Bletchley Park and the WWII Codebreakers were a big part of why we visited England July 2025. Steve’s mum passed away last October and among her belongings we found correspondence from relatives of Steve’s father that linked Steve’s grandfather to Bletchley Park, home of the famous WWII Codebreakers. After some research and asking people questions, we found out his grandfather has a brick on the Codebreakers commemorative wall. All of this new found information brought us to visit Bletchley Park to get an understanding of what the codebreakers were all about.
Why is Bletchley Park Famous?
Bletchley Park became the main communications center in Great Britain during WWII. This top secret, high security location is where the codebreakers were stationed. Bletchley Park was known as the head of the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS), whose name actually minimized the work that was accomplished here.
Bletchley Park consisted of a group of highly intelligent men and women who broke the secret messages, the codes, which the German’s used to communicate their intelligence to one another. These patriots intercepted enemy messages, broke the cypher, translated messages from German to English, then sent out the intelligence to allied officials involved. These were highly challenging codes which seemed almost impossible to decypher. But they did break the codes and were therefore able to gain knowledge of the German’s strategies and intercept as needed. Bletchley Park was the perfect spot for England to hide their deciphering work. Hidden away in a large mansion and surrounding area in the British countryside, these men and women made history by being more than just a significant contribution to ending WWII and Nazi Germany.
Perhaps you have watched The Imitation Game which tells the story of Bletchley Park and key codebreaker, Alan Turing. Alan Turing was a pioneer in the development of computers, a cryptanalyst, and a forerunner of modern day AI. He was a big part of the success of Bletchley Park during WWII.
Hanslope Park
Hanslope Park was also instrumental to codebreaking, inteligence, and interpretation. Steve’s grandfather was sent to Hanslope Park where he worked with Alan Turing. While there he worked on the Rockex, which was a type of cypher machine. His sons remembered later in life someone would pick their father up and he would be gone for a length of time. They also remembered spending a lot of time in their bomb shelter behind their home. I can’t imagine how difficult all of this was.
Messages decoded at Hanslope Park would be sent by courier to nearby Bletchely Park. Information could be received, decoded, and sent on to Bletchley within 3 hours. This was very exciting and considered very current during WW2. Hanslope Park was the forefront place for spy tools technology and British Intelligence. As a matter of fact it is still instrumental in keeping Great Britain secure. So secure that it is not opened to the public so we were not allowed to visit here, nor were we given any additional information on Steve’s grandfather and his work than we already knew. We were informed it is still classified! Imagine that, knowing none of this about his Grandfather until now!
Steve remembers his Grandfather as having taught him how to play billiards as a child and was a good artist. He knew his grandfather has several patents on teletype machines and had something to do with the intercontinental cable, but what he has found out over the last several months is just short of amazing.
Our Visit to Bletchley Park
Block C
Our friend ,Peter dropped us off at the front gate where we excitedly made our way to the visitors center. The visitor center is located in Block C of which was once the Government Code and Cipher School at Bletchley Park. Completed in 1942, this large complex homed the Hollerith machinery and records. The Hollerith, an electromagnetic machine, punched data onto cards and each card had encoded information on it. These indexed cards recorded information which Bletchley Park personal used to decode the enemies cryption. Very innovative at this time as it not only categorized the information efficiently, but uniformly as well.
Today Block C is the visitor center and it is where you will begin your tour. You can buy your tickets here, stop at the coffee or gift shop and walk through the rooms at your leisure. It is a hub for information on WWII and Bletchley Park and the many displays, videos and historic information will give you a good foundation of knowledge as you continue on your Bletchely Park Journey.
Block B
This was an office for the codebreakers who were working on cyhers used by other European countries and also Japanese cyphers.
Codebreaker’s Wall of Honor
My husband was very excited for our next stop, the Codebreaker’s Wall of Honor. This Wall honors all those who worked with Bletchley Park and other areas in signal intelligence during WWII. We met with Andrew from Bletchley Park who Steve had been in contact with by email prior to our trip. He generously took the time to meet with us and found Steve’s grandfather’s brick for us. It was a moment of pure pride and joy when my husband found his grandfather’s brick. After all these years, finding a piece of his family history he did not know existed until recently was really touching for Steve. You can look up each individual who has a brick on the Bletchley Park Roll of Honour Site. Here is Steve’s grandfather’s information. They are working on adding a photo to his information which will be great to see as well.
The Mansion
Bletchley Park Manor home was originally a private family home. This English country home was built in 1877 and then expanded in 1883. It is a rather eclectic home in the manor as there are several architectural styles being used all together to create the whole. In 1938, the head of MI6, Admiral Sir Hugh Sinclair bought the home and estate for potential wartime use as a base for the Government Code and Cypher School (GS&CS). The home is quite grand and must have been a real showcase in its day.
