Bletchley Park today
At the end of the war, much of the equipment used and its blueprints were
destroyed by order of Churchill. Though thousands of people were involved
in the decoding efforts, the participants remained silent for decades about
what they had done during the war; it was only in
the 1970s that the work at Bletchley
Park was revealed to the general public.
The Bletchley Park trust has been
founded to further the maintenance of the site as a museum devoted to the
codebreakers.
Today, Bletchley Park is a living museum attempting to re-create many of
the intricate and pioneering machines that helped to win the war. The focus
is on the Colossus Rebuild Project which, since the early Nineties,
has continued to steadily grow as the re-engineering of it's design has
unfolded. A Tunny Machine is also being constructed and the Bombe
Unit could well be back in action in the not too distant future. The Computer
Conservation Society has a base on site and is assembling a collection
of all types of machines which naturally follow on from (Colossus) the
World's first computer.
Across the site all sorts of activities and exhibitions are in evidence;
Aircraft recovery; the Home Front; Radar & Electronics; GB2BP Amateur
Radio, Model Railways, Military Vehicles; the Churchill Collection
and of course the Cryptology Trail.
But the future of Bletchey Park is under question. For the moment, Bletchley
Park receives no public funding. To date, the Trust has raised over £1
million in its fight for survival. A further £4.5 million are needed
now to fund essential staffing, building refurbishment, infrastructure,
planning and marketing costs.
Further information is available
at:
-
www.bletchleypark.org.uk ;
www.codesandciphers.org.uk/bletchleypark/;
www.project-x.org.uk/bletpark.html