A new Cricket season is about to begin for Stony Stratford and in Campbell Park

The Cricket Pavilion anat Campbell Park (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025; click on images for full-screen viewing)

Patrick Comerford

Patrick Comerford

I had planned to join clergy colleagues in the Milton Keynes area on a mid-week walk last week, beginning at the Cricket Pavilion and continuing around Campbell Park or down to the coffee shop at Willen Lake.

But it was mid-term break for most parents with children at school. So, instead, the two of us who turned up took a short walk through the park that took us as far as Campbell Wharf Marina.

After strolling around the wharf, the boats and the canal banks, I made my way back to the cricket pavilion and the cricket ground in Campbell Park. This is a meticulously maintained ground known for its first-class standard cricket pitch. It hosts a diverse range of matches, including local, county, youth, business, and exhibition matches.

There is a thriving cricket following in Milton Keynes and Campbell Park hosts many matches from April to September. In local domestic cricket, Campbell Park has been used by Stony Stratford Cricket Club for its Premier Division and Division 2 fixtures in the Northamptonshire Cricket League and as the venue for all 3rd XI and 4th XI games.

Campbell Park has also been the home venue for the Northamptonshire Cricket Academy play in the Northamptonshire Cricket League, and Bucks Cricket use Campbell Park for the training of many of their youth teams.

Most matches at Campbell Park are free to watch, with seating on the grass terraces beside the pitch (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025; click on images for full-screen viewing)

Campbell Park hosted its first match in 1981, when the Northamptonshire Second XI played the Leicestershire Second XI in the Second Eleven Championship. The first List-A match on the ground was in 1997 when Northamptonshire played Nottinghamshire in the AXA Life League. Two years later, the ground was the venue in 1999 for a List-A match between New Zealand A and Sri Lanka A.

Campbell Park hosted a single first-class match between a First-Class Counties Select XI and New Zealand in 2000. Northamptonshire played Hampshire there in 2004 in the Totesport League. The ground hosted its first Twenty20 match in 2005 when Northamptonshire played Gloucestershire in the Twenty20 Cup. From 2005 to 2008, the ground was the venue for four Twenty20 Cup matches, the last in 2008 when Northamptonshire played Warwickshire.

Buckinghamshire used the ground from 1998 to 2000, for Minor Counties matches, playing two Minor Counties Championship matches against Staffordshire and Suffolk and one MCCA Knockout Trophy match against the Sussex Cricket Board.

Campbell Park has held two Women’s One Day Internationals. The first was between England women and South Africa women in 1997, and the other between Ireland women and India women in 1999.

With the return of the cricket season in the warmer months, enthusiasts can look forward to an exciting line-up of fixtures. Most matches are free to watch, with seating on the grass terraces beside the pitch. Clubs, organisations and businesses are encouraged to bring their matches to the ground.

I am looking forward to the 2025 season which is about to begin. In previous summers, I have enjoyed some weekend games played by Stony Stratford Cricket Club at the Ancell Trust Sports Grounds on Ostlers Lane. Stony Stratford is back in the NCL Premier Division, and the Men’s First XI plays Old Northamptonians CC at Raunds Town Cricket Club on Saturday 26 April, while the Second XI plays Brixworth Second XI at Ostlers Lane.

Now, with the return of the cricket season, I must also look out for the line-up of fixtures in both Ostlers Lane and Campbell Park.

Getting ready for the new season in Campbell Park (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025; click on images for full-screen viewing)

An hour sipping coffee in April sunshine by the Grand Union Canal at Campbell Wharf Marina

Campbell Wharf Marina is on the Grand Union Canal in Milton Keynes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

I had planned to join a walk in the middle of last week with clergy colleagues in the Milton Keynes area, beginning at the Cricket Pavilion and continuing around Campbell Park or down to the coffee shop at Willen Lake.

But it was mid-term break for most parents with children at school. So, instead, the two of us who turned up took a short walk through the park and we ended up at Campbell Wharf Marina.

This was my first time at Campbell Wharf Marina, which is within a range of walking routes, places to eat and drink, leisure areas such as Willen Lake, and a network of over 40 parks maintained by the Milton Keynes Parks Trust.

