My first photograph: The view from the aqueduct at Cosgrove in Milton Keynes

Posting Paul Whitewick's video of the aqueduct over the Great Ouse at Cosgrove in Milton Keynes the other day reminded me of something. I snapped my very first photograph from it as we crossed in a boat.

I must have been 10 or 11 when I took it on the family camera and, to be honest, it's not one of my best.

As Google Street View includes the towpath of the Grand Union, I can revisit the scene today. 

Milton Keynes barely existed when I took my photo., and I feared that the scene would now be an urban jungle of multimodal logistic hubs and concrete cows. But, as you can see below, it is still countryside, though more of a park, The river seems to have been tamed a little too.

Reader's voice: Are you sure it's the same scene? Your photo is rather blurred (and I doubt it was from the sheer speed of the boat).

Liberal England replies: Look at the dark trees on the horizon and the silvery green one on the left of the picture.

So I can tell you that I took my photo looking South West from the aqueduct, which is upstream on the Great Ouse.