Spirit of Place: Milton Keynes

Today I went to see my godmother in Milton Keynes (not my goddess mother, which would be more than a day trip since she lives in South Africa yah). I have never been there before, never felt a desire to go there but had the place sussed almost at once, when my godmother said, Oh look at that stone circle. It seems I am not the only one:
'I knew there was something odd about Milton Keynes from the moment I arrived. At first sight, one is reminded of the computer game ‘Sim City’there are so many straight lines, roundabouts and manicured spaces. But the genteel façade hides a dark web of conspiracy, occult, supernatural and legend.
' As well as being completely aligned with the rising Midsummer Sun – and sitting upon a Ley Line –  Milton Keynes is dominated by pyramid structures, monoliths, obelisks, standing stones and stone circles, the latter proving a magnet to local pagans and witches. Together with its plethora of sinister street art (masked figures, owls etc…), conspiracy theorists the world over have concluded that MK is a so–called ‘super hub’ of the shadowy Illuminati.' ( Source)

In fact it seems the city is a positive hotbed of leylines (See here) but pagan ideas are actually built in, which despite literally decades of weird reading I had no idea of:
' Many other sites of interest are shown on a heritage map prepared by the Milton Keynes Development Corporation [1]. But the MKDC have not only made some effort to evaluate and excavate the archaeological features of the area, they have also created a few 'earth mysteries' of their own. As Jimmy Goddard has previously noted [2] the three parallel roads through the shopping centre are Silbury Boulevard, Avebury Boulevard and Midsummer Boulevard. And, although I have not been there to prove it, the midsummer sunrise should appear along Midsummer Boulevard, rising over the highest point in MK, the hill in Campbell Park known as the Belvedere. The terminus of this latter-day geomancy is a pond, with a powerful jet of water rising from the middle, surrounded by a circular hedge and paths leading off in the four cardinal directions.' ( Source)
And sure enough a simple internet search shows Milton Keynes and the surrounding area to be a hotbed of bickering magical people. No wonder the Hound felt strangely at home there :
'A culture of cloaks and cauldrons continues to bubble beneath surface of Milton Keynes 20 years after witches were granted the right to worship on public land in the city.
'Milton Keynes was the first place in the UK to grant Pagans land to worship on - today the spell-casting community numbers 680, according to coven chief High Priest Nick Woodley.
'But with different groups, different beliefs and different perceived powers, witches wands can collide.
'High Priest Woodley said: “There are different flavours of witches and disputes can happen, witchcraft is a loving, kind faith but sometimes it’s more like bitchcraft going on.' ( Source)