Willen Lake nearby offers a variety of water sports and outdoor activities, while Campbell Park hosts a variety of events year-round, including music performances and cultural festivals.

The Grand Union Canal at Campbell Park, the principal navigable waterway between London and the Midlands (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

This picturesque wharf and marina are on the Grand Union Canal, with 111 berths. It has been designed to accommodate wide beams, narrowboats and cruisers and is suitable for people in search of both leisure and long-term moorings.

The marina was built in 2019 as part of the wider Campbell Wharf development by Crest Nicolson. The marina has excellent facilities and is finished to a high standard with non-slip glass-reinforced plastic jetties, state-of-the-art aluminium service bollards, and accessible Wi-Fi. It is now owned by the Parks Trust, and is operated on behalf of the trust by Geomac.

The Grand Union Canal is the principal navigable waterway between London and the Midlands. Starting in London, one arm runs to Leicester and another ends in Birmingham, with the canal to Birmingham stretching for 220 km (137 miles), with 166 locks from London.

The Grand Union Canal enters Milton Keynes at the outskirts of Bletchley at Fenny Stratford Lock, traverses the modern New Bradwell Aqueduct, and leaves Milton Keynes at Wolverton, running on a high embankment before passing over the Great Ouse at Cosgrove aqueduct.

The marina was built in 2019 as part of the Campbell Wharf development (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The food and drink options at the Campbell Wharf Marina in Milton Keynes include the Warbler on the Wharf pub and Canal St Coffee.

Warbler on the Wharf opened in 2022. It has two floors of dining space, with a defined bar area complete with a roaring fire. The pub also has an outside terrace and a south-facing beer garden overlooking the marina and the canal.

We sat for an hour outside Canal St Coffee overlooking the wharf, the canal and the boats, sipping coffee, comparing ministerial experiences and memories of Athens and Patmos.

After strolling around the wharf, the boats and the canal banks, I made way back to the cricket pavilion and passed some interesting sculptors, and then on through Campbell Park to the Light Pyramid and the Milton Keynes Rose.

But more about those sculptures and about cricket in Milton Keynes on another day, hopefully.


Three minutes of calm at Campbell Wharf in April sunshine (Patrick Comerford, 2025)

‘Animals in War’ in Milton Keynes recalls Edna Eguchi Read as an ‘Artist and Pacifist’

‘Animals in War’ by Ronald Rae in Campbell Park is tribute to Edna Eguchi Read as an ‘Artist and Pacifist’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

My search for public sculpture in Milton Keynes continued in Campbell Park in recent days when I came across ‘Animals in War’ by Ronald Rae (1998) in a hollow below the Belvedere in Campbell Park. This work of public sculpture was a gift from the Scottish sculptor and artist to the people of Milton Keynes in 2015 in memory of Edna Eguchi Read (1929-2012), who was an active promoter of public art in the new city.

Ronald Rae’s sculpture symbolises the aftermath of war and is a poignant memorial to all animals that died in wars, in particular horses that died in their millions in World War I. The soldier in the sculpture is missing half an arm and is wearing a gas mask, also referring to the horrors of chemical warfare.

The sculpture in Kemnay granite was previously on loan to Bletchley Park. The Public Arts Trust, Milton Keynes, working with partners Bletchley Park, the Parks Trust and Milton Keynes Council moved this large, 6 ton sculpture across Milton Keynes, and it was unveiled in Campbell Park on 30 July 2015 by Dr Charles Robert Saumarez Smith, secretary and chief executive of the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

Edna Read was a well-known pacifist and bought one of Ronald Rae’s other war related sculptures, ‘After Hiroshima’ which she donated to the Buddhist temple at Willen in Milton Keynes.

When ‘Animals in War’ was being unveiled, Ian Michie, chair of the Public Arts Trust in Milton Keynes, recalled how Edna Read had worked with the development agencies to integrate the work of artists into its buildings and landscape and to promote the image of Milton Keynes as ‘the City of Sculpture.’

