# Bletchley Park



## charles henry (May 18, 2008)

Wonder if any of you worked or trained at Bletchley after WW2 and remember the miseries of the accomodation, security and FOOD. Nothing in the village except one fish and chip shop and the thick fog from the train shunting yard. Nearest pub Fenny Stratford (5 ? miles). Only saving grace a female teacher's training school on the grounds and the two "nubile" daughters of
the camp manager.

Only good thing, I learned to type at 70wpm and copy sending from bad, fast bug sending.

I quit when I learned I was being posed to Brora.......

de Chas


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## Peter B (Nov 12, 2006)

*"The" Bletchley Park?*

Are you talking about the same facilities that housed the encryption intelligence during WWII ? If so, was it deliberately placed in the "middle of nowhere" to make it easier to prevent "leaks"? I am just wondering.


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## Andy (Jan 25, 2004)

Peter B said:


> it deliberately placed in the "middle of nowhere" to make it easier to prevent "leaks"? I am just wondering.


leaks are still a big concern at Bletchley Park 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/beds/bucks/herts/8586829.stm


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## benjidog (Oct 27, 2005)

You have always been an enigma Chas - now we know why.


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## Thats another Story (Mar 4, 2009)

Peter B said:


> Are you talking about the same facilities that housed the encryption intelligence during WWII ? If so, was it deliberately placed in the "middle of nowhere" to make it easier to prevent "leaks"? I am just wondering.


i think it was to prevent it from being bombed it was miles out of the way. john.


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## charles henry (May 18, 2008)

*the place*



Andy said:


> leaks are still a big concern at Bletchley Park
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/beds/bucks/herts/8586829.stm


MOST INTERESTING, having worked in the place after the war I am now thoroughly confused, the "camp" as I knew it was a series of drafty, temporary wartime huts, and there was NO building remotely resembling the mansion (or ex mansion) shown in the photograph in the actual "park". Furthermore I never saw any building in the vicinity of the village larger than ordinary homes or farm houses.

Maybe "Bletchley" of wartime fame was not in Bletchley....

Live and learn

de Chas


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## Hawkeye (Dec 7, 2005)

The Headmaster of the my senior school was based there during the war. I only found out some 20 years later when I went to an address to pick up a kayak for my scout troop.


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## K urgess (Aug 14, 2006)

The Memsahib's mother was demobbed from the WAAFs at Bletchley Park having spent the war as a teleprinter operator and cypher clerk at, among other places, the Whitehall bunkers, Cranwell and the aforementioned.
Which she never mentioned until we saw her WAAF paybook after she had passed on.


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## nick olass (Apr 30, 2009)

If Bletchley Park had been in the US, funds to keep the place in good condition would not have been a problem.


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## Peter B (Nov 12, 2006)

JOHN PRUDEN said:


> i think it was to prevent it from being bombed it was miles out of the way. john.


Ah, yes, that actually makes perfect sense.


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## holland25 (Nov 21, 2007)

I went there for an interview for GCHQ in about 1965. The big house was still there, but the interview was carried out in a hut, of which there were quite a few. We were left alone at one stage and told not to wander,in the room was a clock with a piece of sticky tape over some writing, we wondered if it was some kind of test, if you looked, you were out, we resisted the temptation.

One of the fellow aspirants had his travel claim severely pruned. He had come down from the NE and had gone into London at Kings Cross and come to Bletchley from Euston. The guy in charge took great delight in telling him that he should have changed at Sandy, were there was a cross country link to Bletchley. I have since read that another of the reasons for its choice was that it had a cross country rail link with Oxford and Cambridge. 

I didnt take the subsequent job offer up,it all seemed a bit odd.


