Words: Dave Proudlove // @fslconsult
The relationship between football and the railways has a long and eventful history, and many clubs can find their roots in the workshops and plants that built some of our country’s most enduring transport infrastructure. Some of English football’s most famous names began their lives as works teams formed by railway workers, the most prominent of which is Manchester United who were formed as Newton Heath L&YR in the carriage works of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company in east Manchester. Closer to home, Stoke City were formed as Stoke Ramblers by apprentices of the North Staffordshire Railway Company. Other professional clubs established by railway workers include Crewe Alexandra and Doncaster Rovers, while further down the food chain, clubs such as Harrogate Railway Athletic and Horwich RMI – now Leigh Genesis – owe their existence to the railway industry.
One place that perhaps doesn’t tend to get much of a look in when it comes to either rail or football history is the New Town of Milton Keynes, yet both go back a long way.
Wolverton is one of the constituent towns of Milton Keynes, but in the early 19th century, it was a small, simple village on the banks of the Grand Union Canal. That changed in 1838 when the London and Birmingham Railway Company took the decision to build their locomotive repair workshop in Wolverton, which led to the village expanding rapidly. However, just eight years later, London and Birmingham became a part of the London and North Western Railway Company who relocated the operations at Wolverton to the newly built Crewe Works some 120 miles north in south Cheshire.
Locomotives continued to be built and repaired at Wolverton for a number of years, but this finally came to an end in 1877. This wasn’t the end of the line for Wolverton though, and the works began to focus on the building of carriages and road vehicles associated with railway operations.
By this point, Wolverton had grown to become a railway town on the back of the development of 200 houses built by the London and North Western Railway Company, while other facilities built by the firm included the 8-acre Wolverton Park, which incorporated the London and North Western Railway Sports Ground. Developed in 1885, this was to become significant in the development of football stadia. Other facilities included tennis courts, a cinder cycle track, and bowling greens. Wolverton Park has drawn comparisons with other facilities developed by industrial benefactors, such as those at Bournville and Port Sunlight.
Aerial view of Wolverton and the railway works. The Sports Ground can be seen in the foreground.
Photo Credit: Historic England
While there were numerous clubs dotted in and around the communities that were to make up Milton Keynes, such as Bletchley St. Martin and Stony Stratford Baptists, the most prominent early local club was perhaps predictably formed in Wolverton.
Wolverton’s first football club was formed in 1887, a works team from the railway plant, though originally the club was simply known as Wolverton and predictably nicknamed The Wolves. A year later, the club became known as Wolverton London & North Western Railway – name changing became a regular occurrence in the club’s history – but that name was a short lived one too. In 1889, they adopted the name Newport Pagnell & Wolverton London & North Western Railway Amalgamated Association Football Club, the longest name in the history of English football. However, after just one season under their ridiculously long moniker, they reverted back to Wolverton London & North Western Railway. The club was reasonably successful during its early years, winning a number of league titles and cup competitions.
Given football’s increasing presence in both the village and the works’ social scene, the London and North Western Railway Company added a permanent football ground to the Wolverton Park in 1899, creating a little bit of footballing history in the process: the ground included the world’s first covered stand, a wooden three-gabled structure that held 100 spectators.
The world’s first covered stand at Wolverton Park.
Photo Credit: Vince Taylor
The football club was re-named once again in 1902, simply becoming Wolverton Town. They continued to perform reasonably well on the pitch, winning the United Counties League title, and the South Midlands League Premier Division title on two occasions. But in 1948 the club became Wolverton Town and B.R. following the nationalisation of the rail industry. During the 1957/58 season, Wolverton Town and B.R. enjoyed a fine run in the FA Cup reaching the 4th qualifying round, while during the 1970s, they reached the 3rd round of the FA Vase in four consecutive seasons.
During the early Thatcher years, B.R. was dropped from the club’s name and they reverted back to Wolverton Town. Towards the end of the 1980s – in recognition of Wolverton’s status as a constituent part of the growing and successful New Town, Milton Keynes – the club once more tampered with their name, adding (Milton Keynes) to it, before becoming Milton Keynes Wolverton Town. The dawn of the 1990s saw the club begin to struggle, while they dropped town and Milton Keynes from their name, becoming Wolverton once more. In 1992, the club folded after 107 years.
Senior football returned to Wolverton Park in 1998 when Milton Keynes City relocated to the ground. The club was originally formed in the early 1990s as Mercedes-Benz Football Club, a Sunday league team named after the Mercedes-Benz plant in Milton Keynes where the bulk of their players worked. The club’s directors were ambitious, and aspired to become a club that represented Milton Keynes as a whole. Milton Keynes City were to reach the Spartan South Midlands League, but in the summer of 2003, the club’s directors resigned and the club folded, with chairman Bob Flight blaming a lack of local interest and confusion surrounding Wimbledon’s proposed move to Milton Keynes.
Milton Keynes City weren’t the first Milton Keynes City, and they also weren’t the last. The first Milton Keynes City was formed in 1914 as Bletchley Sports, and changed its name on a number of occasions before settling on Bletchley Town. During the 1960s, Bletchley Town twice reached the 4th qualifying round of the FA Cup. In 1974, Bletchley Town was once again renamed, becoming Milton Keynes City. The club was not particularly successful under its new moniker, and in 1979 following another poor campaign, then-Wimbledon chairman Ron Noades claimed that he had held talks with the Milton Keynes Development Corporation about the possibility of relocating the Dons to the New Town, something that the corporation denied.