She was instrumental in many of the city’s cultural organisations, including the Milton Keynes Gallery and Theatre Company, Aim Gallery, the Public Arts Trust and the Sculpture Walk for Emigré Artists at Bletchley Park.

The plaque at the sculpture describes her as an ‘Artist and Pacifist’ and an ‘irresistible force and champion of public art in Milton Keynes’.

The director of MK Gallery, Anthony Spira, also paid tribute, saying: ‘Edna was an irrepressible force determined that Milton Keynes should have the highest standards of arts and culture possible. Her formidable energy, enthusiasm and skills of persuasion have given her a legendary status within the history of art in Milton Keynes, from the 1970s when she personally picked up paintings by Modern Masters including Wassily Kandinsky from galleries in Cork Street for display at Milton Keynes Library.’

Will Cousins, chair of MK Gallery, said: ‘Anyone who came into contact with Edna was left in no doubt about her passion for the arts and Milton Keynes. Her belief in the power of art to transform place and people was inextinguishable.’

She had a vision for Campbell Park as a sculpture park. She died aged 83 following a road accident in November 2012. Her funeral service was held in the Church of Christ the Cornerstone, Milton Keynes.

‘Animals in War’ is a granite memorial to all animals that have died in wars, in particular the horses who died in their millions in World War I. The soldier with half an arm missing and wearing a gas mask is a reference to the horrors of chemical warfare.

Ronald Rae was born in Ayr in 1946. His works are entirely hand-carved in granite and over the course of 58 years he carved 58 large granite monoliths, many of which are in public and private collections throughout the UK.

Rae’s largest work to date is the 20 tonne ‘Lion of Scotland.’ His sculptures have been exhibited in Milton Keynes (1995-1999), Regent’s Park, London (1999-2002), the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, and Holyrood Park, Edinburgh (2006-2007).

Many of his granite sculptures in public places have Biblical themes, including five sculptures depicting the ‘Tragic Sacrifice of Christ’ in Alloway, ‘Abraham’ at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, the ‘Return of the Prodigal’ in Perth, the ‘Good Samaritan’ in Glenrothes, and his Celtic Cross at Erdington Railway Station, Birmingham. His ‘Fallen Christ’, outside the MacLeod Centre on the island of Iona, is to the memory of Jim Hughes, a member of the Iona Community.

His eight-tonne sculpture ‘Fish’ was installed on the waterfront at Cramond in 2009 after a successful fundraising campaign by the Cramond Community. His ‘Cuddling Couple’ outside Milton Keynes Central Station was bought by the Commissions for the New Towns after a major exhibition of his work in Milton Keynes in 1995-1999.

Looking at the sunset on Sunset Boulevard from Campbell Park in Milton Keynes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The ‘Armillary Sphere’ by Justin Tunley links Milton Keynes across the centuries of time

The ‘Armillary Sphere’ is a working sundial or armillary by Justin Tunley in Campbell Park in Milton Keynes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

I was in Campbell Park in Milton Keynes twice in recent days, and was pleasantly surprised as I continued to come across more works of public sculpture that are placed across the city.

Campbell Park is the main park in the centre of Milton Keynes, and the venue for many open-air events. Close to the Rose, which was the venue for the Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration at the weekend, the Labyrinth is one of the highest points in the park.

The swirls of the paved and grassy maze of the Labyrinth near Silbury Boulevard are surrounded by a substantial evergreen hedge. There are steps to the north and then paths and parkland to the south and east following the hill crest.

At the centre of the Labyrinth, the ‘Armillary Sphere’ is a working sundial or armillary designed by the sculptor Justin Tunley in 1995 to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Milton Keynes Housing Association and the launch of its new name as Midsummer Housing.

The designer and artist Justin Tunley lives and works in Milton Keynes, where he has worked as a design consultant since the early 1990s. He studied at Teeside Polytechnic, Middlesborough (1983-1986), and the Royal College of Art, London (1986- 1988), and trained as an industrial designer. Much of his work is concerned with items for serial production and he has worked with other designers, architects, landscape architects, artists, sculptors and planners.

