Bletchley Park, Wartime Codebreaking

Bletchley Park was established as a museum in 1993 and entrance to the visitor centre is through Block C.  Within are various introductory exhibitions and collection of a multimedia guide tour handset.  We decided to make our own way round so first...

...headed to the Mansion, with the wartime office of Commander Denniston, the first chief of the Government Code and Cipher School.  In the Mansion Garages behind were some impressive WW2 military vehicles.  Next we made for the...

...museum in Block B at Bletchley Park to learn about the amazing Codebreaking work of Alan Turing and his team and view the Turing Bombe Rebuild Project.  This is a working recreation of the awesome WW2 Bombe Codebreaking machine...

...which was the brainchild of chief Codebreaker Alan Turing.  The rebuilt Bombe is an operational replica and its principles were described here by a knowledgeable professor type to a large gathering of entranced Bletchley Park visitors.  During the...

...Bombe demonstration Mike sneaked around the back to try to fathom out its inner workings but despite all the electro-mechanical wirrings and clunkings was somewhat baffled!  Adjacent to the working Bombe...

...here in Block B was an exhibit cabinet containing the multitude of parts that went to assemble it - relays, drums, commutators, gears, spindles and oodles of wiring!  Of course there were...

...many of the German Enigma machines displayed in the museum; the largest display in the world in fact.  We made our way along to absorb the fascinating Turing Bombe Rebuild Story and learn about...

...the Enigma Codebreaking process in the Alan Turing gallery.  Also here is a Bletchley Park timeline, a reconstructed Y station, and an exhibition on how people lived during WW2.  As you might expect...

...a figurine of the great Codebreaker himself, yes, Alan Turing.  Well, there's plenty more at Bletchley Park so after dropping into the site's absorbing restoration project exhibition in Hut 12 and...

...enjoying lunch in the Hut 4 café we made our way to the restored Codebreaking Huts Nos. 3 and 6.  These consisted of long corridors with the Codebreaking office rooms set up just as they were...

...during WW2 complete with window blackouts, 1940s furniture, telephones and typewriters.  Cleverly projected figures on the walls related what life was like as a Codebreaker at Bletchley.  Next up was...

...Hut 8 which housed Alan Turing's wartime office complete with his chained to the radiator coffee mug!  We also learnt of the methods the Codebreakers used through interactive displays.  Finally...

...in Hut 11 we absorbed the story of how the Bombes were operated by the WRENS of the WRNS as they ran the encrypted codes through the machines, working a relentless three-shift work pattern.

On the same Bletchley Park site is the National Museum of Computing.  Here we had an engaging demonstration of the rebuilt wartime Colossus computer used to break the Lorenz (Tunny)...

...code ciphers and of course Mike went round the back to take a peek at Colossus's innards.  All those valves (tubes) must have generated oodles of heat!  Mike also drolled at the bank of AR88 communication receivers here, used to intercept the German's secret code transmissions, and later available on the 70s ham radio surplus market when he was aka G4BFJ.

The National Museum of Computing has a huge collection of computers; here's some large main frames from a later era than Colossus (the 80s).  The museum highlighted just how far computer technology has progressed since those pioneering early WW2 wartime days.  There are many displays of computing technology, from...

...WITCH, the oldest working digital computer in the museum, through various restoration projects such as this EDSAC replica project, and on to the beginnings of modern computing with...

...the personal computers of the 1980s.  Here's Belinda trying her hand on an old, er, well something before today's smartphones for sure!  It sure was impressive how the National Museum of Computing...

...manage to keep so many machines in working condition.  In another display above is a simulation of NATS, the current Air Traffic Control system.

At the time of our 2017 visit Bletchley Park adult entry cost £17.75 and the separately run National Museum of Computing £7.50.  But we got a 2FOR1 deal for each attraction by taking the train from nearby station.

Please see our tourist resources for Bletchley Park, National Museum of Computing & related websites.

TIP: spread a visit out over two days; we crammed it into one and it proved hard going, as it was we had to rush a visit to the National Radio Centre which is also on the Bletchley Park site.

On the way out of the museum we passed this fascinating display cabinet containing personal 'tech' from earlier eras, some of which seemed surprisingly recent!  Or we're getting old.

We found both Bletchley Park and the National Museum of Computing absolutely captivating and pleased we finally managed a visit after intending to for some time - we may return as the ticket allows re-entry within a year.  It certainally brought 'The Imitation Game', a movie based on Alan Turing's Codebreaking time at Bletchley to life.

On the next page of our Buckinghamshire holiday: some walks and a ride on the Leighton Buzzard Railway >>>