please empty your brain below
sounds like a fascinating place, I will have to make the trip..

rowan | Homepage | 12.12.10 - 12:44 a.m. | #

My Mum worked in the Japanese section, in one of the huts which has since been demolished. She didn't talk about it and surprised all with this revelation after the film Enigma was released. She was still quite reluctant to talk about details, she'd signed the Official Secrets Act! After she died we took my Dad to Bletchley Park to see where she'd been. I found it fascinating, I think he found it difficult.

Christine | 12.12.10 - 7:42 a.m. | #

Interesting to note that all over the country there were thousands and thousands of people contributing to the war effort in one way or another, however minor, and keeping quiet about it. Hard to believe now, in the age of twitface.

Great Aunt Annie | 12.12.10 - 8:50 a.m. | #

dg said "If you're the sort of person who reads this blog more than intermittently, you've either already been....."
Yes I've been there. Mainly for radio interest, but the cinema projector section is also of interest to me.

John | 12.12.10 - 10:18 a.m. | #

I don't know if it's your sort of thing, but if you get a chance, you may want to read "Cryptonomicon" by Neal Stephenson. There's a lot of fictionalised Turing and Bletchley Park in it.

Polkatronixx | 12.12.10 - 10:40 a.m. | #

Great post! I did my Senior Seminar, UWSP, in 1977 about the 8th AAF's bombing efforts. Ultra was not known at that time. After 1995 it was revealed that the first computer was operating at Bletchley Park. Surprised a few Americans! Alan Turin wrote a paper on 'computing' machines while at Cambridge if I remember correctly.

Old Guy USA | 12.12.10 - 11:57 a.m. | #

I've been to Bletchley Park too - such an incredible place.

DG, did you visit the little Churchill museum that's on the grounds too? There's a man who must be in his 80s who's a Churchill obsessive and has been collecting stuff for years. Like his chair, his cigars, basically anything with a picture of his face on it. He hangs out at the museum a lot too, so when I visited, he was there and chatted to us about the artifacts, and even opened up the cabinets to let us touch stuff - including a letter he sent to the King the day before D-Day.

James O'Malley | Homepage | 12.12.10 - 12:00 p.m. | #

I read this blog daily... and I've been to Bletchley Park! Excellent museum, and particularly enjoyed the way in which the huts not dedicated to the Bletchley story were given over to other societies to run displays in. My favourite was the history of computing.

Marc | 12.12.10 - 3:11 p.m. | #

Sounds facsinating... I guess I really ought to go then :)

s | 12.12.10 - 3:52 p.m. | #

I visited earlier this year, fantastic place.

DTL | Homepage | 12.12.10 - 4:14 p.m. | #

I've been - the first visit was with my Mother in law, on her 90th birthday. She had worked in a Y- station on the Yorkshire coast during the war, listening in to the U-boats' morse code transmissions: everything was encrypted (as well as being in German!) so they had no idea what the messages were about, but they just wrote it all down and sent it all off to a mystery destination. She didn't know that destination was at Bletchley until the 1980s.
And the whole operation was so secret that she couldn't let her husband know what she was doing, or even where she was. It helped that he was away with the army in North Africa at the time!

Timbo | 12.12.10 - 4:17 p.m. | #

I keep trying to get my computer-mad hubby & kids to go everytime we're over, but so for they've resisted!:(
My dad had an older cousin who worked on the development of Colossis at the Dollis Hill GPO - or so we suspect! He took the secret of what he did to his grave, but it was closely tied to what they were doing at Bletchley Park!

CornishCockney | 12.12.10 - 5:57 p.m. | #

For the past 3 years my son has insisted that we visit sometime around his birthday. The computer museum and rebuilt Colossus, and the audio tour are also excellent.

And your ticket (only £8.50 on line)gives you free entry for a year.

Veronica | 12.12.10 - 11:09 p.m. | #

Great place to take kids to. When we went there (a couple of years back) they were running terrific code breaking sessions for families in one of the classrooms. My children still remember it - and the prizes they were given (key rings, rulers and the like) still turn up around the house).

pbmum | 13.12.10 - 10:41 a.m. | #

I’ve been- had a fascinating talk from a 70-ish yrs lady who worked there about her war time experience as an evacuee. At the end of her talk ’there was not a dry eye in the place’
A must go to ALL your readers.

Peter | 15.12.10 - 12:02 p.m. | #











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