Woburn Sands
Woburn Sands is a settlement that is mainly in the
Borough of Milton Keynes,
England. The county boundary with
Bedfordshire runs through[
1], the town so that the smaller part of the town, and especially its primary school, is that county. It is located to the south-east of
Milton Keynes itself, near
Wavendon.
Woburn Sands was anciently a
hamlet in the
parish of Wavendon, though in modern times has declared itself to be a town in its own right, sepated from Wavendon 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 in
Victorian times, the town council voted to change the name to something less unseemly. 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.
Woburn Sands contains many amenities, details of which are available on a local
Woburn Sands website. It is also a reasonably well-known (but under-publicised)
mountain biking destination, with car-parks at the top of Church Street.
Woburn Sands railway station, which serves the village, is located on the
Bletchley-
Bedford Marston Vale Line but the service is infrequent. A reasonably fast (35 mins. to 1 hour) mainline service is available from
Milton Keynes Central to
London Euston. Alternatively, the
Thameslink service from
Flitwick runs to
King's Cross.
|
More modern housing can be found in the north of Woburn Sands (on the Wavendon side of the tracks) where more development is also planned. |
Although its population is small for a town (2,246 according to the 2001 census), many inhabitants refer to it as a town, and 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.
*
Woburn Sands Town Council*
Overview aerial photograph of Woborn Sands and Aspley Guise from Multimap*
High resolution aerial photograph of the High Street from MKWEB ([
2])
*
Woburn Sands local history site*
WoburnCrankers.com - Local mountain biking group*
Cyclone Mountain Bike Club - MTB around local forest trails