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## Thats another Story (Mar 4, 2009)

peter it's a few years since i made any sence(Jester)


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## Dutchy62 (Feb 7, 2009)

One of the avenues of escape for sparkies in the 60s and 70s was the field of civil aviation telecomms (MTCA, BoT, CAA, NATCS, NATS) for which the training establishment for new entrants and also continuing training (equipment, techniques etc) was Bletchley Park. This was indeed the same place there the enigma/codebreaking setup was established during WWII. 
I went to do my induction training in the late 60s before being despatched to Stansted airport. Various organisations were located in Bletchley Park - the Post Office were in the Mansion, Bucks teacher training college in one of the other brick buildings, then there were the rest of us in the previously referred to huts/ blocks. These housed the DWS (diplomatic wireless service), BoT (civil aviation telecomms) and the CTS (central training school) where the GCHQ monitoring people were trained - later to be notorious as the object of Thatchers's affections in the abolition of trade union membership. CTS was easily identified as their area was bristling with aerials but their people always clammed up when asked what they did. I guess they would have been sent to the Tower of London if they had uttered a word.
There was a club on the site where everyone (except the elite post office types) congregated in the evenings to drink cheap beer because, as mentioned by Chas, there was bugger all to do in Bletchley. Thursday nights however brought the infamous dance when all the local "beauties" came along for the big night out! Happy days.
After Stansted I spent the rest of my days in employment at Heathrow.
Any other ex-sparkies who went into CA tels?


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## G4UMW (May 30, 2007)

The Navaid field is no more - it's now a housing estate. 

Not long after the Park was first opened to the public, I became Station Manager of the amateur radio station there (GB2BP to the initiated). We had our VHF/UHF aerials mounted on the railings on top of the "control tower" building that held the electronics for the radar (Plessey AR-1?). The 60 ft crank-up tower which supported the HF beam was bolted to the concrete plinth that originally supported the radar tower.


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## Andy (Jan 25, 2004)

G4UMW said:


> The Navaid field is no more - it's now a housing estate.
> 
> Not long after the Park was first opened to the public, I became Station Manager of the amateur radio station there (GB2BP to the initiated). We had our VHF/UHF aerials mounted on the railings on top of the "control tower" building that held the electronics for the radar (Plessey AR-1?). The 60 ft crank-up tower which supported the HF beam was bolted to the concrete plinth that originally supported the radar tower.


Hi Rob,
I occasionally speak to GB2BP on 2m. I heard that the RSGB have big plans for BP, it was going to be the location for that very expensive tower they purchased recently... provided they get planning permission (EEK)

cheers,
Andy


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## Andy (Jan 25, 2004)

charles henry said:


> Maybe "Bletchley" of wartime fame was not in Bletchley....
> 
> Live and learn
> 
> de Chas


Yep, same place. It was quite a sprawling complex/estate, the mansion house was over to the west side of most of the huts. The mansion house isn't huge by many mansion house standards.

Maybe it was just well camouflaged when you were there, secrecy man, secrecy! (Thumb)


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## hawkey01 (Mar 15, 2006)

I had the pleasure of living in Bletchley Park for sometime in one of those fabulous accommodation blocks. As previously stated they were all ex WW2 buildings. I well remember all the activities mentioned by Dutchy62. At that time I was employed by HMG. The other clandestine group also had a training school for military Spec Ops. Bletchley was not all bad and Stony Stratford was Ok - some good pubs around the area.
Hawkey01


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## G4UMW (May 30, 2007)

> I occasionally speak to GB2BP on 2m. I heard that the RSGB have big plans for BP, it was going to be the location for that very expensive tower they purchased recently... provided they get planning permission


Hi Andy,

Yes, the National Amateur Radio Centre is now being built close to the Museum at BP. I don't know how it will affect the operations of the Milton Keynes ARS who meet at the Park and who have been operating (and providing the equipment for) GB2BP for a long time.

When the station was first set up we didn't have to worry about planning permission for aerials; the Park was still part of the Crown Estate at that time and we were told that we could put up what we liked where we liked. We did, and heard no more about it.

73,

Rob/G4UMW


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## Naytikos (Oct 20, 2008)

A cousin of mine trained there for the Post Office in the 60s; she was glad to leave having been pursued quite keenly by some of the male residents. Quite unnerving for an 18-year-old.


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## NoMoss (Mar 14, 2007)

I had the 'pleasure' of staying in one of those huts in 1964. It wasn't too bad as several of us joined together and had fun together. The GPO club sold cheap beer and there was a bus to work. For us who had been to sea and put up with small cabins on old ships the accommodation was acceptable as a temporary solution but there were a couple of older single blokes who had lived there for years and seemed quite content.
The 'mansion' was there but if I remember was just offices for the GPO.