Justin Tunley’s brief in Campbell Park was to design something related to the Midsummer Housing logo of a sundial, and the result was his Armillary Sphere set into the Labyrinth. It is made in laser cut steel with stone carving. The date in Roman and Arab numerals ‘MCMXCV’ denotes the unveiling of this sculpture on Midsummer’s Day, 21 June 1995.

An armillary sphere is also known as a spherical astrolabe, armilla, or armil. It is a model of objects in the sky or the celestial sphere. It consists of a spherical framework of rings, centred on the Earth or the Sun, and it represent lines of celestial longitude and latitude and other astronomically important features, such as the ecliptic. With the Earth as centre an armillary sphere is known as Ptolemaic. With the Sun as centre, it is known as Copernican.

The ‘Armillary Sphere’ is a working sundial at the centre of the Labyrinth in Campbell Park (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

An armillary sphere differs from a celestial globe, which is a smooth sphere and whose principal purpose is to map the constellations. In an armillary sphere, a central ‘gnomon’ or shadow caster runs through the centre of the sphere, parallel to the axis of the earth. The gnomon casts a vertical shadow over the inside face of the planetary ring running around it. As the earth rotates, the relative positions of the sun, gnomon and planetary ring change, moving the shadow in a clockwise direction.

Justin Tunley’s ‘Armillary Sphere’ in Campbell Park is a fully functional sundial. His distinctive series of vertical and angled cuts around the planetary ring represent Roman numerals. Those on the lower face represent Greenwich Mean Time and those on the upper face represent British Summer Time. The large holes running along the centre of the band mark the hours, the smaller holes represent 10 minute intervals.

The concept of an armillary sphere was invented separately in ancient China, possibly as early as the 4th century BCE, and in classical Greece in the 3rd century BCE, with later uses in the Islamic world and mediaeval Europe. An armillary sphere also features on the national flag of Portugal.

So, this sculpture, in its own way links sculpture and science, and the new city of Milton Keynes with the discoveries of ancient China and classical Greece, and the Labyrinth of Knossos with the Portuguese explorers of the 15th and 16th centuries.

The vertical and angled cuts around the planetary ring represent Greenwich Mean Time and British Summer Time (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

More sculptures on the move in public spaces in Milton Keynes

Keith McCarter’s ‘Cycloidal Form’ outside the Hotel La Tour in Milton Keynes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

One of the delights of walking around Milton Keynes and Campbell Park on a summer evening is having the uninterrupted space and light to appreciate many of the 200 or more modern sculptures in public spaces throughout this new city.

Keith McCarter’s sculpture ‘Cycloidal Form’ is now outside the Hotel La Tour in Milton Keynes, which opened last year (2022).

‘Cycloidal Form’ is a 3 metre diameter stainless steel sculpture, and was first commissioned by Standard Commercial Properties for Great Eastern Enterprise, Marsh Wall, in the London Docklands. The site was where Brunel had the keel laid for his ship Great Eastern and the sculpture reflects this maritime association.

Keith McCarter’s ‘Cycloidal Form’ formed part of a fountain outside HSBC near South Quay station London Docklands. However, HSBC decided to leave its 45-floor ‘tower of doom’ in the docklands and move back to the City of London after more than two decades. It was a major blow to Canary Wharf’s standing as a global financial centre in the wake of Brexit and the pandemic, and at a time ‘hybrid working’ reduced the need for office space.

Keith McCarter is a Scottish sculptor, with several works on public display. He was born in Edinburgh in 1936 and studied at Edinburgh College of Art. An Andrew Grant Scholarship allowed him to travel through Europe in 1960-1961. He then lived in the US until 1963, returning to the UK to become a visiting lecturer at Hornsey College of Art.

As his career moved on, he switched from working in concrete to metal. He designed many of the concrete walls, murals and patterns on buildings that formed the aesthetic of postwar Britain.

He is known for his abstract sculptural relief in concrete, ‘Celestial,’ which was commissioned by the Ordnance Survey in 1969. The mural was a beacon of postwar optimism and adorned the OS headquarters in Southampton until 2011, when the OS downsized and moved to new premises.

