I’d love to hear some comments on this, as we’re still relatively new to this side of Milton Keynes. But I thought I’d write a little about our experiences of the area around Oxley Park, Milton Keynes.
Oxley Park is a new and expanding development on the western edge of Milton Keynes. To the east we have the V2 grid road, and to the west we have the North Bucks Way and then fields open fields and woodland, all the way to Whaddon, which sits pretty on the horizon.
We have two reasonable sized pieces of woodland to explore nearby, Oakhill Woods, which is to the North West corner of the estate, behind Woodhill Prison. A more easy to explore, designed for walkers and young adventurers alike woodland is Shenley Woods, to the east of Oxley Park.
We are, of course, part of the wonderful Milton Keynes redway system which allows easy access via bike to all parts of the city. Which means nowhere is to far to cycle, even for amateur level cyclists.
Oxley Park itself has some young but already interesting and quite diverse linear parkland within its boundaries, which make for a lovely place to walk or cycle with kids and pets.
One gripe is that some dog walkers really should take responsibility for their dog’s mess, which is one annoying and quite disgusting downside to many pieces of parkland throughout the city. Dog bins recently provided have improved the situation somewhat, but still some people let their dogs dump their faeces all over the place, ready and ripe for toddlers or over excited kids to tread or fall into. Not nice.
Anyway, there are ponds, ducks, owls, foxes, deer and all other kinds of wildlife who still live in and around Oxley Park. Living on the edge of the expanding city makes for an interesting and diverse mix of beasties on your door step!
Nearby in Shenley Church end, just east of Shenley Woods, you can find The Toot. Essentially the site of a big old house, which nobody seems quite certain how old, or how big. Still a nice place to visit.
For children there are a number of day nurseries and pre-schools around the area, the local one being Monkey Puzzle. Oxley Park Primary School is the local first school, recently rated “good” by an ofsted report, which has a very good local reputation. Currently under construction next to the school is a new Sure Start Centre, which will provide all kinds of services for young children and their parents. Close by, for the bigger kids, is The Hazely School.
For shoppers and diners Oxley Park local centre already has a number of facilities. A dry cleaner, a hairdresser, a pizza place, a Chinese take-away, a Thai Restaurant, and a small Tesco. A mile or so further to the South is Westcroft District Centre where you can buy everything from your weekly shop, to a pet fish, to a Skoda car, to some new shoes followed by fish and chips for supper.
So, as you can see, we have a very good mix of local services, a city on the doorstep, and the countryside down the path. I’ll follow up this post with another at some point in the not too distant future, as I’ve barely touched on the local area (within a mile or so) and what it has to offer to residents. Hope it’s been a useful introduction to the Oxley Park area though!
