Last Saturday I attended a book signing at the local Aston Martin Lagonda factory.
The writer is local man Richard Meredith who has in recent years been writing books on the history of Newport Pagnell, and this particular one was about the incredible automobiles that the local town has been producing for the last 200 years.
I have to admit that usually this kind of event would not be my scene, but after spending my life driving past the amazing Astons out the front of their factory, I could not miss the opportunity to have a look inside for myself.
The event itself was a great deal more interesting than I originally thought it might be, there were many historical photos of Newport from around 100 years ago, and whether it is testament to the fact I've recently aged to over 30 I enjoyed it very much.
One of the other guests at the event was the Mayor of Newport Pagnell, Paul Day.
As I approched Paul to ask for a photo, he said that the two other gentleman that he was speaking to were former mayors of Newport also.
Having the three of them there and in a photo together was a nice past/future reference, and showed that although the men no longer hold the position of town councillor, their passion for the town and the towns history has not faded.
Richard Meredith, the author of the book we were all there to appreciate, is a former newspaper journalist, turned travel writer, turned local history writer.
Richard and I had recently met when he published my previous article on a one of the towns shopkeepers Ken Graham; (https://www.stephloakephotography.com/blog/not-such-a-soulless-city-ken-the-heart-of-the-high-streets).
As Richard is a local history writer, and my blog is based on the people of our city, it seemed fitting that we would work together on some projects.
Although the cars were as beautiful as I always thought they would be when within touching distance, and the book & exhibition were a huge success, the highlight of the event for me was meeting the town Mayor and Mayoress.
Paul and his lovely wife Sarah, who was accompanying him as his mayors consort, were friendly, funny, easy to talk to, and a great deal more intriguing than my judgemental mind would have thought a mayor and mayoress would be.
Overall the event was a wonderful way to spend some time on a sunny Saturday afternoon, It was great to see the town in support of the amazing cars that Newport has been producing for so long.
But for me, it was the people who as always took the most hold in my mind after the event.
Everyone with whom I spoke on the day were friendly, engaging, down to earth and as usual, a testament to the wonderful people of Milton Keynes.
Aston Martins have been produced here for the last 60 years, and although the factory here is older than the city of Milton Keynes, it is another integral link to the soul of our seemingly "soulless" city.
For the link to my full gallery of photos from the day, follow this link; http://stephloake.wixsite.com/aston-martin
thanks for reading
Steph - Not Such a Soulless City
www.stephloakephotography.com