Original Entrance and Guardhouse
The original guardhouse is still standing as is the entrance gate. Of course this area, at that time, had a heavy guard. During the war, thousands of people passed through this gate and each one had to have their identification verified as security was of upmost importance. It was hard to imagine this being a busy entrance with security at this peaceful spot!
Chauffeurs’ Hut
The staff at Bletchley Park grew. More employees were bused in and out of the park each shift, therefore the original chauffeurs’ hut was no longer adequate and a larger chauffers’ hut was built. We were not able to go into this building as there was some type of presentation ongoing which we were shooed away from.
Tennis Court
Although it was mostly work at Bletchley Park, staff could at times get away to play tennis! There is also a pond where they could ice skate in the winter.
Hut 3 and Hut 6
Hut 3 and 6 were where much of Bletchley Park’s most important work played out. Most importantly, hut 6 was headquarters for breaking the Geman Enigma code. Once broken the deciphered information was then translated into English in Hut 3.
Huts 11, 11A and 11B
These huts kept up to 9 Bombe machines. Their use was instrumental to ending the war. The Bombe was a top secret decoding machine which sped up the process of codebreaking. This machine tested different cyphers faster than people could. This is the machine that helped break the German Enigma Code. This gave the allies a huge advantage as they began to decode the German’s next move and allowed the Allies to give the Germans false information. This led to the victory we now know as D-Day.
The Cottages
The cottages are an area of buildings within the park where some of the most famous codebreakers worked. When you first walk into this area, it looks like a charming small English village. Very peaceful and serene. In one of these buildings is where the first British team broke the Enigma code. This is also where workers found out the false information reported to Germans from the Allies, which concerned D-Day landings was actually received by the Germans who believed the intelligence to be true.
Teleprinter Building, Huts 14 and 14A
The teleprinter Buidling and Huts 14 and 14A were built out of necessity to make room for the amount of communication that was being transferred by teleprinter to and from Bletchley Park. A Teleprinter was an innovative machine which sent and received messages through cable wires.
Conclusion
I am definitely not a communications expert nor have I had any deep interest in communications in WWII. Although, I am interested in WWII history, I must say that after we found this information on Steve’s Grandfather, I became very interested in the communication aspects as well. After doing some research, and touring Bletchley Park I find it fascinating how the codebreakers worked to defeat the Nazi’s through the most modern means that were available during WWII. This visit was nothing short of amazing. Bletchley Park does a wonderful job of presenting the codebreakers history and their part in WWII. What I really love is this presentation is throughout the location where the history actually happened. My husband left here having a better insight to his Grandfather and his contribution to WWII.
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You can find my other England posts below:
Two Delightful Villages in England-July 2025
You can also check out my posts from other countries and places I have visited by clicking below:
Greece 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
The Gen-X Travels recommendations for hotels, restaurants, activities or tour companies are based on our own experiences unless noted. We are not sponsored by any business or company and all trips are at our expense. All photos are by myself or my husband unless otherwise noted. We are affiliates of some companies such as Amazon,Viator, and others which we do receive a small commission from, at no cost to you if you buy or book through one of our links.
Read More About it!
Here are a few books you can add to your Kindle or at home library if you want to know more about Bletchley Park.
The Codebreakers of Bletchley Park by John Dermot Turing
Bletchley Park: The Secret Archives by Sinclair McKay
No More Secrets: My part in codebreaking at Bletchley Park and the Pentagon by Betty Webb
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It is always good to look back at your history. You never know what you might find. Have a great Sunday Lori. Allan
That is true and hopefully it is all good! Enjoy the day and have a good week! Lori
What an amazing history, visit, and photos! Thank you for sharing this story!
–Scott
Thank you for your response! It was very interesting!
so interesting! 🙏😊
We really enjoyed Bletchley Park!
So cool!!!
We thought so!!
Amazing!
We were very impressed with the entire place!
Great story!
Thank you! It has been an amazing discovery!
Very cool! It’s interesting to visit a place where your relatives had taken part in a piece of history! Bletchley Park is no exception. Looks like the place is well-preserved and really details the historic events. I only know about this from “Bletchley Circle,” a series my partner likes watching. Looks like I’ll need to look more into Bletchley should I visit some day!
I have not heard of Bletchley Circle but will look for it! It was a very well presented place. My husband really enjoyed learning about this aspect of his grandfathers life.
Interesting history and place to visit.
We really enjoyed it!