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The OU comes to Milton Keynes

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View of building work next to Walton Hall on the OU campus
Title : Construction work on the OU campus
Date: 1970
A group of men walking through a construction site on the OU campus
Title : Construction work on the OU campus
Date:

Building began on the Walton Hall site on 1 April 1969 and the move from Belgrave Square to Milton Keynes took place in October 1969.

 

Perry wrote about an early problem: “The renovation of the old Walton Hall had not been completed and all the staff arriving on the site were housed temporarily in the new building. It was not a good season of the year to move in. Due to the weather and the contractors’ activity the whole place was a sea of mud. Moving from the car parks to the buildings was a hazardous occupation. The new building was carpeted wall to wall and the carpets looked like being permanently impregnated by the thick clay of North Buckinghamshire. One of the first things that I did on arrival at the site was to send the Purchasing Officer to Northampton to buy 100 pairs of cheap carpet slippers, which were issued to members of staff in an effort to protect the new carpets.”

 

The first two images shows early building work on the new campus during 1969-1970. The bottom image shows a pair of the original carpet slippers issued to staff. They were donated to the Archive by Peter Price, Clerk to the Council, on his retirement in 1997.

 

The historical OU images collection contains additional images of the OU campus. The History of the OU website also has pages around the pre-OU history of Walton Hall, and a guide to the buildings on campus and their names on the historical tour of the campus page.

The OU comes to Milton Keynes (page 3 of 3)