As map-making and storage became digitised, and printing was outsourced, there was no longer a need for vast floors. As far as I know, more than a decade later, the dismantled 34-tonne sculpture is still stored at the bottom of a field in Milton Keynes, and all efforts to find a new home for it have proven fruitless.

Meanwhile, Keith McCarter’s creative energy remains undiminished, although he had become a full-time carer for his wife, Brenda, a talented needleworker who died recently.

‘Chain Reaction’ (1992) by Ray Smith at the northern entrance to Campbell Park in Milton Keynes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

‘Chain Reaction’ (1992) was created by Ray Smith specifically for Skeldon Gate, the northern entrance to Campbell Park, and was sponsored by many local developers. It is one of the ‘Town Giants’ in Milton Keynes, and was presented to the Milton Keynes Parks Trust in June 1992.

This 12-metre model of figures balanced like acrobats in an endless chain was designed to be viewed from every angle. Smith’s basic idea was to create a three-dimensional model of figures balanced like acrobats in an endless chain. It is made from laser-cut mild steel and painted in red paint.

Ray Smith (1949-2018) was a sculptor, painter, illustrator and writer who exhibited widely. Although he had no formal art training, he received many awards, including an award from the Arts Council of Great Britain and the Royal Society of Arts Architecture Award. He also wrote several books on art for the publisher Dorling Kindersley and designed a selection of record sleeves.

Smith was born in 1949 in Harrow and studied English at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. His first solo exhibition was at the School of Architecture at Cambridge in 1970. He married Catriona Hermon, a fellow student at Cambridge, in 1971. He taught English at the Cambridge School of English and lectured at the Chelsea School of Art in the 1970s and 1980s. During this time, he also designed and illustrated record sleeves for several bands and musicians.

He illustrated two of Catriona Hermon’s children’s books, The Long Slide (1977) and The Long Dive (1978), in his ‘precise, whimsical style,’ and won two awards for his work in The Long Slide. He wrote and illustrates his own children’s book, Jacko’s Play (1980), followed by a series of Dorling Kindersley art books in 1984-1995, including The Artist’s Handbook (1987) and was consulting editor for DK’s Art School series.

Smith explored several art forms, including sculpture, painting and portrait photography, and exhibited his work widely. He was self-employed and much of his output was commissioned. He created a number of painted steel sculptures, including ‘Chain Reaction’ in Campbell Park, Milton Keynes.

He received many awards during his career, and has been a fine arts fellow at Southampton University. He died from dementia in 2018 at 69.

Summer evenings offer uninterrupted space and light to appreciate the 200 or more modern sculptures in Milton Keynes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Roots in slavery and Ireland: how Jock Campbell’s vision helped shape Milton Keynes

‘The Story of the original CMK’, reminiscences of the people who shaped Central Milton Keynes … a Christmas present (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

One of the Christmas presents I received from Charlotte is the book The Story of the original CMK, a unique set of reminiscences by the people who shaped the initial ideas of Central Milton Keynes.

This book, first published in 2007 by Living Archive of Milton Keynes, was commissioned by the Central Milton Keynes Project Board and is illustrated with over 150 full-colour and black-and-white photographs.

Here are the architects, designers, planners, landscape designers, engineers, surveyors, architectural technicians, finance and project managers – the 1970s CMK team who created the original city centre for Milton Keynes. They recall how the centre’s unique infrastructure and buildings came to be designed and built, and explain the thinking behind their work.

They recall their battles with government officials and authorities, with national and local traders, and with each other. They tell their stories of endeavour and frustration, of excitement and panic, and – above all – of their passion.

The key people include Lord Campbell of Eskan, who chaired Milton Keynes Development Corporation; Walter Ismay, MKDC’s first managing director; Fred Lloyd Roche, MKDC General Manager; Derek Walker, the chief architect and planning officer; Frank Henshaw, the chief quantity surveyor; and Harry Legg of the John Lewis partnership.

Glenstal Castle, Co Limerick … the family home of Jock Campbell’s maternal ancestors, the Barrington family (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Most accounts of Lord Campbell’s life recall his family background in the sugar plantations of Guyana. But Jock Campbell’s obituary in The Independent in 1995 described how he was raised in Ireland.

