Wolverton

WOLVERTON Stony Stratford is now part of Milton Keynes, but still retains many original 18th-century buildings and seduces buyers quite shamelessly. As a quaint old market town, with a market square just off the High Street, it has quite a different character to modernity which has swallowed it. The Old George Hotel presents a wobbly, black-and-white profile among the bakers, butchers and building societies that surround it. A Twenties semi with three bedrooms might cost £280,000, but a good three-bedroom detached Georgian house would cost up to £375,000. The Milton Keynes western expansion area lies to the south with 6,000 new homes planned.

Wolverton has the local station and is packed with Victorian terraces, some of them reminiscent of Coronation Street. It falls within the Milton Keynes northern expansion area, brownfield sites are being regenerated and a glut of new-build means that property prices are relatively cheap. A new four-bedroom detached house would cost £350,000; a three-bedroom detached, £250,000; a period end-of-terrace three-bedroom house, £180,000.

To the west of Milton Keynes is Upper Weald, a hamlet of brick and stone. There are no shops, but you might find a small period three-bedroom cottage for £300,000 or more. It lies on the edge of the western expansion area and could effectively become a suburb of Milton Keynes once building is completed. Another place worth mentioning is Wicken, for its stone houses and church. A 300-year-old three- to four-bedroom stone cottage might cost around £460,000.

Further afield, on a hilltop in unspoilt countryside, is Buckingham, a typical market town where the stalls still appear on Tuesdays and Saturdays and there is a famers’ market once a month. It remains a pleasure to walk through its steep narrow streets and admire the old inns and almshouses. You might be able to buy a Victorian detached house with four bedrooms and a large garden for £350,000. There are a few modern estates on the edge of town, of which the most popular is Page Hill. The average price of a four-bedroom detached house here is £290,000. The town is very close to Stowe public school, once the home of the Dukes of Buckingham. The gardens, studded with follies by Vanbrugh, Kent and Gibbs, now belong to the National Trust.