Introduction
In the 1940s the covert activities at Bletchley Park were said to have shortened the war by several years as well as forming the foundations of modern communications.
Now, in the 21st century, by combining old and new technologies to revive long-forgotten memories and neglected buildings, the electro-mechanical machines of the 1940s are being replicated so that the fascinating story of the code-breakers and early computing pioneers can be told. The Park is still a sprawling site, with lots of unobtrusive single storey huts and buildings seemingly of little importance, which have survived since World War II, and these are gradually being brought back to life, as funding permits.
Bletchley Park has many connections with telecommunications that have set the standards for the way we communicate today. Post-war, training courses at the Park included Civil Aviation, Teachers' Training, Post Office clerks and engineers of all grades, making the site key to the evolving technology and social world of the Sixties and Seventies. Here we attempt to unravel just some of the Government and General Post Office (GPO) history associated with the Park.
As a Government site, the activities at the Park were always subjected to some secrecy, even after the war, so it's not easy to track the many changes over the years as departments re-organised and relocated. These pages are subject to revision as research uncovers additional information, and more stories can be told...
Timeline
The Government & Cypher School moved into The Park in 1939 and vacated circa 1946. The Post Office Training Schools were established circa 1947 and as BT did not finally vacate the site until 1993, then the telecommunications timespan is much longer!
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| The character of the Park has changed so much in the last ten years as funding has enabled restorations, and redesignation of huts, buildings, and land back to their wartime appearances as the story-telling theme of the trustees unfolds. Separately, The National Museum of Computing has enabled working replicas of many of the electronic/electro-mechanical code-breaking machines, which are invaluable in the overall story of Bletchley Park. |
| A Study of the Park | |
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Follow the progress of restoration at the Park, as funding and policy have changed over the years to make it the living story of wartime code-breaking... |
| The GPO at Bletchley Park | |
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Bletchley Park has many connections with telecommunications that have set the standards for the way we communicate today. These pages will look at just some of the General Post Office (GPO) and Government history associated with the Park. |
| The GPO and Bletchley Park | |
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The GPO and Bletchley Park: This 84-page photobook delves into the many GPO connections with the Park, past and present, tracing the remnants of the buildings and the rebuilds of the wartime machines. |
| TNMoC | |
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Marvel at the Mainframe computers of not so very long ago... and many other exhibits. |
| The Colossus Rebuild | |
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From 2012, Colossus is displayed in a new gallery, so you can more easily admire the fantastic achievement of the rebuild. |
| The Bombe Rebuild | |
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On 17th July 2007, to coincide with the 50th Anniversary of the British Computer Society, the Bombe Rebuild was switched on after 12 years of meticulous reconstruction. The exhibition and display in H Block [TNMoC] provides a detailed insight into the mechanics of code breaking. |
| The Tunny Gallery | |
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The Tunny Rebuild gallery was opened on 26th May 2011... |
| Further Info | |
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Web links, books and videos complete the story... |
Section/header photo is Tunny gallery in TNMoC at Bletchley Park © LSA June 2013.
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