It was a sign of things to come. Noades certainly thought that the proposal had merit and bought a controlling stake in the club, appointing fellow Wimbledon directors Bernie Coleman, Sam Hammam, and Jimmy Rose to the board, something that was still acceptable under FA rules. Noades continued to push the idea, intending that Milton Keynes City would take Wimbledon’s place in the Football League. However, there was a distinct lack of support and within 12 months, Noades sold his stake in the club and pursued his footballing interests in London. At the end of the 1984/85 season, Milton Keynes City folded.
Milton Keynes City in action v Witney Town, 1980.
Photo Credit: Living Archive
The name was revived once again in the wake of Wimbledon’s eventual relocation to Milton Keynes in 2005 and their ‘rebrand’ to Milton Keynes Dons. This time, local amateur club Milton Keynes City Youth Football Club – which was formed in 1986 – took the name; the club is still going strong today.
Shortly after Bletchley Town became Milton Keynes City, another Bletchley-based club took on the New Town handle. In 1978, Belsize – who represented the Belsize engineering company, and who had begun life as Denbigh United – became Milton Keynes Borough, and after success in local leagues reached the United Counties League, the Hellenic League, and latterly the South Midlands League before folding at the end of the 1992/93 season.
During the 2000s, the railway works closed and was the subject of major regeneration proposals which saw the conversion of some of the railway sheds and workshops to apartments. The development proposals also had an impact on Wolverton Park – more than half of it was lost to new housing, though the footprint of the sports ground was retained as public open space. However, the old stand did not survive, and after more than 100 years of continued use, it was razed, replaced by a sham replica, a tokenistic gesture to the ground’s history and importance of the structure.
Wolverton Park today. The replica of the stand can be seen to the left.
Photo Credit: Keller Williams
Football in Milton Keynes predictably became dominated by Wimbledon’s move to the New Town and the club’s rebrand as Milton Keynes Dons, badged English football’s first franchise. The origins of the move lay in Sam Hammam’s sale of Wimbledon to two Norwegian businessmen in 1997 and the club’s old home on Plough Lane to the supermarket chain Safeway. The two deals reportedly netted Hammam £36m.
The acquisition of Wimbledon proved to be a bum deal for the Norwegians. The club had no home and few assets, with the only real selling point being their Premier League status. By 2001, the club had entered talks with property developer Pete Winkelman and his Milton Keynes Stadium consortium, with Wimbledon chairman Charles Koppel concluding that the club had no option other than to head 80 miles north to Milton Keynes. By this point, the club were in a real financial mess and had been relegated from the Premier League.
In August 2001, Wimbledon announced their intention to relocate, provoking a furious response from the club’s support, while both the Football League and the FA both raised objections. The FA responded by appointing an Independent Commission to examine the proposal. The commission voted in favour of the move:
“resurrecting the club from its ashes as, say, ‘Wimbledon Town’, is, with respect to those supporters who would rather that happened so they could go back to the position the club started in 113 years ago, not in the wider interests of football.”
Charles Koppel and Pete Winkelman got their wish, while Wimbledon’s supporters stuck two fingers up to the lot of them, proclaimed Wimbledon dead and formed AFC Wimbledon, who are now an established Football League club.
Wimbledon supporters protesting against the club’s move to Milton Keynes.
Photo Credit: Tony Harris
During the summer of 2002, Wimbledon’s goalkeeping coach Stuart Murdoch was appointed first team manager and did an admirable job in leading the club to a 10th place finish in Division One (Championship) despite dwindling gates. At the end of the 2002/03 season, Wimbledon went into administration.
The 2003/04 season saw Wimbledon playing their football in Milton Keynes at the National Hockey Stadium while Stadium:MK was built. It was to prove to be an horrific campaign for the club. Stoke City hosted the Dons in their first home game of the season, winning 2-1, and I counted just 13 Wimbledon supporters in the South Stand. Wimbledon were relegated to Division Two (League One) having finished bottom of the table, while their average gate was around 2,500. By comparison, AFC Wimbledon were playing before crowds of 3,500 in the Isthmian League.
In the summer of 2004, Wimbledon were taken out of administration and renamed Milton Keynes Dons, completing the betrayal.
MK Dons reached the heights of the Championship under Karl Robinson, but have – in the main – flitted between the bottom two tiers of the Football League. They won their first professional silverware in 2008 – the Football League Trophy – while one of the club’s most notable victories came during the 2014/15 season when they beat Manchester United 4-0 in the League Cup. The club has also established a strong reputation for youth development – Dele Alli being their most successful graduate – while the Milton Keynes Dons Sport and Educational Trust carries out award-winning work across the wider area.
Today, they find themselves in the bottom half of League Two while AFC Wimbledon are gunning for promotion to League One. And Pete Winkelman – who put the deal together to bring Wimbledon to Milton Keynes in the first place – departed at the start of the 2024/25 campaign when he helped conclude the sale of the club to a Kuwaiti consortium.
AFC Wimbledon players celebrating with their fans against MK Dons.
Photo Credit: Football League World
It’s now more than 20 years since the birth of England’s first football franchise, and just like Milton Keynes itself which now has city status, it has matured. Like them or not – and many don’t for well-rehearsed reasons – MK Dons is an established Football League club, has its own fan base, and has developed an identity based around the antipathy towards them; a kind of ‘no one likes us, we don’t care’ mindset.
Following AFC Wimbledon’s rise to the Football League, the two clubs have faced each other on a number of occasions, and the rivalry between them is seen as one of England’s most fierce for fairly obvious reasons; of the games contested, Milton Keynes Dons have won eight, AFC Wimbledon five, and there have been five draws.
But while most eyes are on Milton Keynes Dons when it comes to football in the New Town, the game is thriving at semi-professional and grassroots level thanks to Milton Keynes Irish – formed in 2020 and who compete in Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division – and the aforementioned third iteration of Milton Keynes City.
Milton Keynes Irish squad photo.
Photo Credit: MK Irish