back to article Bletchley Park gets £7.4m to tart up WWII code-breaking huts

Bletchley Park has successfully raised the £2.4m it needed to start restoration on code-breaking huts at the World War II site and build a new visitor centre. The park's Trust had to raise the cash to unlock a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of £5m, giving it £7.4m in funding to restore the derelict huts 3 and 6, where code- …

COMMENTS

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  1. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Well done!

    Must visit the centre next time I am over in England with the kids.

    1. bazza Silver badge

      Re: Well done!

      Trust me, it's definitely well worth the trip :-)

  2. Jeebus

    Awesome.

    Entirely overdue, but most welcome. Well played, Bletchley is one of the most important sites of English heritage, to let it fall into disrepair is disrespectful to those that shortened the war and saved millions of lives.

  3. schotness

    Why do they need 7m

    Why do they need 7m to do up some old wooden huts?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Why do they need 7m

      They're building a visitor centre as well.

      When you are repairing and restoring historic buildings you don't just call up a builder out of the local paper.

    2. Nigel Titley

      Re: Why do they need 7m

      Well, partly to get rid of the asbestos. The old huts were clad in asbestos board.

    3. Chris Byers

      Re: Why do they need 7m

      Have you seen the price of timber in B&Q recently?

    4. Phlip

      Re: Why do they need 7m

      Block C, where the education and visitor centre will be located, is *not* a wooden hut. It's a listed brick building that requires careful restoration. It is the building immediately to the right as you drive through the gate to Bletchley Park.

  4. Cliff

    Exactly the right kind of thing

    This is exactly the right kind of thing to be doing with lottery money - so glad to hear it.

  5. graeme leggett Silver badge

    Is there a Hut 33?

    just thought that - for those who find such things funny - it might be worth mentioning that the BBC are playing Hut 33 on Radio 4 Extra at the moment.

    Though the episode with the IT jokes is probably no longer available on iplayer.

  6. jai

    must go and visit

    It's one of those places i've always wanted to go to, but never get around to.

    Maybe I should use this as the incentive to go see it now, so then I have a good reason to go back in a few years and see how things have changed as the work goes on.

  7. IronSteve

    Sounds cool, I'm excited to see this having just read Enigma by Robert Harris

  8. ukgnome

    One of the best trips out I ever had with the ex GF's mum

    On that day they were testing colossus after plugging in all the valves that Phillips (LG) had donated.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @ukgnome

      " One of the best trips out I ever had with the ex GF's mum "

      Er right..... yes.... mmm..

      too much information I think...

      " On that day they were testing colossus after plugging in all the valves that Phillips (LG) had donated "

      definitely too much information!

      1. Anonymous Coward 15

        You have a dirty mind

        I don't see the innuendo myself.

  9. MiggyMan

    Now the question is

    Will any of it go to the computing museum, which is funded seperatley and often looses out on funding because of the assumption that it's all the same ?

    1. Will Godfrey Silver badge
      Meh

      Re: Now the question is

      Good point.

      Also, I wonder how many people realise that the NMoC pays rent to the Bletchley Park trust.

    2. Annihilator

      Re: Now the question is

      Indeed, only funded enough to open on Thursday and Saturday afternoons IIRC. Was my only disappointment when visiting earlier this year (still managed to spend the entire day there by myself).

      Also hosts the biggest Churchill collection I've ever seen!

      1. Allan George Dyer
        Coat

        Re: Now the question is

        Is that a collection of former Prime Ministers, or a collection of armoured fighting vehicles?

        1. Anonymous Coward 15

          Re: Now the question is

          A collection of statues of that dog from the advert, oh yes.

  10. Ryan 7

    The MoD should fund Bletchley Park

    It's their own history, the cost to them would be a drop in the ocean, and they could justify it as "beneficial to national morale" or some other PR line.

    1. Callam McMillan

      Re: The MoD should fund Bletchley Park

      Hahaha. Sadly, thanks to the Dave and Nick show (the 'Dick' show?) the MOD barely have enough money to keep the lights on let alone fund something like this.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: The MoD should fund Bletchley Park

        @Ryan 7, Callam McMillan

        Of course, if you knew any history you'd know that:

        1) The MoD didn't come into being until 1964, 19 years after World War Two. Prior to that we had the Admiralty, War Office and Air Ministry.

        2) Bletchley Park / GCCS was run by an altogether different department of government, the Foreign Office.

        1. graeme leggett Silver badge

          Re: The MoD should fund Bletchley Park

          technically there was a Minister of Defence at the time - Churchill.

          And there was a department within the ministry, MD1, which was a handy way for him to back a bunch of interesting characters in their weapon-developing enterprises: Stuart Macrae and Millis Jefferis being the prime two.

          Between them they brought the Limpet Mine, Sticky bomb, PIAT and Time Pencil to the war effort, and by sharing with the admiralty's Directorate of Miscellaneous Weapons Development, the Hedgehog anti-submarine weapon.

  11. Andy Fletcher

    The MoD should fund

    You're either joking, not a UK taxpayer or both presumably. I'm happy for lottery money and donations to be used for this. Taxpayer money, definately not.

    1. Alfie Noakes

      Re: The MoD should fund

      Er, if it wasn't for Bletchley, you would probably be paying your "taxpayer money" to a different country!

      mb

    2. Yet Another Hierachial Anonynmous Coward

      Re: The MoD should fund

      The last thing Bletchley Park needs is civil servants and politcians getting involved......

      Top marks to tBP for the funding, also one of the places I keep meaning to see but never get round to....

  12. Rustybucket

    Good...

    ... because when I went in April it was crap.

    At present they've taken the confluence of some of the greatest instances of bravery, hard-work, secrecy, genius and technological advancements in human history and put it on the same level of excitement as Dido, Ed Milliband and tofu.

  13. Big-nosed Pengie
    Thumb Up

    Excellent!

    I was appalled at how such an important place had been allowed to deteriorate when I had the pleasure of visiting a few years ago.

    1. Annihilator

      Re: Excellent!

      Really? I thought it had charm and gave a sense of history.

  14. Lone Gunman
    Thumb Up

    Marvellous news

    I visited earlier this year and found it an amazing place. Was really glad it wasn't Disneyfied and that there were so many knowledgeable people on hand to explain more about what went on there. The website is worth reading if only for the humour (check out the cafe page).

  15. GrandpaChris
    Unhappy

    Canada restore Camp Xhttp://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/unhappy_32.png

    Canadians should take note and restore Camp X on the shore of Lake Ontario where local European nations were trained for WWII events. When will we every learn that memory is the best security. We are going forward into the internet 2000's dead blind...

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