Town's historical society welcomes new museum for Milton Keynes policing artefacts

The Society (NPHS) already has its own thriving museum in Silver Street but was offered part use of the police station premises by Newport Pagnell Town Council (NPTC).

NPTC has spent £1.2m restoring the dilapadted premises, which had stood empty for years until Thames Valley police sold off the site in 2021

The buyers, Churchill Retirement Living won permission in 2024, following a planning appeal, to build housing for older people on the site.

However, their plans do not include the historic police station building itself, and they decided to gift this to the Town Council, which will use a chunk of the space for its own offices.

The town councillors offered the remaininh space to Newport Pagnell Historical Society and last week, in a press statement, inferred the historical society had accepted then changed its mind at the eleventh hour.

As a result, they said, the space had been offered to TVP to house an official police museum.

But a spokesperson for Newport Pagnell Historical Society said this week: “NPHS is disappointed by reporting about the plans for our town’s beloved Old Police Station, which now belongs to the Newport Pagnell Town Council (NPTC), suggesting that we had somehow caused issues with the project.”

They added: “We greatly support the retention of the building and its return to public use, and were very pleased to explore the potential of moving our museum into the building alongside the new Town Council offices. Unfortunately, the available space and other practical considerations meant that it could not work for our museum, so no formal agreement was ever reached.

“We are extremely glad to hear that the Thames Valley Police (TVP) Museum and NPTC have reached a formal agreement and that the collection is returning to its original home, which also makes a lot of sense given the building retains its police cells. We are also pleased that some of the space may also be used by a Model Railway Club. After all, the more museums Milton Keynes has, the more residents and the area benefits! We look forward to the reopening of the building once the refurbishment work is complete in a year or two.

“We are all volunteers and don’t only run the museum, but also deliver a programme of historic talks, walks and otherwise encourage interest in the history of Newport Pagnell and beyond. Visitors to the museum are at record levels as our local community, young and old, are interested in their town. If you'd like to visit the museum or any of our events, check out our website here.”

A town council spokesperson agreed the police museum would be of benfit to the town and the city,

They said: “It seemed very fitting that this museum would now be returning to its original site in refurbished premises that are museum worthy. This legal terms for this arrangement are currently being agreed between the Town Council and Thames Valley Police. Ultimately it will offer a museum that is open to the public more often than the museum proposed by the Historical Society would have been. We also have an opportunity to house within the building displays from a Model Railway Club, which will add to the cultural and historic uses of the building.

“The Town Council sees this project as enhancing the vitality of the High Street, whilst providing a venue to help residents in our growing town and surrounding area to become familiar with the history of the area, and to grow to both love and respect it. The social value of such cultural spaces should not be ignored.”