John Middleton Campbell, Baron Campbell of Eskan (1912-1994), was born ‘with a silver sugar spoon in his mouth. He was the chair of Booker-McConnell in what was once British Guiana (1952-1967), he chaired the Commonwealth Sugar Exporters Association (1950-1984), and also chaired the New Statesman and Nation.

Jock Campbell was born on 8 August 1912. His father, Colin Algernon Campbell, was a son of William Middleton Campbell, Governor of the Bank of England (1907-1909). His mother, Mary Charlotte Gladys Barrington (1889-1981), was born on 13 September 1889 at Glenstal Castle, Co Limerick – now Glenstal Abbey, a Benedictine abbey and school.

Mary Campbell’s father, Jock Campbell’s grandfather, John Beatty Barrington (1859-1926) was a son of Sir Croker Barrington, 4th Baronet, of Glenstal Castle. He was baptised in Saint Stephen’s Church, Dublin, and educated at Charterhouse and Trinity College. Dublin. He was a land agent in Limerick for his father and later his brother, Sir Charles Burton Barrington (1848-1943), and for the Earl of Limerick.

He was a Justice of the Peace for Limerick City and County and for Co Tipperary, High Sheriff of Co Limerick (1912), and a member of Limerick County Council. He died in Dublin in 1926 and was buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery. He left an estate valued at £17,316, today’s equivalent of over €1.2 million.

During World War I, three-year-old Jock Campbell was sent for safety to the Barrington family home at Glenstal Castle, and spent much of the formative years of his childhood in Co Limerick. Later he was educated went to Eton and Oxford.

His family wealth was inherited from his paternal ancestor, John Campbell, a late 18th century Glasgow ship owner and merchant. This John Campbell established the family fortunes in the West Indies through the slave trade.

John Campbell supplied the slave plantations on the coast of Guiana, then a Dutch colony. By the 20th century, the company of Curtis, Campbell and Co was well established in British Guiana.

Jock Campbell, Lord Campbell of Eskan … ‘the prime reason that Milton Keynes has got the quality it’s got’

Jock Campbell often said his ancestors were de facto slave-owners. He abhorred slavery, and the urge to make good the misdeeds of his own family became the catalyst for his own reformist ideals.

He was sent to British Guiana in 1934 to take charge of the family estates. The Campbells owned Las Penitence Wharf on the Demerara River, Georgetown, and the Ogle and Albion estates further east, and he was shocked by the appalling conditions of the workers.

He soon initiated reforms and merged the family company with the giant Booker Brothers, McConnell and Co, where he became chair. Bookers behaved like a state within a state, owning almost all the colony’s sugar plantations and dominating the economic life of Guiana.

Campbell was convinced that every business has a responsibility towards its workers and that profit alone should not be the guiding principle of society.

He once said: ‘I believe that there should be values other than money in a civilised society. I believe that truth, beauty and goodness have a place. Moreover, I believe that if businessmen put money, profit, greed and acquisition among the highest virtues, they cannot be surprised if, for instance, nurses, teachers and ambulance men are inclined to do the same.’

In effect, Campbell became a socialist-capitalist. The sugar industry was transformed from a run-down, unprofitable, inhuman, paternalistic and plantocratic expatriate family concern into a rehabilitated, forward-looking, productive and dynamic enterprise.

Wages were vastly increased, 15,000 new houses were built in 75 housing areas, with clean water and roads and water, medical services were upgraded, malaria was eradicated, community centres were opened, and educational, welfare, sporting and library facilities were expanded. In an era of tremendous growth and change, the industry was revolutionised and sugar production grew from 170,000 tons to 350,000 tons.

Campbell’s key message was quite simple: People are more important than ships, shops and sugar estates. It was a principle that later inspired his vision for the new city at Milton Keynes.

Campbell was made a life peer by Harold Wilson in 1966 and took the title Baron Campbell of Eskan. He was active in the House of Lords as a Labour peer. Speaking in the House of Lords in 1971, he dissociated himself from his ancestors, saying ‘maximising profits cannot and should not be the sole purpose, or even the primary purpose, of business.’

