Friday 28 January 2022

Exploring :: Bletchley Park

Hi there everyone 😀

Before I dive into our early December break in Northumberland I just wanted to share this week’s big day out with you.

The last few weeks have been a bit stressful ... with trying to help out elderly neighbours, who are having a real rough time. I felt like we’d not really been anywhere other than next door for weeks and Martin and I were both ready for a change of scenery.

After lots of 'Googling' and not being able to find a National Trust property that took our fancy, was close enough and open … and not fancying driving all the way to the coast … we opted for a visit to Bletchley Park.

It’s somewhere I’ve fancied visiting for a while, having watched and read lots about the amazing work that was done there during the war, and whilst it wasn’t the seaside or the countryside, it just seemed to fit the bill.

We had a great journey, hardly any traffic, and It took us about an hour and a half to get there. I was definitely surprised by where it was … in my mind I assumed it would be in the middle of the countryside, away from prying eyes. That was definitely not the case … the location was not what I was expecting at all.

There’s not loads of on site parking but it was lovely and quiet and there was plenty of space for us to park close to the entrance.

Within no time we’d got our tickets, which allow revisits for the next 12 months, were in and sitting with sausage rolls and a cuppa in the cafe, having a good look at the map to see what was on offer ...

We started off with a wander round the visitor centre …
… before heading outside to follow the suggested route, which took us past some of the ‘huts’, which we would be exploring more of later …


… round the lake …


… past the gate house …

… and to the mansion house …

Even though the setting wasn’t rural it did all look kind of lovely in the sunshine … especially the mansion house …

Inside was very plush …

… especially the ballroom … which would have been filled with desks and equipment back in the day …

Back out into the sunshine we wondered round to the back of the mansion house to find the old garages, housing some of the old vehicles that would have been used around the site in its heyday ...

… and the old stables …
From here it was time to visit some of the ‘huts’ ...

... which were a lot less plush than the mansion house …

There are a good number of huts open for visiting and lots of interesting stuff to see …

There is a also an immersive cinematic exhibition in one hut dedicated to telling the secret part that Bletchley Park played in the D Day landings ...
There are more huts due to open later this spring so it could well be on the cards for a revisit ...

We decided it was time for lunch and headed back towards the mansion house and hut 4 for refreshment. Lunch wasn’t the cheapest, but it was very nice.

After lunch we left the mansion house ...
... for a walk back round the lake ... 


... with a pause for one last look back ...

... before heading into the last place left for us to see, which was the museum housed in Block B. 

In here we were able to explore different cypher machines and codes used during WW2 and got to find out more about Alan Turing's life and work, including his posthumous apology from Gordon Brown PM, in 2009, for the way he was treated after the war ... purely as a result of his sexuality, which was actually very sad.

We were pretty much back to where we'd started our visit and after a quick visit to the gift shop we headed back for the car ... but not without just having a little wander up the road to have a look at, what we can only assume, were more old huts that hadn't been included within the renovations of the site ...


We spent about four hours in the park on our visit, including a lunch stop. If you wanted to read absolutely everything on all of the displays you could easily spend longer and on a warmer day there are plenty of places to have a picnic.

On certain days of the week it's also possible to book an afternoon tea in the mansion house, which would be a real treat, but sadly we visited on the wrong day of the week ... maybe next time 😀

If you get chance for a visit both Martin and I would certainly recommend it ... it was definitely worth the trip 😀

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4 comments:

  1. Thank you for telling about your great day at Bletchley Park, somewhere DH & I have thought about when visiting UK, but we invariably run out of time for all on our wish lists. The mansion house is amazing with it's beautiful facade & intricate crafting inside. We've seen lots on TV about what happened there in different documentary shows, so I loved seeing your photos. Take care & hugs.

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    1. The mansion house was beautiful. One of the guides told us that the whole site was very close to being sold and demolished before it was saved and converted into a museum. I am so glad it was saved. Like yourself we’ve seen and read lots about what happened there and it was really interesting to visit. I would definitely recommend you go if ever you get the chance. Take care 💜

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  2. That looks like a lovely afternoon visit, and how nice that it was so close to you. I would definitely go back for the afternoon tea!

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  3. It was definitely worth a visit and an afternoon tea is definitely on the cards 😃

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Thanks for taking time to comment on my blog. I love to hear what people think about what Martin and I have been up to.