Milton Keynes is a large ‘new town’ built during the 1960s to house workers from the Greater London Area and lies 45 miles west of London; the County of Milton Keynes also includes the village of Newport Pagnell within its boundaries. Since the creation of the ‘new town’ the population of this region has quadrupled from 50,000 in 1961 to over 184,000 in the 2001 Census.

The town was purposely positioned half way between London and Birmingham in the Midlands to become a fulcrum of the country. While Milton Keynes is not a traditional population centre there are remains of settlements going back to the Roman occupation and even the Iron Age

Open University headquarters and Milton Keynes College lie in the town but no University is planed for the city at the present time.