Day 8 23/5/16 Visit to Blexley Park

Day 8 Visit to historic Bletchley Park of Enigma fame.

The overnight stop at Home Farm B&B was fabulous and none of us could resist a really lovely cooked breakfast.  The aroma when we got to the sitting room was amazing. After packing up the cars we made the short journey to Bletchley Park in Bletchley which is the home of the Code Breakers (Enigma Machine) from WW2.

When first setup, the UK government would not fund the purchase of the property so the commanding officer advanced the 6,000 pounds to purchase it. The government eventually purchased it from him.

As can be seen from the front facade, the previous owners of the Mansion had been avid travellers and every time they returned from abroad they had a new wing built depicting their recent travels. Hence the Mansion is a wild "mish mash" of architectural styles.

Bletchley Park House - 5 different architectural styles can be seen from this angle

Entrance hallway

Variety of architecture inside the house

Front sitting room room in the house

Part of the rear grounds

During the war it was a top secret facility with up to 3,000 people coming and going.  The technical experts were drawn from academia and industry all working to break the encrypted foreign communications.  The locals assumed it was a mental asylum and wanted nothing to do with the people involved.

About the "Bombe", used to help with code breaking

Most of the original building fell into ruin and the decoding machines where all destroyed the day after the war finished and no piece was permitted to be any larger than an average human hand.  Nothing was know about the operations at Bletchley until the mid to late 70's due to secrecy laws.  The work done from this site is credited with reducing the length of the war by approximately 2 years and saving thousands of lives on both sides.  The site is now slowly being re-built to display this important aspect of the world's war history.

Our guide for the day was a chap by the name of Neil, and as we were leaving he was on his way home and we met him in the car park. After a chat about the cars he offered to show us a short cut as we headed off to visit Peter and Janet Thompson.  David and Kaye stayed on at Bletchley Park then headed home.  Neil did a magnificent job leading us along some country lanes and back roads towards Denham Leys.

Front of Janet and Peter's lovely home

Alvii "litter" the driveway at Janet and Peter's

Afternoon tea with Peter and Janet in Quainton Aylesbury

Dale and Maritta trying out Peter's 1916 Talbot

Following our visit we returned to Home Farm in Beach Hampton with Alan and Noeline.  Dinner was at the next door pub, The Red Line and the meals were terrific.