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## Moulder (Aug 19, 2006)

*Good times....*

I fondly remember my time with the Department at Bletchley Park in the early eighties. I lived in Block 5 which was outside the main park gate and consisted of the old wartime huts that had been refurbished to an acceptable standard. As someone mentioned before, if you were ex-Merch and used to living in a single cabin then the rooms at Bletchley were no problem - I think we were better off outside of the gates anyway as I recall there were accommodation rooms annexed off of the main training block inside the park - a bit too near the office for my liking and always patrolled by the security division.
The lads (no lasses on our course) bonded quite well and we even allocated one of the empty rooms for our home brew set-up - although we did use the Bletchley Park Club quite a lot especially when staying at weekends. I seem to remember the 'Grab a Granny' nights were Thursdays? 
I always thought the food was very acceptable - a self-service style restaurant hut was in operation during my time - you grabbed a tray and selected dishes along the line then put your 'meal ticket' in the box at the end. If you could avoid doing so and collected a few tickets 'in hand' during the week these could be given to the instructors, who were permanently posted so did not get issued tickets but could buy them from Admin. 
I also recall that the 'senior' course - those that were next due to go operational, always sat at the group of tables at the far end - woe betide anyone that dared to sit there who was not entitled to - which we did occassionally - much to the annoyance of the 'seniors' ! (Jester)
I also recall the time I was sitting at one of the tables during morning coffee break with another ex-Merch R/O on the same course - during a break in conversation we overheard some newly arrived staff talking on an adjacent table and both looked at each other with expressions of immediate recognition. One of the 'newbies' was a RO from Niton Radio, who's voice was immediately recognisable from days on 2MHz R/T - he was quite chuffed to be recognised. I then went on to serve for a period overseas with him. 
It was quite amusing how we all had to maintain the security of the site and always allude to "working for the Post Office" if asked and yet every Friday about 200 people would descend on Bletchley railway station ticket office with rail warrants with the issuing office clearly stamped with the name and location of our Department - and it was obvious where we had all come from.
All in all I had a great time at Bletchley Park and added a great many extra skills to my CV.


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## Hugh Ferguson (Sep 4, 2006)

During the course of my researches into the book, The Surgeon's Log, (written in 1911 by Dr. James Johnston Abraham), I succeeded in contacting his then still living daughter, Jill. (Anyone interested, see in BOOKS Forum)
She told me that she had been a stenographer at Bletchley during the war and on returning home on one occasion she thought to herself, "I am the only person on this crowded train who knows the date planned for the Normandy landings". She never even told her parents.
I wonder if such a degree of trust and discretion could exist this day and age: I very much doubt it.


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## charles henry (May 18, 2008)

Wonder if anyone remembers or ever actually used the five letter word codes, UPBAG DADRO etc in making a living.

Memory of Bletchly the six (Or was it eight) huge bath tubs standing in a row in the drafty confines of the bath house.

de Chas


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## Moulder (Aug 19, 2006)

Hugh Ferguson said:


> During the course of my researches into the book, The Surgeon's Log, (written in 1911 by Dr. James Johnston Abraham), I succeeded in contacting his then still living daughter, Jill. (Anyone interested, see in BOOKS Forum)
> She told me that she had been a stenographer at Bletchley during the war and on returning home on one occasion she thought to herself, "I am the only person on this crowded train who knows the date planned for the Normandy landings". She never even told her parents.
> I wonder if such a degree of trust and discretion could exist this day and age: I very much doubt it.


..... then Hugh if you are talking about those in the Department associated with Bletchey - I think you would be wrong. Although come to think of it, there have been a couple of hanging offences in the past - thankfully these did not involve the radio officer grade.


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## NoMoss (Mar 14, 2007)

I'd forgotten the Grab a Granny nights.
I didn't work on site but only slept there.


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## wireless man (Jun 16, 2008)

In the late 1980's I went to BP to sit a Civil Aviation Authority exam. My recollectionis is of a run down old place full of nissen huts. I didnt appreciate its importance then.


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## Graham P Powell (Jun 2, 2007)

My father was station at Bletchley during the war. He was in the RAOC and told me he did not even know Bletchley Park was there!.


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## RayL (Apr 16, 2008)

In addition to being less prone to bombing, I have always assumed that the choice of location for Station X must have been to gain the advantage of being physically close to those two top universities (brains availability).


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