Bletchley in financial trouble

[CTNana]

Milton Keynes seems to be spreading in every direction. I see a real danger in Bletchley Park just being swallowed up to fulfill the commitment to built thousands of new houses in this area. It would be fitting not only to preserve the place but to utilise part of the grounds maybe as a University for some of the best, brightest radical free thinkers of the ilk of Turin and his peers.

[Kyt]

Bletchley Park Trust needs £10m to restore code-breaking site - This Britain, UK - The Independent

The Bletchley Park Trust plans to turn the historic site into an internationally-recognised visitor centre with restored buildings, an authentic 1940s atmosphere and gardens the public can enjoy free of charge.

But implementing the plan and saving the site, the dilapidated state of which was highlighted in The Independent this week, will cost £10m. That money would bring new life to the decaying park near Milton Keynes, where some of Britain's finest minds hastened the defeat of the Nazis with their code-breaking.

A key element of the plan is the restoration of all wartime buildings – from the badly-damaged decoders' wooden huts to the stable block – to regain their authentic 1940s style. Nothing will be demolished and there will be no new buildings. Fresh investment will be put into the education service, including in mathematics and the popular children's code-breaking programmes.

Initial estimates suggest that about £5m would be needed to modernise the main museum, establish it in one site and make it a competitive international visitor attraction, with touch-screen displays allowing visitors to interact with the site's history. The museum section, at present scattered in between commercial buildings for business use, would be "consolidated" into a single section.

A further £5m would go towards improving infrastructure. The abandoned drains and power supplies, dating back to before the Second World War, need complete overhauls.

The system of roads around the park would be restructured, providing controlled public access to large sections of the park. Ambitious plans are also under way to restore the main building.

The trust points out that Bletchley is the last site in Britain in which a country house was converted to war use but has not been converted back.

The new plans were revealed as politicians began mobilising behind The Independent's campaign to save the park. Denis MacShane, the former Labour Europe minister who is backing it, has written to Sir Patrick Cormack, the Tory chairman of the all-party Arts and Heritage group in the Commons, to co-ordinate a trip to Bletchley Park.

The park's trust has confirmed it is drawing up an application for funds from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Mr MacShane has also pledged to raise the matter in Parliament next month.

A range of public figures and politicians, including Robert Harris, the author of Enigma, which was based on the code-breakers, the broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby and former and shadow ministers have backed the campaign this week.

[liverpool annie]

Originally Posted by Kyt

Bletchley Park Trust needs £10m to restore code-breaking site - This Britain, UK - The Independent

Maybe we should start at the beginning and re-educate people .... !! the younger generation just aren't "aware" ( except for a few ) ... maybe it's too late to teach them ... but I believe if there was a "blitz" on the internet ( not just newspapers !! ) on what Bletchley really means to the British people ... it might have an effect !

Bletchley Park Trust - Fenny Stratford Repeater Station

Annie

[Kyt]

BBC NEWS | Technology | Bletchley gets £50,000 donation

A bid to save Britain's computing heritage has been given a $100,000 (£50,000) boost by a joint donation from hi-tech firms IBM and PGP.

The donation will help curate and restore exhibits at the National Museum of Computing in Bletchley Park, Bucks.

The two firms said they hoped the money would kick-start further donations from the technology industry to make up an estimated £7m needed to run the museum.

Exhibits include Colossus, thought by many to be the world's first computer.

Andrew Hart, head of privacy and security services for IBM in the UK and Ireland, told the BBC that the technology held at Bletchley was a crucial part of the UK's national heritage.

Discarded as irrelevant

"It's an important part not only of computing, but of cryptology and analysis," he said. "We're getting involved to help preserve what is a fundamental part of our history."

He said there was a danger that with the fast-paced nature of the computer industry, it would lose a sense of its origins by constantly discarding as irrelevant any technology that became outdated.

He said: "I think it's very important to act to preserve this because a lot of people think this equipment is obsolete, so a lot of this material is being lost and destroyed at an incredible rate.

"If we took that approach to the Natural History Museum or the Science Museum in London, we would probably throw our hands up and say that approach is crazy."

He added that the museum would also help engage new generations in the next stage of technological evolution by encouraging them not to take computers for granted.

He said: "Take something like the internet, which for many people is really extraordinary, the internet was really only invented in 1999, and here we are in 2008 and it's almost as if it has never not been there - it surrounds us."

For Phillip Dunkelberger, president and chief executive officer of data protection specialist PGP Corporation, seminal work in cryptology had been done at Bletchley - famous as the site where the Enigma code was cracked during WWII.

He also said there were important lessons learnt about the power of public-private partnerships to solve seemingly intractable problems.

He told the BBC: "I think that the people who set out to do their work everyday, I don't think they set out to change the world by building the mainframe computer. And really they did it for the greater good.

"Ultimately we would like to see it considered the first home. If you come to San Jose, we have the San Jose tech museum. I think it very easily could be the English equivalent."

Andy Clark, director of trustees at the museum, said he was thrilled by the donation.

He told the BBC: "This is a kick-start, these guys are really helping us out by getting us the support of the technology community really for the first time."

He said of the £7m the museum hoped to raise, about £1m would go towards restoration and curation and the rest would be entrusted to a fund to allow the museum to run without charging an entrance fee.

Code-cracking centre

He said the British Computer Society had donated £75,000 and about £50,000 had come through personal donations.

He also emphasised that the museum was of computing, not computers, and that education was at the heart of its agenda.

He told the BBC: "It's where things happen - it's important that people can do things. To be physically engaged with the artefacts really puts the whole thing in context.

"You see that with kids, they stand in front of the Colossus and I say to them, do you realise this is a computer? And they say, 'it's very big!', and it catches their imagination."

The contribution by PGP Corporation and computer giant IBM, follows a campaign by the museum launched by a competition challenging volunteers to crack one of the toughest codes of WWII.

In July about 100 academics signed a letter to The Times saying the code-cracking centre, and crucible of the UK computer industry, was being allowed to fall into decay.

[spidge]

I do hope the hierarchy that controls the Bill Gates Foundation takes note!

[Antipodean Andy]

Originally Posted by Brian S

Perhaps the Bill Gates Foundation don't realise where their Country's Computer Industry has it's roots.

"Colossus"

My thoughts exactly.

Ten million pound is really not that much in the great scheme of things. Does the government up there have cotton wool in its ears?