A fine sunny afternoon for a VIP private guided group tour of Bletchley Park (where enemy codes were deciphered during World War Two) and the National Museum of Computing (also at Bletchley, and where codes were also deciphered). Confused? You will be...
Image © Bletchley Park Trust
Image © Bletchley Park Trust
Image © Bletchley Park Trust
Bombe Electromechanical Device
Image © Bletchley Park Trust
The group then adjourned to the National Museum of Computing, a few minutes’ walk up the road, for a most welcome ice cold champagne and delicious canapés reception. The tour then commenced under the expert guidance of Andrew Spencer, and the group was introduced to the rebuilt and working Colossus, the world’s first electronic computer. It was designed specifically to help decipher the Lorenz-encrypted messages between Hitler and his High Command, and to appreciate the magnitude of its successful achievement you’ll have to come on the tour itself!
WRNS operating Colossus during World War II
Image © Crown. Reproduced by kind permission, Director, GCHQ
Lorenz Machine
Image © TNMOC
There was plenty more to see, including a gallery devoted to the development of the PC since the 70s, which had many of the group reminiscing about their childhoods.
Alan Turing
Image © Bletchley Park Trust
Alan Turing was one of the most important and original Englishmen of the twentieth century who did more than any other to make possible the breaking of the German Enigma codes at the secret Station X at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire. It was said by Winston Churchill that Turing’s work was the greatest single contribution to victory in the Second World War. It is agreed by historians that the work of the codebreakers shortened the war by at least two years, saving countless lives. Turing is also regarded as the intellectual parent of computer science. He kept his mug chained to a radiator to prevent theft and sometimes cycled cycled to work wearing a gas mask to guard against pollen.
Sculpture by Stephen Kettle
"I believe that at the end of the century, the use of words and general educated opinion will have altered so much that one will be able to speak of machines thinking without expecting to be contradicted”.
Alan Turing
The National of Museum of Computing
Image © TNMOC
We are proud and delighted to work with both the Code Breakers Museum and The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park.
Hush! It's a secret...
At the end of the tour, we transferred by mini bus to The Killingworth Castle in Wooton for an evening meal. In its two year history this excellent establishment has already won a Michelin Bib Gourmand and has been named The Oxford Times Restaurant of the Year. As an added bonus, it also serves its own range of craft ales from the Yubberton Brewing Company. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the meal and refreshments.
The Killingworth Castle, Wootton
The Killingworth Castle Menu
The Killingworth Castle
It was then time for the transfer to Woodstock, and overnight accommodation at The Bear hotel. Situated just twenty minutes’ drive from Oxford, this former 13th century coaching inn combines history and culture with modern facilities, all in a tranquil setting.
The Bear Hotel, Woodstock
The Elizabeth Taylor Suite at The Bear Hotel, Woodstock
Wings of all colours from their shoulders grew
From ADCOCK-pink to heavenly LUCAS-blue,
A dazzling sight. On Mrs. EDWARDS' head
There beamed a halo of unearthly red;
STRACHEY'S was black and of stupendous size,
But for extension HINSLEY'S took the prize.
Excerpt from poem "The Other Side" by Patrick Wilkinson (1907-1985), a Vice-Provost of King's College and Horace scholar, who had been part of the Italian Naval Section at Bletchley.
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