Wavendon

Wavendon is a village and civil parish in the south east of the Milton Keynes urban area, in Buckinghamshire, England. The village name is an Old English language word, and means 'Wafa's hill'. In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 969 the village was recorded as Wafandun. The ancient village lies just outside the 1967 designated area of Milton Keynes. The ecclesiastic parish of Wavendon anciently contained the hamlet of Woburn Sands (originally known as 'Hogsty End, Wavendon'), which became a separate civil parish in 1907. The parishes are separated by the Marston Vale line. Gustav Siegfried Eins Wavendon Tower is a large country house with substantial modern additions on the edge of the village. During the Second World War it was used as a recording studio for black propaganda. From 1969 to the late 1970s, it was the base for the Milton Keynes Development Corporation. Until 2011 it was an operating centre for Scicon (subsequently EDS). In 2012, Landar Limited, an automotive management consultancy, moved into Wavendon Tower. In the 2004 expansion plans for Milton Keynes, it was proposed that Wavendon would become a neighbourhood centre of the city, in a similar way to the other towns and villages that provided the roots of early Milton Keynes districts. However, following the 2010 general election, the new Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government cancelled the expansion plans of the outgoing Labour government. Subsequent development has occurred in a piecemeal fashion. In 2012, Milton Keynes Borough Council approved parish council proposals for development near the village. Since the 2011 National Census, the Office for National Statistics has shown Wavendon as part of the Milton Keynes built-up area. Magna Park is a large distribution site on the part of Wavendon civil parish north of the A421 (and in the 'Eastern Expansion Area', one element of the expansion plans for Milton Keynes that has gone ahead). In 2012 its occupants included John Lewis and River Island, both of which have very large distribution centres.