Campbell was instrumental in initiating the Booker Prize for literature in 1969 through his friendship with Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond books. Bookers acquired a 51% share in Glidmore Productions, the company handling the royalties on Fleming’s books and the merchandising rights – although not the film rights. Bookers later acquired the copyrights of other well-known authors, including Agatha Christie, Dennis Wheatley, Georgette Heyer, Robert Bolt and Harold Pinter. In 2002, the prize was renamed the Man Booker Prize.

Campbell’s mother, Mary Charlotte Gladys (Barrington) Campbell. died at Debsborough Cottage, her mother’s former home in Nenagh, Co Tipperary, on 21 July 1981. After a funeral service in Saint John’s Church, Nenagh, she was buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery, Harold’s Cross, Dublin.

Campbell chaired Milton Keynes Development Corporation from 1967. When he stepped down in 1983, he was succeeded by Sir Henry Chilver. Milton Keynes Development Corporation was wound up in 1992, and Campbell died on 26 December 1994.

The large, central park initially called City Park, was renamed Campbell Park in his honour. A memorial stone by the fountain in reads simply Si monumentum requiris, circumspice (‘If you seek a monument, look about you’), referring to the urban landscape created by his team.

In The Story of the original CMK, Derek Walker describes Campbell as ‘a good old Socialist’ and David Hartley describes him as ‘the man who could fix anything’ and ‘a visionary.’

Fred Roche and Derek Walker were two ‘very individualist and very forceful thinkers, David Hartley recalls, and ‘Fred and Jock are the prime reason that Milton Keynes has got the quality it’s got.’

Campbell Park in Milton Keynes … renamed in honour of the man who gave ‘Milton Keynes … the quality it’s got’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Sculptor Liliane Lijn has chosen to ‘see the world in terms of light and energy’

‘Light Pyramid’ by Liliane Lijn forms part of the view along Midsummer Avenue in Milton Keynes at sunset on Midsummer evening (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

During my mid-summer visit to Campbell Park in Milton Keynes at the end of last week, I stopped to admire the ‘Light Pyramid,’ a sculpture by Liliane Lijn, that forms part of the view along Midsummer Avenue at sunset on Midsummer evening.

The ‘Light Pyramid’ was commissioned by the Parks Trust in Milton Keynes in 2012 to replace the original basket beacon on the Belvedere that was removed after a lightning strike.

The ‘Light Pyramid’ is made of steel and painted white. It was first illuminated for Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee ten years ago and is still lit to commemorate special local and national events.

The ‘Light Pyramid’ is by Dr Liliane Lijn, an American-born artist who has lived in London since 1966. She is known for her cone-shaped Koan series.

She was the first woman artist to work with kinetic text (‘Poem Machines’), exploring both light and text as early as 1962. She is also said to be the first woman artist to have exhibited a work incorporating an electric motor.

Utilising original combinations of industrial materials and artistic processes, Liliane Lijn is recognised for pioneering the interaction of art, science, technology, eastern philosophy and feminine mythology. In conversation with Fluxus artist and writer Charles Dreyfus, she said she primarily chose to ‘see the world in terms of light and energy.’

Liliane Lijn’s work covers a large spectrum of interests, from Light and its interaction with diverse new materials to the development of a fresh image for the feminine. She has taken inspiration from incidental details both human-made and natural, mythology and poetry, science and technology.

Lijn is interested in the development of language, collaborating across disciplines and making art that is interactive, in which the viewer can actively participate.

She was born in New York in 1939, and studied archaeology at the Sorbonne and art history at the Ecole du Louvre in Paris.

She lived in New York in 1961-1963, when she was the artist in residence at a plastics factory, experimenting with fire and acids. There she worked with light, poetry, movement and liquids, and many international exhibitions established her as a leading kinetic artist.

She returned to Paris to work in 1963-1964, when she exhibited her first kinetic light works and ‘Poem Machines.’ She then lived in Athens (1964-1966), making use of natural forces in her sculpture.

She moved to London in 1966, and in 1974 she staged the performance ‘The Power Game,’ a text-based gambling game and socio-political farce for the Festival for Chilean Liberation at the RCA.

