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Report - - Bletchley Park, D and G Blocks - October 2014 | Military Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Bletchley Park, D and G Blocks - October 2014

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Session9

A life backwards
28DL Full Member
History
We all know about the codebreakers and the huge part that Bletchley park played in the war, but post war this site was filled with large modern buildings with central heating. As a result of this there was large competition from companies, two of the largest occupants in the post-war period were the General Post Office (GPO), later British Telecom, and a Teacher Training College. The latter, established as an Emergency College in the late 1940s, remained on site as a permanent College until the mid 1970s; for most of this time occupying Blocks A, B and E. The GPO/BT was the largest occupant of the site, using Blocks G, F and H as a regional training school from the 1940s until 1993. The Teacher Training College, by contrast constructed little, but shaped the character of the central area of the site to a certain extent. The College carried out minor external alterations to Blocks A, B and E, demolished Hut 7 and more radically altered the wartime Teleprinter Building, converting it into an Assembly Hall during the 1950s. It created the garden behind Block B, where Hut 7 had stood and constructed a series of unpretentious classrooms around the periphery of this area. all in all the structures on this site demonstrate the mix of uses that the site was put to after the war and acting as a reminder that the Park was a highly sought after location between 1946 and 1993 for both business and education.


The explore
After a lot of head scratching to find some 'new' local explores, Bletchley Park rang a bell somewhere in the depths of my unconscious. Having had a stroll around the barracks (now housing) some years ago, i never had much of an inclination to return. However, after defeating my Bletchley blues, i was pleasantly surprised with this one.

Explored in the excellent company of Southside Assassin.


G Block
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1.

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2.

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3.

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4. Central heating was installed after the war to encourage businesses to locate to Bletchley Park. This may have been one of those Friday afternoon jobs with the radiator ending up half way up the wall :rolleyes:.

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5. BT workstations, under a hood of intense lighting.

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6.

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7. A table marked with Wisdom teeth and a letter about staff salary from the GPO.

D Block
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8. Apart from storage, D Block has not been used since the war - clarification needed please.

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9.

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10.

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11.

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12.

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13.

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14. The equipment to the left is a highly successful machine made by Wayne Kerr :Not Worthy.

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15.

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16. Bletchley Park is also home to the National Museum of Computing and a good number of examples have been saved. It is easy to forget equipment like this and a floppy disc that could hold only a tiny amount of data compared with a CD of today. Makes me feel humble how far we have come.

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17. There was a fear during the 1980's computer revolution that computers would take over the world. With the size of these beauties, that was a very real possibility!

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18. A projector room, with ready made openings through the painted window.

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19.

We also ventured up Wilton Avenue to explore the buildings (previously used as a canteen/college) at the side entrance to Bletchley Park, but found nothing worthy to point a camera at and with that is was time for a liquid lunch in Bletchley's finest establishments.

Thanks for looking :)
 

ACID- REFLUX

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Very nicely done mate :thumb

I hadn"t realised it was such an extensive complex looking on G" Earth
 
Last edited:

Ojay

Admin
Staff member
Admin
A fascinating place is Bletchley, I keep meaning to go and have a look around a bit more as only ever done the tourist stuff (which is still worthy of a look) when I was a lot younger :thumb
 

Ordnance

Stay Safe
Staff member
Moderator
History
We all know about the codebreakers and the huge part that Bletchley park played in the war, but post war this site was filled with large modern buildings with central heating. As a result of this there was large competition from companies, two of the largest occupants in the post-war period were the General Post Office (GPO), later British Telecom, and a Teacher Training College. The latter, established as an Emergency College in the late 1940s, remained on site as a permanent College until the mid 1970s; for most of this time occupying Blocks A, B and E. The GPO/BT was the largest occupant of the site, using Blocks G, F and H as a regional training school from the 1940s until 1993. The Teacher Training College, by contrast constructed little, but shaped the character of the central area of the site to a certain extent. The College carried out minor external alterations to Blocks A, B and E, demolished Hut 7 and more radically altered the wartime Teleprinter Building, converting it into an Assembly Hall during the 1950s. It created the garden behind Block B, where Hut 7 had stood and constructed a series of unpretentious classrooms around the periphery of this area. all in all the structures on this site demonstrate the mix of uses that the site was put to after the war and acting as a reminder that the Park was a highly sought after location between 1946 and 1993 for both business and education.

In early 1938 the mansion and much of the site was bought by a builder planning a housing estate, but in May 1938 Admiral Sir Hugh Sinclair, head of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or MI6) bought the Bletchley Park mansion and 58 acres (23 ha) for use by GC&CS and SIS in the event of war.

Its wartime use is well recorded.

After the war the estate passed through a succession of Government Departments and managed by the Ministry of Public Buildings & Works, and saw a number of uses, including as you say a teacher-training college and local GPO headquarters, all of which were publicly owned, so it was the government of the day who allocated its use! No Private Company had a look in to start with, until the privatisation of BT in 1984.
 

WildBoyz

Is this the future?
28DL Full Member
Nice report. I found your photographs really good. Looks like a good venture.
 

Don Constance

28DL Member
28DL Member
I did my PO Telecoms apprentice courses at Bletchley Park in 1979-1981. There were a lot more buildings then, to the north of the museum site where the building site is now. The 2 storey training school block and Gifford House accommodation block, and wet weather sheds, large enough to contain 2 rows of full size poles for overhead training indoors. The canteen was just outside the main gate so a bit of a walk especially in inclement weather. As well as PO there was a Civil Aviation Authority training school on the site. This was of particular interest to us as apart from the cleaners and canteen staff that was the only source of girls available :-)
 
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