Bletchley Park

Set in the Buckinghamshire countryside, Bletchley Park estate was owned and occupied by various politicians since the early 18th century. Just before the United Kingdom declared war on Nazi Germany, the estate was purchased by the Secret Intelligence Service and became a home to the Government Code and Cypher School. It was the main centre where intercepted, encrypted messages sent by the allies’ enemies were deciphered.

Among the staff to help decipher the intercepted messages were those who could think logically. Chess players and crossword puzzle solvers, people that could identify patterns and anomalies in the encrypted message. To speed up the deciphering process mathematicians and engineers developed and built machines.

Over the course of the war, to accommodate the increasing number of staff, additional buildings were constructed. Different buildings were dedicated to deciphering cyphers from different enemy countries or different armed services. Hut 8 for example, was used to decipher Enigma messages from the German Navy. This is where the most famous mathematician associated with Bletchley Park, Alan Turing worked. Hut 11 housed the Bombe machine which was used to help speed up the determination of the Enigma Machine settings.

Many personal stories from the staff that worked at Bletchley are retold. From the often stressful conditions they worked in to the more relaxed social activities that took place on site.