She has been the artist in residence or has received fellowships at Northumberland, the University of Newcastle, and the University of California, Berkeley, in partnership with NASA and the Leonardo Network.

Her work has been displayed or exhibited across the world, from Gwangju in China to Leeds and London, from Paris to San Francisco. Her many awards include a doctorate (DLitt) from the University of Warwick (2005).

She worked with NASA to develop installations using aerogel, and has written a brief libretto, ‘The Descent of Inanna,’ with a score by Morgan Hayes.

Liliane Lijn has been invited to the 59th International Art Exhibition of the Biennale in Venice this year (23 April to 27 November 2022).

Midsummer drinks with panoramic views on Britain’s highest viewpoint

The 30 metre high, LED-lit stainless steel sun design circle on the Hotel La Tour in Milton Keynes was created to align with the sun on the longest day of the year (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

After walking through Campbell Park earlier this week to catch a glimpse of the midsummer sunset on Midsummer Boulevard in Milton Keynes, two of us went to Fourteen, the sky bar and restaurant on the top floor of the new Hotel La Tour, with its breath-taking views over Campbell Park and Central Milton Keynes.

As we made our way up to the 43-metre high top floor and the fourteenth-floor sky bar and restaurant, with its panoramic views, the panoramic lift gave us a unique visual experience.

On the top floor, Fourteen is Britain’s highest destination bar and restaurant, offering the highest viewpoint in the whole of the country. Soaring 50 metres above ground level, the 14th floor stylish all-day contemporary British restaurant – it offers 360-degree vistas over Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire.

The statement marble effect central bar, with high and low tables and plush green, grey, and pink seating, offers classic and contemporary cocktails, fine wines, champagnes, and locally sourced brews, as well as sharing plates and delicious bar bites.

Hotel La Tour opened in Milton Keynes in April, next to the Milton Keynes shopping centre, and the hotel stands tall overlooking the sights of the new city. The hotel is a 14-storey, split-tower, 50-metre-high concrete and steel framed building. It has 261 bedrooms, a 12,900 sq ft conference floor with meeting spaces, and an external terrace.

Every one of the 261 bedrooms and suites features expansive floor-to-ceiling windows with views over either Milton Keynes Central or Campbell Park.

The hotel is located at the highest point of the new city. This prominent location led to the building undergoing an extensive stakeholder consultation, with real and significant changes to the design.

Hotel La Tour is a culmination to Midsummer Boulevard and a gateway sign to the city centre (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The building form is a simple split tower, minimal in form and detail with mirror cladding, all capturing the classic forms of the city.

With this overall simplicity forming a screen, the east facing façade is dominated by a huge circle that is illuminated at night to form both a culmination to Midsummer Boulevard and a gateway sign to the city centre. This 30 metre high, LED-lit stainless steel sun design circle was created to align with the sun on the longest day of the year.

A large sculpture, ‘Cycloidal Form,’ by the artist Keith McCarter, stands adjacent to the canopy entrance.

The hotel was designed by pHp architects, a service led architectural practice with over five decades of experience in both the public and private sectors. The practice is led by three partners, supported by three directors, each with specialised roles. They are active in a number of sectors, with activity split across logistics, education, leisure, office and Industrial developments.

The project was completed in March 2022 and Hotel La Tour opened in April. The design used 3D design capabilities and this is the first building to meet the ‘Exceptional Developments’ policy in the Central Milton Keynes Alliance Plan (CMKAP).

Hotel La Tour is dedicated to enhancing and supporting the development of Milton Keynes, economically and environmentally, with its modern build emphasising sustainability from the ground-up and the creation of 180 local jobs.

Hotel La Tour’s managing director, Mark Stuart, is quoted as saying: ‘Encapsulating the town’s aspiration to be better by design, we have worked hard to create an aesthetically pleasing and sustainable building that delivers on luxury as well as functionality. We are committed to supporting the growth of Milton Keynes’ economy and this investment demonstrates our confidence in its strength.’

Midsummer drinks in Fourteen, Britain’s highest destination bar and restaurant (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)