Bletchley Walk: Town Centre【4K】

Located in the county of Buckinghamshire, and around 45 miles northwest of central London, is the town of Bletchley.

The first recorded reference to Bletchley dates back to the 12th century, where it was written as 'Blechelai', which derives from 'Blæcca's clearing' in Old English, where Blæcca is presumably the name of a Saxon chieftain.

For centuries, Bletchley was little more than a tiny hamlet just off the ancient trackway known as Watling Street. This began to change with the construction of the railways. In 1837 construction began on what is today known as the West Coast Main Line. By 1839 the railway had reached Bletchley, connecting to Euston Station in London to the south and, eventually, Glasgow Central and Edinburgh Waverley to the north. Bletchley was a key junction station, bringing people and trade into the area.

In 1938 Admiral Sir Hugh Sinclair, head of the Secret Intelligence Service (also known as MI6) purchased a Victorian mansion just northwest of Bletchley town centre. It was known as Bletchley Park, and would ultimately change the course of history. It was chosen for its geographic centrality. Being roughly equidistant between Oxford and Cambridge meant that it was in a favourable position to recruit some of the best minds in the country. At the time there was a direct rail line between the two university cities, known as the Varsity Line, which stopped at Bletchley.

Bletchley Park became known by its codename: Station X. A team of British codebreakers set to work on deciphering the German encryption machine known as Enigma. On the team was Alan Turing, whose contributions were pivotal in the cracking of the Engima cipher. It is speculated that in doing so, over 14 million lives were saved. Turing became known as the father of modern computer science. Due to the nature of their work, the staff at Bletchley Park were forced to keep their wartime roles a secret for decades to follow. Winston Churchill referred to them as 'the geese that laid the golden eggs and never cackled'.

From the early 1960s, proposals for a new city in north Buckinghamshire were floated. Although Bletchley had vied for it, the decision was made in 1967 to make Milton Keynes a New Town. At the time it was mostly farmland and undeveloped villages around four miles north of Bletchley. During the initial years of the growth of Milton Keynes, Bletchley thrived as it served as the main shopping area. That was, until the opening of the Central Milton Keynes shopping centre (a.k.a. centre:mk) in 1979. This effectively relegated Bletchley to what some might consider to be a suburb of Milton Keynes.

Bletchley station remains a key junction station on the West Coast Main Line. Although the Varsity Line from Oxford to Cambridge was mostly closed in the 1960s, a portion of the track remains, with the two terminus stations being Bletchley to the west and Bedford to the east. Trains from Bletchley to London Euston take between 30 and 60 minutes depending on stops, making it a viable commuter town for those working in the capital.

In 1993 Bletchley Park opened as a museum. For a fee, visitors can explore the very grounds where Alan Turing and colleagues walked during the war. Featured within these grounds is the National Museum of Computing, which includes a working replica of the Bombe machine (i.e. the device used to crack the Enigma cipher), and a rebuilt Colossus computer.

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Filmed: 3rd April 2022

Link to the walk on Google Maps: https://goo.gl/maps/rVykcys2GNkPA7i3A

Filmed on a Sony FDR-AX700 with a Zhiyun Crane 2 and a Sony ECM-XYST1M Stereo Microphone.

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Queensway
8:25 Brunel Roundabout
8:35 Chandos Place