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G4EBT > RSGB 20.11.07 20:22l 150 Lines 6045 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 4E7092G4EBT
Read: GUEST DO4SMW
Subj: RSGB Museum - Bletchley Park?
Path: DB0FHN<DB0MRW<DB0ERF<DB0EAM<DB0SMG<DB0RES<IK2XDE<IW2OAZ<F4BWT<ON0AR<
GB7FCR
Sent: 071120/1738Z @:GB7FCR.#16.GBR.EU #:51749 [Blackpool] FBB-7.03a $:4E7092G4
From: G4EBT@GB7FCR.#16.GBR.EU
To : RSGB@WW
I try to keep my ear to the ground, albeit often I just hear dog turds,
but I'm glad to let slip this bit of news from the inside track, passed
to me by my "mole".
As well as RSGB pulling out of its Potters Bar HQ as part of its survival
strategy, discussions are also taking place with the Bletchley Park Trust,
the aim being to establish a heritage centre dedicated to Amateur Radio
and
the RSGB at Bletchley Park.
It is envisaged that the Bletchley Park site will be the centre of the
RSGB's training activities and will also be the home of the RSGB HQ
station GB3RS which it is hoped will be on the air daily. A fuller
statement will appear on the RSGB website and RadCom shortly.
You heard it first on here!
Bletchley Park?
I don't know if anyone's been there.
It's worth a visit but it's a sad old place - Winston Churchill ordered
that it be pulled down after the WW2 due to the secret nature of its work,
and the fact that it was redundant.
It wasn't pulled down though.
It consists of a large house, some outbuildings, a collection of
dilapidated pre-fabricated huts which are falling apart, a museum
with some "humanoid" tailors' dummies dressed in army uniforms to
loosely resemble soldiers and ops room staff, sat at desks in front
of dusty old radios and bits and bobs.
IIRC, there are even some dummies of WAFs, with seamed stockings,
if that's what floats your boat.
All a bit spooky, but interesting enough, though you do come away with a
heavy heart. The only thing that lifts your spirits is the dedicated band
of nostalgia-fuelled enthusiasts who try to keep this cash-strapped
place together.
They deserve to succeed - there's always something appealing about people
who dedicate their energies and expertise to keeping these places going,
with no support or funding forthcoming from government sources, and rarely
any lottery funding.
For anyone interested, take a look here:
http://www.codesandciphers.org.uk/bletchleypark/
http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/
A little about the history of Bletchley Park, centre of the British
wartime code and cipher breaking operations:
With the declaration of peace, the frenzy of codebreaking activity ceased.
On Churchill's orders every scrap of 'incriminating' evidence was
destroyed. As the Second World War gave way to the Cold War, it was
vital that Britain's former ally, the USSR, should learn nothing of
Bletchley Park's wartime achievements.
The thousands who had worked there departed. Some continued to use their
remarkable expertise to break other countries' ciphers, working under a
new name: The Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).
The site became home to a variety of training schools:
For teachers, Post Office workers, air traffic control system engineers,
and members of GCHQ. In 1987, after a fifty-year association with British
Intelligence, Bletchley Park was finally decommissioned.
For decades, the codebreakers would remain silent about their
achievements.
It wasn't until the wartime information was declassified in the mid-1970s
that the truth would begin to emerge. And the impact of those achievements
on the outcome of the war and subsequent developments in communications
still has not been recognised fully.
The Bletchley Park Trust:
In 1991, the site was almost empty and plans were afoot to demolish the
buildings to make way for a housing development. The secrecy that had been
so essential to Bletchley Park's success during the war was now counting
against it.
For secrecy meant ignorance, starving the Park of investment and resulting
in its slow decline. By the time the public become aware of the Park's
wartime and technological significance, it was almost too late.
Almost, but not quite.
In May 1991 the Bletchley Archaeological and Historical Society formed a
small committee to bring together as many former codebreakers as could be
traced, for a farewell 'thank you' before the site was destroyed.
On 21st October 1991, the farewell party was held in the grounds. Over 400
codebreakers attended. As a result of the stories they told, it was
decided to attempt to save the site for posterity.
Bletchley Park Trust was formed on 13th February 1992, three days after
Milton Keynes Borough Council declared most of the Park a conservation
area. Negotiations began with the site's landowners, the Government's
land agency PACE (The Property Advisors to the Civil Estate) and British
Telecom.
This group first opened the site to visitors in 1993 and, with the help of
many volunteers and enthusiasts, maintained a collection of independent
and Trust exhibitions for the general public to enjoy. HRH The Duke of
Kent became Chief Patron, officially opening the Museum in July 1994.
The landowners withdrew all planning applications when the Local
Government Inspectorate recommended the historic nature of the site be
taken into account in residential planning applications.
But in the years that followed, the tortuous battle to save the site
nearly foundered on a number of occasions, with hostile bids from property
developers an ever-present threat.
In 1998, with new Trust Director Christine Large at the helm, the Trust
began fresh negotiations with the landowners to acquire a substantial part
of the site in order to preserve and enhance it for the national good.
On 10th June 1999, jubilant volunteers and trustees celebrated a deal that
secured the future of Bletchley Park in the hands of the Trust. Christine
Large led the Trust's negotiating team to secure a deal with the
landowners which many had come to believe was impossible. A formula was
agreed that gave the Trust an initial 250-year lease on the core historic
areas of the site.
You can find out more on the website:
Somehow, I feel that Bletchley will still be around long after RSGB has
ceased to exist. It deserves to be.
Best wishes
David, G4EBT @ GB7FCR
Cottingham, East Yorkshire.
Message timed: 16:31 on 2007-Nov-20
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