Bancroft

The residential Bancroft district is divided by Shenley Brook into Bancroft Park to the north and Bancroft to the south. The brook valley here is part of the flood control system and is a linear park for the most of the year. There is a permanent wetland with associated plants and wildlife.

The foundations of a Romano-British farm known as Bancroft Roman Villa are in what is now the North Loughton Park, overlooking the Shenley Brook.^[7](map) Rescue excavations in 1957 identified a group of perhaps four buildings, traces of a hypocaust and sherds of Iron Age pottery.^[8] A section of mosaic flooring recovered from the site is in the "guest services lounge" of Central Milton Keynes shopping centre.^[9]

A copy of the famous Concrete Cows sculpture is at the southern end of the park (the original is in the Milton Keynes Museum). The Cows were originally sited here.

Bancroft is a haven for birds and one of the best places to see a common kingfisher. This is because of the wide variety of habitats the Parks Trust has created, from old grassland managed as wildflower meadows, through patches of thorn scrub to extensive marsh. cowslips and salad burnet flower in the spring, followed in summer to the customary flowers of traditional hay meadow: lady's bedstraw and birdsfoot trefoil.

Bancroft pétanque Piste, which is near the Roman villa site, is provided by the Parks Trust free of charge. Also known as boules, pétanque is a traditional game played with steel balls on any sandy or gravelly surface across a large part of Europe.

The Bancrofts comprise just half the H2/H3/V5/V6 grid square, which is divided by the West Coast Main Line; the line is also the parish boundary, with Stacey Bushes (in Wolverton and Greenleys parish) on the other side of the tracks. Monks Way (H3, A422) bounds the parish from the neighbouring Bradwell.

Blue Bridge

This small district is mainly residential, near the West Coast Main Line and the Grand Union Canal (which separates it from Stonebridge, the rest of the grid square). It is also home to its own residential club, which it shares with Bancroft Park.^[10] The 'Blue Bridge' (1834–5), now restricted to pedestrian and cycle traffic, is one of the oldest bridges over the West Coast Main Line and is a Grade II listed structure.^[11]

Bradville

This district, between Bradwell, New Bradwell and Stantonbury itself, is mainly residential. The windmill is a Grade II listed building.^[12]

Linford Wood

As well as the ancient woodland that gives it its name, this district is mainly for high-tech industry. It is best known in Milton Keynes as the site of the telecommunications tower, for which it was chosen for its high elevation. It was originally part of the Linford demesne.

Oakridge Park

This small district of private housing development, part of the northern expansion of Milton Keynes outside its 1967 designated boundary, dates from about 2010.^{[citation needed]} There is a small local centre with an Asda supermarket, a pharmacy and other small shops.

Stantonbury

This district lies north of Central Milton Keynes, between Great Linford and Wolverton, and south of Oakridge Park. It is largely residential, but the greater proportion of the area is taken up by two secondary schools (Stantonbury School and the Webber Independent School), a Theatre, leisure centre with a 25m swimming pool and an all-weather, competition standard, athletics track.

Modern Stantonbury lies on land historically known as "Stanton High" (as opposed to "Stanton Low").^[13]

Stanton Low

Stanton Low lies near the River Great Ouse and is the deserted village of historic Stantonbury,^[14] one of the rural Buckinghamshire villages that were included in the area designated in 1967 to become Milton Keynes. Today this is an uninhabited agricultural area near the river. Little if anything remains of the deserted village other than the ruins of the parish church of St Peter. In the late 1950s the ruins of a Roman villa were discovered here, but were completely destroyed by gravel extraction.^[15]