I met my partner on a dating website 6 years ago – he is from Milton Keynes, I was from Oxford. And after a few months of dating, I fell in love with both him and MK so I decided to move in with him!

At the time I was commuting back to Oxford every day for work… that’s until I fell pregnant with my little boy Joshi 3 years ago. All of a sudden I was on maternity leave, on my own in Milton Keynes, with all my family and friends down in Oxford.

Anne Marie and her son Joshi

I knew I had to make Milton Keynes friends if I didn’t want to stay lonely. So I started a Facebook group called Mummies Meetings MK, to see if there were any other mums out there in the same position as me – with a small child and no one to see. At first it was just me on my own in this Facebook group, with the hope that someone would want to be friends with me… and there was!

I’ve lived in Milton Keynes for 26 years after moving with my family at 8 years old with my father’s job. We came from London and I honestly felt like we’d moved to Emmerdale! It was very quiet and different from London, but I got used to it very quickly.

I loved that after school my friends and I could go out to play, in the greenery, and build dens out of trees or whatever. Roll on 20 years and I now have children of my own who love it here. It was while I was pregnant I founded Mumpreneurs- the very first organisation to support mums in business in Milton Keynes.

Bianca showing off some of her favourite 6 inch heels!

It’s a not for profit networking agency that puts on events once a week, to unite, connect, motivate and empower women starting up in business – and they also happen to be mums. We bring these ladies together, to spend time talking and learning from each other. To help each other. So that’s my day job.

The museum is of great importance to me – and to Milton Keynes – as it tells the story of the area. And it all started after the announcement of MK.

People in the area at the time became very worried about this new town coming. You could imagine the situation; families who had been here for generations found their way of life was not going to continue. They were scared they were going to be swept away.

Bill Griffiths is the Museum Director at Milton Keynes Museum

So they started collecting everything that became available. So as farms finished, they pulled together the machinery. As little industries closed they would gather the engines they’d driven, or whatever. They kept whatever they could. But then they had nowhere to put it, until eventually Stacey Hill Farm became available in Wolverton… and the museum was born. I am so passionate about this place.

I came here as a junior in 1972 and joined the Development Corporation where I developed my career to becoming the commercial director, responsible for selling Milton Keynes to the world!

People saw this as a concrete jungle, so I made sure the ads I agreed refuted this claim. All of our ads were aimed to get people to come and look at the place, to see it wasn’t just concrete.  It was a fantastic job because I believed in MK.  There was a lot of heartache on the way – it wasn’t just a case of putting up the ads and they all came tumbling in.

Bob Hill talking to MK People

Heartache came when you bust a gut to try and persuade a company to come to Milton Keynes and they didn’t.  I remember a big bank was looking to move to either Milton Keynes or Bournemouth – they were their final two. and they chose Bournemouth.  Not because they didn’t like Milton Keynes, but because the senior managers liked sailing, but not on a lake!  they wanted to sail on the sea.

I grew up in London and didn’t think there were any opportunites there so I moved to Milton Keynes at the age of 16.

I’m now the youngest manager of the biggest and best leisure asset in Buckinghamshire; Xscape.

Milton Keynes for me is an amazing place.  If I had not made that move, I would never have had the opportunities I did and I would not do what I do now.  For me, Xscape is like the bad relation in the family in Milton Keynes.  Everything’s square with the grid roads and then you have this huge building which just dominates the skyline and it breaks all the rules and regulations.

The Xscape building dominating the skyline in Milton Keynes

We kind of do the same.  It has a reputation for bringing the best or the first of everything.  We had the first real snow ski slope in the country, the first indoor sky diving tunnel and the biggest casino outside of London.