Newport Pagnell

Newport Pagnell is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The Office for National Statistics records Newport Pagnell as part of the Milton Keynes urban area. It is separated from the rest of the urban area by the M1 motorway, on which Newport Pagnell Services (the second service station to be opened in the UK) is located.
History.
The town was first mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Neuport", Old English for 'New Market Town', but by that time, the old Anglo-Saxon town was dominated by the Norman invaders. The suffix 'Pagnell' came later when the manor passed into the hands of the Pagnell (Paynel) family. It was the principal town of the "Three Hundreds of Newport", a district that had almost the same boundary as the modern Borough.
At one time, Newport Pagnell was one of the largest towns in the County of Buckinghamshire (the assizes of the County were occasionally held there). Today, despite its own substantial expansion, it has been completely dwarfed by the growth of Milton Keynes. There were also at one time two hospitals in Newport Pagnell, and six fairs were held for the townsfolk throughout the year.
The 1841 census gave the population as 3,569.
Newport Pagnell became the headquarters of Newport Pagnell Rural District under the Local Government Act 1894. In 1897, Newport Pagnell became the sole civil parish comprising the newly created Newport Pagnell Urban District.
The Grade I listed Tickford Bridge, over the River Ouzel (or Lovat), was built in 1810. It is one of just a few cast iron bridges in Britain that still carry modern road traffic. Near the footbridge at the side, there is a plaque placed by Newport Pagnell Historical Society that gives details of its history and construction. The Ouzel joins the Great Ouse nearby, and a large set of sluice gates, used to control downstream flooding, is located near the bridge.
Between 1817 and 1864, the town was linked to the Grand Junction Canal at Great Linford via the Newport Pagnell Canal. In 1862, the canal owners sold the route to the London and North Western Railway. For a hundred years (1867 to 1967), Newport Pagnell was served by Newport Pagnell railway station, the terminus on the Wolverton to Newport Pagnell branch line.
From 1954 until 2007, the town was the home to the exclusive sports car manufacturer Aston Martin. The Newport Pagnell factory was considered outdated and a new production facility was built near Gaydon in Warwickshire.
There is still a service facility in Newport Pagnell, but the factory on the north side of Tickford St has since been demolished apart from the engine shop, board room and offices that are listed buildings. The land behind these has been purchased by Tesco and the supermarket giant had planned to build an outlet on the site, preserving the original remaining buildings for use by the townspeople: , this plan remains on the drawing board. In 2012, Aston Martin completely modernised the service facility and the site also houses a bespoke sales department.
Notable industries in the town include the only remaining vellum manufacturer in the United Kingdom, William Cowley, located at Parchment Works, 97 Caldecote Street.
Over the past 50 years, Newport Pagnell has attracted an increasing amount of investment and of economic growth, due to its fortunes being intertwined with the growth of Milton Keynes. This has led a number of new housing developments in the area. 
The modern civil parish of Newport Pagnell stops at the M1, but the ecclesiastical parish extends to include Broughton and Caldecote. The parish church is dedicated to St Peter and St Paul.
Education.
The town is home to three primary schools - Tickford Park Primary School, Green Park Primary School, and Portfields Primary School - and four pre-schools - River Meadows, Lovat Hall, Cedars and Northern Pastures. It is also home to one of two campuses of Ousedale School (the other one being in nearby Olney), which serves students from across the town and its surrounding villages, and is one of the best performing secondary schools in the Borough of Milton Keynes.
Location and transport.
The town is located at the north-eastern corner of the Milton Keynes urban area, and straddles the urban and rural parts of the Borough. It is served by the M1 motorway from Junction 14 ( to the south) via the A509 which, along with the A422 and Wolverton Road, connects it with Milton Keynes proper. To the east of the town, the A422 and A509 multiplex northwards to form the Newport Pagnell Eastern Bypass, providing links to Bedford, Wellingborough and Kettering. The historic Newport Pagnell-Northampton road (B526) runs through the centre of the town, linking rural villages to the north, and provides a secondary route to Northampton.
In February 2021, developers presented to Milton Keynes Council proposals for the development of a new community to the south of Newport Pagnell, with the construction of approximately 5,000 homes. The new area would be called "Milton Keynes East," and would include a local centre, and have direct road links to Newport Pagnell town centre, and Central Milton Keynes via an expansion of the Milton Keynes grid road system. If undertaken, it will be the first formal expansion of Milton Keynes to the east of the M1. 
It was proposed in January 2021 that, with the money that had been given to Milton Keynes Council as part of the UK Government's Active Travel Fund, Tongwell Lane in Newport Pagnell would be converted into a redway, which would better link the town with the Milton Keynes designated area.
Demography.
Although Newport Pagnell was excluded from the 1967 designated area of Milton Keynes, its growth has been at a similar level to that of the constituent towns of the latter; the two now join at the M1 and there are no other practical distinctions between them. The Office for National Statistics records Newport Pagnell as part of the Milton Keynes Urban Area. Its population in 1971 was 6,000: by 2001 it had reached 15,020, In 2006, the Borough Council projected that the population will remain broadly stable at this level. However, in its comments on the expansion plans for Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire County Council challenged this assumption, calling for any further expansion to be to the east of the M1 rather than south across the border into Aylesbury Vale. At the 2011 census, the population had reached 15,118.
Sport and leisure.
Newport Pagnell has a Non-League football team Newport Pagnell Town F.C., nicknamed the Swans, who play at The Pavilion on Willen Road. An ITF Taekwon-Do club, Kicks Taekwon-Do Academy, trains at Cedars Primary School, Bury Street, and a swimming pool.
Newport Pagnell Lawn Bowls.
Bowls has been played in Newport Pagnell for over 400 years as maps of the Town dating from the mid 17 Century show a public House called “The Bowling Green”. The Newport Pagnell Bowling Club was founded in 1905 and the club used the Bowling Green behind the George pub in Tickford Street (currently The Magic Wok 2019). The game was developing locally due to the Railways, with clubs at Wolverton existing already and Olney forming in 1906. After the Great War, the Club purchased a plot of land known as “The Bully” and the Club remains at this site in Castle Meadow to the current day.