Bletchley Park

The tour takes about 45 min to an hour if I remember correctly, but there are many more exhibits that you could spend as much, or as little time as you wanted. I spent the morning, ate lunch in their cafeteria, and then went on my way.

If you just do the tour, you will miss out on a lot of what Bletchley offers. I spent about 5 hours there and even then was rushing to see and take in everything.

All depends on your interests.

I didn’t take a tour but spent 4 hours there on my own. Had lunch there as well before boarding my West Midlands train back to London’s Euston Station.

I’m curious. Where will you store your luggage if you intend to tour Bletchley then train to Birmingham?

In October we did what Claudia did, no tour but explored on our own. There is so much to see. I guess how much time you spend depends on you. Do you skim through exhibits or do you read every single word? Bletchley Park is a short walk from the train station. You might look into if they have luggage store there. We went as a day trip from London.

Bletchley Park opens to visitors at 9:30. Their site says first come basis tours are offered throughout the day. When we visited this summer we needed to wait for a tour that started after our arrival time so we explored for awhile on our own. We spent about 5 hours, including the 1h guided tour, for our visit and didn’t see everything! It only takes about 1.5 hours to reach Birmingham from Bletchley and the station is only about a 10 minute walk from the park entrance. So depending on your actual afternoon needed arrival in Birmingham you may be able to get a decent visit in at Bletchley. If you are changing hotels also on this day and have luggage with you a bigger question may be what to do with your luggage en route. The park doesn’t offer luggage storage per their FAQ and it’s unclear if the small train station has luggage storage on site. The official national railway site for Bletchley doesn’t list luggage storage. It might be worthwhile to contact Bletchley to ask if this is the situation you’ll be in on your travel day from London to Bletchley to Birmingham.

don't bother trying to ask Bletchley station for luggage storage. There is none. I worked there for many years and am sure of my answer. There isn't any at Milton Keynes Central station 4 minutes down the line either.

For a train from Bletchley to Birmingham you have two choices.

choice a. London Northwestern train one stop, 4 minutes, to Milton Keynes Central and change to an Avanti West Coast train (if they are still running trains, and if their imaginative version of a timetable meets your needs (poor management and labour disputes), we hope) to Birmingham New Street which if the planets align and the moon is blue will be much faster and more expensive, but not necessarily reliable. It will probably call at Coventry, Birmingham International and Birmingham New Street, either as the destination or continuing north.

choice b. London Northwestern train 2 or 3 stops to Northampton where you either change to another to Birmingham New Street or stay on as the train will dwell some time and then continue to Birmingham. The Northampton to New Street train will probably call at Long Buckby, Rugby, Coventry, possibly Canley, probably Tile Hill, possibly Berkswell, maybe Hampton in Arden, Birmingham International, Marston Green and Birmingham International. Somewhat slower, much cheaper and quite reliable.

Maybe Nigel can help with one question. Is there any way of knowing when the replica of the Bombe will operate? I thought it was the highlight, while also enjoying the archives. One of my themes was the non-military structure of the operation. Intermingling was encouraged (on the proviso of not talking about specific assignments). That went along with the oath of silence which the many female workers, in particular, kept with such obstinate faith that it delayed later historians. A friend of mine had no idea his mom had been a "spy" until he was himself in his 60s. And, oh yes, is the shortwave radio station still operated?

Prior to our visit to BP, we watched both The Imitation Game (a feature), and The Code Breakers (a docu-drama principally aout the tragic life of Alan Turing). I particularly recommend The Code Breakers if you can find it.

BP's story is so worth your time. It's one of the great stories of WWII.

My husband visited BP twice this year (on separate trips); you simply can't see everything in one day (although one day was enough for me!). He's been interested in and intrigued by BP since reading a book about it ("The Ultra Secret") back in the 1970s (?) when the work was first at least partly declassified.

(An admission ticket gives you a yearly pass.)

My husband has grown increasingly annoyed with the film "The Imitation Game," to the point where I don't think he can watch it anymore, as it portrays Turing doing everything single-handedly! Dramatic license is one thing, but they go a bit too far, he thinks, after visiting BP at least 3 or 4 times. Of course Turing was supremely gifted, but many, many people contributed to the amazing achievements at BP.

I agree with Laura's husband's assessment of Imitation Game. Yes, the accomplishments of Turing were amazing and helped the war effort immensely. But they make it seem like he actually handled decision making relative to the information his team decoded. In fact, he did not such thing, and shouldn't have. His job was simply to break the code and deliver the messages. He was not a policy maker. Ahh Hollywood.

I am going to do about a 5 hour trip there and check it out. thanks for your replies.

OP do come back to the Forum and share your Bletchley visit intel. Always nice to hear personal experiences.

Have fun--it's an amazing place! 5 hours should be a good amount of time. A great read if you like historical fiction is "The Rose Code" by Kate Quinn.