At Snozone in the Xscape leisure complex are two 220ft-high real snow slopes, topped up each day with fresh snow. Excellent – even if Snozone should have a “w” and Xscape is an intolerable neologism.

Cowper also wrote: “God moves in a mysterious way / His wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm.” You can simulate that divine experience by climbing inside the iFly Indoor Skydiving tunnel. Yes, you read correctly. The popular board game Monopoly is soon to have a partner, Milton Keynes Monopoly to be launched into the shops on Friday the 24th October 2014. Landmarks that could feature on the board include Milton Keynes’ roundabouts (as it has more roundabouts per square mile than anywhere else in the UK), Snozone, the Milton Keynes theatre, the MK Dons football club and one of the many entertainment complexes. Roundabouts fitted onto a square board could be a challenging task for the design team. Unfortunately, it’s not true that Milton Keynes was named after two great, if ideologically opposed, economists. Nor is it true that the other name considered in 1967 for the city was John Maynard Friedman. However, the village of Milton Keynes – from which the 50-year-old city gets its name – was once Middletone, and owned by a Norman family named de Cahaines, from whom Keynes may have descended. If you aren’t humming Ravel’s Bolero yet, you will after learning that the city’s Planet Ice rink was used for practice by the 1984 Olympic gold medal-winning ice dance duo. We invest in the latest technologies so we can offer many of the most up-to-date types of radiotherapy for all adult cancer types. Your treatment will be personalised to you, and we use special techniques that can reduce side effects.We provide a full range of treatments in comfortable, private suites, including chemotherapy, hormone therapy, immunotherapy and targeted therapy. With one-to-one nursing, our chemotherapy nurses are all highly skilled with additional training to provide high-quality cancer care where your health and wellbeing is our priority. The ideas of Californian urban theorist Melvin Webber, who believed that the traditional concentric city would be superseded by “community without propinquity”, proved influential among Milton Keynes planners. It was envisaged as a low-density, low-rise city of light industry and convenience. Hence the city’s distinctive 1km-sized “grid squares”, or suburbs, where “workers, managers, vicars and doctors” would mingle in shops, schools and AFUs (advanced factory units). Midsummer Boulevard, home to some of the city’s 22 million trees. Photograph: David Sillitoe/The Guardian

Hovis’ infamous ‘Boy on the Bike’ advert was directed by Ridley Scott who went on to make the film Alien. In November the National Infrastructure Commission’s interim report into the Cambridge – Milton Keynes – Oxford corridor stated Milton Keynes could become a global showcase for science, technology and innovation. If you look at a relief map, though, you won’t see a valley – silicon or otherwise – so much as a slight depression. To be fair, Britain’s Silicon Depression doesn’t really have a ring to it. The company is over 130 years old and was founded in 1886 and has become one of Britain’s most well-known brandsIt also claims the UK’s first peace pagoda, its first purpose-built ecumenical church and its first kerbside household recycling. Milton Keynes was originally envisaged as a London overspill zone, following the recommendations of governmental studies in 1964 and 1965 to build “a new city” incorporating existing towns such as Bletchley, Stony Stratford and Wolverton. Milton Keynes has about 130 roundabouts. It is hard to be more precise about their number since it is growing all the time. Like concrete cow pats, but bigger, they appear mysteriously overnight.

Since 1971, more than 1,600,000 people have studied with the Open University, whose 48-hectare campus headquarters is in Milton Keynes. It is the fruit of Labour’s general-election manifesto commitment to establish what was variously called a University without Walls or a University of the Air; ie, a public distance-learning and research university that would give opportunities to many who would otherwise not be able to enjoy tertiary education, which is precisely what it has done, not to mention earning itself a stellar academic reputation. There are more than 20,000 parking spaces in central Milton Keynes, happily not all of them currently filled by cars. It is one of the largest British house building companies and was formed after a merger between Taylor Woodrow and George Wimpey in 2007.The visionary city is based on a grid network. All main roads are designated H or V depending on whether they run horizontally or vertically. In the future, it is hoped, there will also be D and T boulevards, where D stands for diagonal roadways, and T for time machines. This is a very exciting addition to so many other features this vibrant City has to offer visitors and residents. And, what a great way to bring all things special to a board game for family, friends and colleagues to enjoy. Hilco managed to turn the company around and as of February 2020, nearly all 164 stores are profitable.