Save Bletchley Park

“THE MOST IMPORTANT PLACE”

Fortunately, there’s the Bletchley Park Trust and its goal over the last 18 years has been to bring the code-breaking work and genius of the world’s first computer to prominence. It’s a tricky job and highlighted by the shear plight of the buildings as you enter the Park.

Driving through, it’s impossible not to notice the poorly-kept roads. Then you lay eyes on Hut 6, run by Gordon Welchman, and see the state that it’s in. The wood has almost rotted through, and the hut’s no longer safe to enter as you’d fall through the floor.

The mansion house is imposing on the outside and still has its stunning ceilings and amazing panelling, but it too feels a little tired in places thanks to years of being treated roughly. But, then you start to realise how lucky the site is to have any of the huts left at all, as the early simple wooden buildings could easily have been demolished at any point during the end of the war and when the Bletchley Park Trust took over.

When you start to realise that you’re standing in the middle of what was quite-possibly the most important place of the war, you immediately begin to think how much it has to be saved. You notice then that The Trust is doing a fantastic job under very difficult conditions.

A PLAN FOR THE FUTURE

The main plan for the future is to sort out the buildings and infrastructure, in order to create a better museum experience for visitors.

“The site has not been maintained and parts were not meant to last this long,” says Greenish, describing the mammoth task of having to repair rotting huts that are approaching 70 years old, plus failing roofs on 200-year old buildings.

Then, there’s the problem of fixing the infrastructure and putting in things like car parks, so that the Park can cope with the 100,000+ tourists that enter it every year. Getting the money for this can be hard, as few companies or people want to be associated with basic repairs.

“We need yet more roofs and roads,” says Greenish. “They’re not very sexy, but necessary. The roads are basically potholes joined together by flat bits.”

A big problem is that the Park gets no funding from the government, which has steadfastly refused to support it. This is incredible, as Bletchley Park is stunningly important in world history, and a centre where British mathematics and engineering created the first electronic computer way before anybody else even got started. It’s not even that much money that’s required, with Greenish estimating that around £250,000 a year in the short-term would be good enough for some vital repairs and running costs, until the long-term Park plan can be implemented and the museum can become self-sufficient.