Bletchley : a national disgrace ( more press articles )

THE INDEPENDENT
Wednesday, 20 August 2008

Bletchley : a national disgrace
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It was the code-breaking nerve centre that helped win the war. So why, 
asks Andy McSmith, has Britain allowed Bletchley Park to descend into 
ruin ?

Sixty-six years ago in Block B of the old Bletchley Park, a discovery was 
made that saved thousands of lives. A young woman, doing the filing, 
noticed a lot of coded messages, all concerning fuel deliveries to a small 
village in northern Germany called PeenemÃŒnde.

She didn't think much of them at the time. But she reported the 
information upwards - and the Allies stumbled on the concealed factory 
site where the Germans were constructing the V1 and V2 flying bombs. An 
air strike later and the factory was destroyed. Proof, if ever it was 
needed, that a well-run filing system can help win a war.

Today moss, weeds and wild flowers have taken over in Block B, a place 
where the course of history was changed. Nature has reclaimed its ceiling 
and its floor, and unless something is done soon it will either collapse 
or be pulled down.

Bletchley Park is one of the world's greatest and most neglected wartime 
monuments. But large parts of it are being left to rot. The north wall of 
the main building, a 19th-century country house, is now covered in 
scaffolding, and part of the roof is missing. The Bletchley Park Trust 
scraped together £100,000 to repair a quarter of the roof. The rest of 
the building also needs attention, but the money is not there..../snip/


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/bletchley-a-national-disgrace-902893.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/clamour-grows-to-save-bletchley-park-902887.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/woman-whose-work-saved-a-british-convoy-902894.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/mary-dejevsky/mary-dejevsky-dad-and-a-family-secret-902895.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-save-britains-code-of-honour-902847.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/bletchley-a-national-disgrace-902893.html?action=Popup