Bletchley Park

On Monday this week youngest sister arranged for youngest brother and his wife as well as mrs maytrees and myself, to accompany her  to Bletchley Park, the former British decoding centre during WWII, which is situate in the estate of  a country house near to what is now the new town of Milton Keynes.

Bletchley Park has on its estate numerous huts and Nissen-hut type offices where its staff including AlanTuring worked on decoding German coded messages. So successful were the young staff that their actions probably  shortened  WWII by up to two years.

Alan Turing had been treated appallingly despite his work but finally he has been, sadly well after his death, hugely praised though for his efforts and  now  even appears on the  nation's £50 notes - not that I get to see many of those of course.

Although the cost of admission to Bletchley Park is quite expensive at over £20, the whole centre is now a registered charity so presumably has to keep its income in line with its costs.

We all enjoyed our visit. Whilst the girls took the guided tour my younger brother and I decided to investigate the various huts and houses without a guide.

My first impression of some of the huts was perhaps fittingly, that some resembled the Nissen hut that was our home on the old RAF base in Lancashire some 70 years ago.

The photographs below do not really do justice to Bletchley Park but our visit was excellent.

 

We concluded the day there with a decent tea at the  gatehouse.