Bletchley Park

The Victorian mansion, photographed from the east The estate of Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire is famous as the place where wartime codebreakers cracked the German Enigma code, providing information that helped the Allies win the Second World War.  Often working in makeshift buildings, erected in the grounds of a Victorian mansion, the codebreakers were assisted by advances in computer technology, heralding the Information Age. Sworn to secrecy, those who worked at Bletchley Park did not reveal the significance of their wartime contribution until the 1970s; since then, their achievement has been rightly celebrated the world over.

Block D was built to house the growing Huts 3, 6 and 8, which dealt with the decoding and analysis of Enigma messages, in 1942-43.  Block G, which can be seen behind Block D, was built slightly later, partly to house traffic analysis sections (6 IS), and partly for departments dealing with German Secret Service codes (ISK and ISOS) In September 2003 the team of architectural investigators in the Cambridge Office of English Heritage was asked to coordinate a programme of investigation, relating documentary research to the surviving buildings and landscape at Bletchley Park.  Fortunately, most of the wartime buildings and landscape survive intact, despite limited intervention by post-war occupants.  It proved possible to discover where the various wartime departments (and, in some cases, individuals) had worked.  It was also clear that, far from being standardised, most of the wartime buildings were carefully sited and planned to facilitate liaison between particular sections.  Block D has been poorly maintained, but houses some of the most intact and evocative interiors at Bletchley Park.  Many of the fittings are original, including radiators, hatches, coat hooks and Bakelite light switches -- in some rooms, it is as if the codebreakers had just left The succession of buildings, from the wooden huts of 1939-40 to the concrete blocks of the mid-1940s, relate their own narrative, telling the story of wartime construction, dominated by the struggle to obtain labour and materials, and the need to resolve conflicting priorities within the wartime organisation.  Bletchley Park also has much to tell us about the development of small country house estates in the 18th and 19th centuries: landscape survey by English Heritage's archaeologists identified the site of the Palladian mansion built by the antiquarian Browne Willis in 1711, and investigation of the Victorian mansion revealed that much of the building was erected by the speculative developer Samuel Lipscomb Seckham around 1880, before being enlarged and aggrandised by the Jewish financier and MP, Sir Herbert Samuel Leon, in the 1880s and 1890s. 

A cluster of huts erected in 1939-40, as the site expanded.  From left to right this shows Hut 3, Hut 1 (with Hut 6 behind) and Hut 8 English Heritage's investigation of Bletchley Park has resulted in the production of a report (Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire: Research Department, Buildings and Landscapes Reports and Papers: B/010/2004) which will provide a platform for decisions affecting the conservation and regeneration of the site.  For a long time, there has been a lack of agreement amongst stakeholders concerning sustainable development proposals, largely because the historic significance of the site has been poorly understood.  Greater understanding makes it easier to articulate the value of the site, and to make informed judgments about its future.

You can also download the PDF of the Mansion's history, made available by the Ancient Monuments Society

The History of The Mansion at Bletchley Park