Driving fun and Bletchley Park

Friday August 30:

The kids and I headed off for a driving adventure (in the Zipcar we'd reserved) to Bletchley Park (where the team of mathematicians and others broke the Germans' enigma code during the War).  Ellen was unable to come as she spent the day resting her bad back.

Stop one was in the north London area of Barnet which is the site of Arkley Golf Club.  In 1975 my mum's half-brother, Ray Brimble, was killed in a plane crash there.  Ray was the team manager for famous British racing car driver, Graham Hill.  On November 29, 1975 Hill was flying with his team to Elstree Aerodrome in north London but tragically crashed in heavy fog at Arkley Golf Club about 3 miles from Elstree.  There is a small plaque at the club commemorating the site of the crash.

The golf club kindly allowed me to troop to the second hole and take a quick shot of the plaque:

Driving on the motorway was much easier than I expected.  Thankfully, the road wasn't wet or we would have slid off the side of the highway :-)

Bletchley Park was very pretty and extremely interesting.  They do a good job there of making you aware of what life was like for the hundreds of people working there encrypting and decrypting codes.  The interesting thing is that they simply hired smart people (who could solve puzzles) most of whom were young.  Those chosen to work there were sworn to secrecy (so no one knew that they were even there) and with most able-bodied men enlisted in the active services, the Bletchley codebreakers were mostly women.  Many of them describe those years as the best of their lives.  They had come from all over Britain, and were thrown in with hosts of other smart, young people with whom they worked and lived and most had a wonderful time of it.

The focal point of Bletchley Park is "The Mansion":

The machines used for encryption seem so primitive by today's norms (they were, in fact, little more than elaborate typewriters):

The machines used to decrypt codes (like the Bombe) were much more elaborate and imposing.

Bletchley Park is definitely a nice day out, especially for those with an interest in the science of code-making and code-breaking.  It is also located in the midst of some lovely Buckinghamshire countryside, making the trip there from London most enjoyable.