grand Union), and museums relating the story of its more successful days. It is also the home of the memorably named burger bar, Burger Bar.

In addition, there is a community arts centre called Madcap (no one knows why) which in times of need can be somewhat optimistically converted to a makeshift arena - the Dandy Warhols actually played here while still fairly obscure, and so have those terribly loud ska-punks Capdown, Milton Keynes' most famous band.