Return to Bletchley Park

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The past week-or-so has had a recurring theme – ‘return to…’. Last Saturday, it was a return to my old school for their annual reunion, whilst on Monday, I made my second visit to Silverstone Museum. Tough life, ehh?!?!? 😉

Today, we’re with mates, John & Trish heading for the famous ‘Bletchley Park‘. We were last here back in 2019 and it was amazing how much had been improved (thanks to a Lottery Grant back in 2011) since our very first visit back in the 90s! 😮. We realised it was going to be busy here judging by the (lack of) car-parking spaces as we arrived.

In fact, as we were to discover, there seems to be EVEN MORE here since our most recent visit in 2019!

Or maybe that was just our imagination? 🤔.

Once we were past the ticket booths, we were greeted with the multi-screen presentation of the history (and importance!) of Bletchley Park. We arrived just after 11am and it was already busy inside – in fact, we were amazed at how busy the whole place was, considering it was mid-week.

Our first stop was the National Radio Centre. It wasn’t directly related to Bletchley Park and its history, but it was an engaging set of exhibits including a live radio station – GB3RS – hosted by The Radio Society of Great Britain. It was amazing to see how far radio transmission has evolved and with plenty of volunteers on hand to answer our questions, it was a great start to our day!

A big part of the overall Bletchley Park experience is looking around the ‘Huts’ where pretty much all of the groundbreaking work was done. From the outside, they still look the same (apart from a fresh coat of paint and some repairs) – but it’s inside where any visitor would fell their jaw begin to drop! They have used the space imaginatively and there is a wide variety of exhibits and information boards that tell the story.

Nice touches including period clothing and reproduced notices, brought an authentic feel to the location without it ever feeling ‘overdone’. Prepare to spend 90% of your time soaking up everything the Huts have to offer. More especially, the whole history of the Enigma machine(s) probably needs a couple of hours just for those, if you are to appreciate the history – and the complexity, let alone the challenge – of this technology that most feel shortened the War by a couple of years.

Probably the most moving part of the whole experience is the history of Mathematician and Computer Scientist, Alan Turing – and more especially how the establishment treated this war hero because of his private life. As every schoolboy and girl knows, he was a major influence in developing the first computer and played a massive part in helping to speed up the process of cracking German ciphers used with the infamous Enigma machines. We don’t recall it last time, but there is now the official apology letter from then PM, Gordon Brown, on display.

Reminders of the secret nature of Bletchley park were everywhere, and it’s hard to imagine spending your working week in these somewhat cramped conditions (too hot in Summer, too cold in Winter) – and then NOT be allowed to talk about it to anyone afterwards, and for many, many years!

Next stop: The Intelligence Factory – a separate building ‘Block A’ that through a series of displays and information boards explained how Bletchley Park operated on a day-to-day basis with a headcount of nearly 9000!

In amongst the historic displays, nearby, was a temporary area (which I guess, changes frequently) for related topics. Today was ‘The Art of Data‘. Super shiny and packed with visual representations of a wide range of data sets. If you’re not a ‘numbers person’, it sounds avoidable, but the attraction was in part about HOW they displayed the information. Fascinating stuff and of course it shared great parallels with Bletchley Park’s work in the 40s and they ‘saw’ data.

All-in-all then, a fascinating set of exhibits that really brought the work of this iconic location to life.

At just before 2, we took the short walk towards the main house for a spot of lunch. It was later than we planned, but I think we all got so engrossed in the exhibits, we forgot about eating! 🙁. The eatery is adjacent to the Mansion and there was a wide range of hot meals on offer. Like everywhere else today, it was busy when we first arrived! We spotted a table in the far corner and then made our choices. Trish chose the Salad; Ann picked the Fish ‘n’ Chips, whilst John wrestled with their Cauliflower Curry! I went ‘old school’ and chose the Steak & Ale Pie. It was all delicious, service was swift and best of all, our feet thanked us for the extended sit-down! 😉

Ahh, that felt better! We could now feel our feet AND we’d eaten. Time then, for ‘part 2’. Back before the Lottery Grant, the original Victorian Mansion housed a lot more than it does today. These days, the main attraction is a faithful recreation of Commander Alastair Denniston‘s Office (he was head of Bletchley until 1942) and the Library.

The Mansion also had an exhibition of veterans’ stories and the early days of Bletchley Park.

With a few more Huts to visit, the weather was on the turn and out came the Sun. We wandered round the side and rear of the Mansion, where there was the Stable yard and Garages. I don’t recall this last time and there was plenty to see including three restored cottages, one of which was lived in by Alan Turin.

The vehicles were (not surprisingly!) were in excellent condition including the ambulance that featured in the film Goodnight Mr Tom (1998) starring John Thaw.

Past the Cottages was a small memorial to the Polish Codebreakers. The plaque sculpted like an open book, set on two marble slabs, in front of a low wall bearing a contributors’ plaque.

As our day came to a close, our penultimate stop was the nearby remaining Huts and buildings, including the D-Day building that included an interesting film about preparations for D-Day.

6pm: Wow! What a day! We’re all exhausted due to the sheer amount of information on show. A follow-up visit is definitely on the cards to cover the parts we skipped over today, for no other reason than ‘time’.