With us still near enough for son Colin to visit and, with daughter-in-law in Holland for the weekend, the boys asked to come and see us for another fishing session. This time they insisted that Nana join in. Only too happy to oblige!
That was yesterday and today we walked the 1.1 miles to
Bletchley Park to see the home of the WW11 codebreakers. The walk to the place was never-ending, or so it seemed!. Funny how going to a place seems to take longer than the return journey. It's something to do with the 'return trip effect' even when travel distance and time are the same there and back, the back feels measurably shorter. Apparently, researchers have found that we are very bad at judging how long a trip takes and therefore forget the actual length of time it took.
For a Sunday the place was understandably busy mainly with coach parties but the Scouts were also in abundance. To avoid the crowds we started from the far end and worked our way back. Having been to the Park many many years ago I fully expected to see the same displays but in 2011
a lottery grant allowed a massive rebuilding program which ended in 2014 and therefore much was new to us. The most disappointing part was not seeing the
Colossus (the first programmable electronic computer) which had been moved to The National Museum of Computing. Still on the Park grounds but now stood alone as a separate building with an extra entry cost. As our entry ticket to Bletchley Park is valid for a year we may go and see this exhibition on our return journey in October.
For six hours we explored every corner, going into the Mansion and huts, watching the many videos on code-breaking, trying to take in all the information. It was thrilling to read about a code breaker and mathematician
Rolf Noskwith account of his time breaking the code.
A canal enthusiast who lived near to the Erewash canal in Ilkeston, both he and his wife were very generous benefactors to the
ECP&DA Association over a number of years. However, both preferred to remain out of the spotlight and it was only when we wrote his obituary in the Outlook Magazine (Ian is editor) that his code-breaking feats were revealed. He was aged 97 when he died.
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| B-Hut. |
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| The mansion |
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| The Enigma machine is a piece of spook hardware invented by a German and used by Britain's codebreakers as a way of deciphering German signals traffic during World War Two. It has been claimed that as a result of the information gained through this device, hostilities between Germany and the Allied forces were curtailed by two years. |
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| Inside the mansion |
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| Top left:- 1938 Austin 18 six cylinder Ambulance. Top right:- 1940 Packard 6 six-cylinder touring Sudan. Bottom left:- 1947 Sunbeam Talbot 2 litre sports saloon converted to a Tourer and bottom right: - blackout headlights. |
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| Watch keepers room |
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| Bletchley Lake |
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| With resident Swans |
My feet were very relieved to get back to FS and we were just in time to beat the rain. Looks like we may well get good weather tomorrow, think it is now time to move on.
1 comment:
Thought you might be at Bletchley yesterday when we came past. We waved. Hope to see you next time our bows cross.
Pip NB Oleanna
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