Woburn Sands

Woburn Sands
Woburn Sands High Street
Woburn Sands  Woburn Sands shown within Buckinghamshire
OS grid reference	SP927360
Unitary authority	Milton Keynes
	Central Bedfordshire
Ceremonial county	Buckinghamshire
	Bedfordshire
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	MILTON KEYNES
Postcode district	MK17
Dialling code	01908
Police	Thames Valley
Fire	Buckinghamshire
Ambulance	South Central
EU Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	North East Milton Keynes
	Mid Bedfordshire
List of places: UK • England • Buckinghamshire

Woburn Sands is a small town and civil parish that is mainly located in the Borough of Milton Keynes, England, and to the south-east of Milton Keynes itself, near Wavendon. The county boundary between Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire runs through the town so that the smaller part of the town, including its primary school, is in Bedfordshire.

History

The earliest evidence of settlement is an Iron Age hill fort dating from around 500BC, called Danesborough Camp which is located to the southwest of the present town. Later when the settlement had developed into a hamlet it was part of the parish of Wavendon, becaming a separate civil parish in 1907. Under the Local Government Act 1972 the parish council has adopted the status of a town in its own right. It has separated from Wavendon which is just to the north of the Marston Vale Line.

The village name was originally Hogsty End, one of Wavendon's four 'ends' (along with Church End, Cross End and Lower End) but by Victorian times, this un-picturesque name had fallen out of favour, and Woburn Sands had taken over as the accepted name. There is a local story that a schoolmaster was unable to attract business to his "Hogsty End Academy", and was one of the first to promote the use of the new name, but in fact it had been in use before this. The modern place name is related to nearby Woburn in Bedfordshire, and to the sandy local soil resulting from its proximity to the Greensand Ridge, an escarpment of Greensand.

The town had a reputation as a health spa because of the micro-climate, and people would come from far and wide to "take the airs". Several convalescent homes were built locally.

Modern Woburn Sands

Modern Woburn Sands contains many amenities, details of which are available on a local website. It is also a reasonably well-known (but under-publicised) mountain biking destination, with car-parks at the top of Church Road.

Woburn Sands railway station, which serves the town, is located on the Bletchley-Bedford Marston Vale Line but the service is currently only hourly in both directions, and that only from about 7:00 am until 7:00 pm. A reasonably fast (35 mins. to 1 hour) mainline service is available from Milton Keynes Central to London Euston. Alternatively, the First Capital Connect service from Flitwick runs to St. Pancras.

Although its population is small for a town (2,246 according to the 2001 census), many inhabitants still refer to it as a village, but the civil parish council has officially declared it a town. Its population and consequently its housing stock continue to grow and it may coalesce with Milton Keynes as the latter expands to meet it (though Milton Keynes Partnership denies this in its expansion plans for Milton Keynes: it regards the Varsity Line as the firm southern boundary of Milton Keynes). Milton Keynes Council envisage further housing development and a new Science Park on Woodley's Farm, south of the railway.

External links

• Woburn Sands Town Council
• Woburn Sands local history site
• The Hogsty End Handbook local community magazine
• Cyclone Mountain Bike Club - MTB around local forest trails
• Woburn Sands Folk Festival