Milton Keynes, as a new town, is just over 50 years old and in that half century, what was a rural landscape between a triangle of small towns, has been rapidly transformed. Underlying that fresh development are many, many stories about our forebears, with a written history that goes back 1,000 years and an archaeological record that extends into the stone age. The stories are worth telling and reading about. We have designed this book so that it can be referenced and dipped into and the stories are, for the most part, brief and digestible. We have not attempted to order material by period or theme and the stories come from the earliest times to within living memory. The creation of the new town has provided a central focus for all communities to the north, east, south and west and we have extended our remit to include all communities within about a 12 mile radius. That is almost all of North Bucks, some parts of South Northamptonshire and parts of East Bedfordshire.