Bletchley Park

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few”

“The few”. Who knows the few and why has anyone even heard of them? The reason the few were able to have even an opportunity to defeat the many is the advantage of speed – speed of response. And the ability to respond is improved if you can react before the act – to preact.^[1] if you will

Bletchley Park is to be found, not surprisingly, in Bletchley (which is near Milton Keynes) and is considered to be the home of the UK's military intelligence during the Second World War. It has recently been made into a museum so that everyone can get a sense of the genius and toil that took place here.

Bletchley is fairly easy to get to from London and there is a direct train from Euston amongst other places. The park is very near the train station and is not more than 5 mins to the entrance. Bletchley Park was a country home for a stockbroker before it became the home to the military intelligence and was so chosen as it was so close to the train line .^[2]. As a result, it is basically a mansion/stately home in landscaped grounds and so is quite a pleasant location (with weather that plays along, anyway).

The entry fee (£15, but also valid for 2 for 1 offer with National Rail when I went) gives entry for one year which is not too bad at all. This seems to be more and more common for paid museums and I definitely approve as it feels good value even though I imagine the percentage of people that return is vanishingly small.

After getting the tickets, we were guided to the multimedia guide area where a man gave out, with appropriate deposit, touchscreen devices and headphones^[3] to access multimedia whilst on the grounds. From here, we were directed to where we could book a tour guide which was much more to my liking - so a "45 minute" tour was booked (included in price).

The tour guide was excellent and impressed on us the importance of the work performed and also gave a real sense of what it would have been like with a number of anecdotes. He also seemed to really make great play of how feminine the park would have been with many mentions of the important role women played in keeping the operation smooth and clear. It felt like the tour guide himself enjoyed giving the tour and it ran on for well over an hour. An enjoyable overrun.

Once the tour was over, we were left to our own devices which was quite good. The tour guide actually suggested that we try another tour at some time (using the annual pass) and also to return when the new block is finished which sounded pretty good. Walking around the park, there are a number of other blocks and exhibits that were not part of the tour which were great. A particularly large building (BLOCK B) showed a bit more about how the enigma code was broken and explained what other kinds of spying was taking place.

Next to the Bletchley Park exhibitions, there is also the The National Museum of Computing which is separate but loosely connected as programmable computing was somewhat connected to Turing. Oh, Turing? He was the person that helped decipher the enigma code at a worthwhile speed and is often called the father of computing, and it is essentially his work (with the help of others) that is shown here.

The National Museum of Computing is a separate museum (with separate charge) and I only went to the Colossus room, which is a recreation of the first computer - appropriately named. Again, it is a fairly small exhibit (outside of the size of the machine itself) but is improved markedly by having a human guide to talk you through the story. I found it very interesting and enjoyed it a lot. I would imagine the museum itself would also be very good.

Returning to the Bletchley Park museum again, there were some more informative exhibits in the grounds including a garage and post office. The park was fairly busy by this time and it was nice to see so many people taking an interest in the subject matter.

I would recommend a trip to the park as it is a well-presented museum with a lot of interesting back story. Without the tours, however, I can imagine that it would feel a little empty so make sure that you get on a guided tour. Everyone is given a "multimedia guide" but I really do not like these, conceptually, as it can sometimes feel like looking at a website in another place. I think there is probably a good way of using them and maybe it would work better if you look through the multimedia guide before actually walking around. I found it quite disconnected and so did not look at much of the "media" (and the control method is not to my taste anyway^[3]) but the people I was with seemed to enjoy it and walking around, lots of people were peering at them as they walked.

^{1. Yeah, this is a made up word but I think it works pretty well. English is adaptable – prefix and root.↩}

^{2. It was chosen by the military for its good links to the universities of Cambridge and Oxford as well as London. It was also not too close to London to be a target in of itself.↩}

^{3. As it happens, these were ipod touch players with on ear headphones. I find iOS a little annoying to use without a "back" key and there did not appear to be hardware volume control which is actually really bad design for this type of use.↩}