Saving the sacred birthplace
26 May 2009
A couple of years ago I was invited to a press conference at Bletchley Park. It was, if you want to buy into the hype, the place where the war was won and the computer age was born.
A couple of years ago I was invited to a press conference at Bletchley Park. Unfortunately the press conference was quickly followed by another meeting down in London and so my only experience of the facility was a tantalising but brief glimpse of its place in history.
It was, if you want to buy into the hype, the place where the war was won and the computer age was born.
While I think that there are probably those, particularly whose blood and bravery were more obviously given to the cause, who might be a bit miffed at the notion of the war being won by a group of boffins, there is no doubt that Enigma played a crucial role in giving the Allies the upper hand through superior intelligence. The ingenuity of the Enigma team under astonishing pressure bears out the ‘necessity being the mother of invention’ theory and is a fascinating story. The web site (www.bletchleypark.org.uk) gives a taste for this.
Equally the story of Colossus, the first modern computer, is told at the co-located National Museum of Computing (www.tnmoc.org) and again takes us through from the pioneers of Colossus to the modern computing technology. In essence it is the story of the modern electronics industry and something to be treasured.
So what has this got to do with us? There has been some coverage in the news recently about an unsuccessful plea for Government support. I recognise that times are tough and the demands on the public purse are great (and I am not going to take a cheap jibe at MPs for moat-cleaning expenses….oh dear, too late). Without resorting to a flag-waving rant, and conveniently ignoring many of our less distinguished contributions to world history, there is no doubt that Britain, in many respects, is Great. In terms of culture, architecture, and invention there are few countries with such a glorious past.
The current practicalities are that this past comes at a cost. It seems only right that the Globe Theatre has been restored, while it is inconceivable that we could ever knock down the Tower of London. While ‘Dickens’ World’ might be a profitable tourist attraction, preservation of Dickens’ house might seem like a natural use of public money. The trouble is, being a country with a glorious past, is that there are so many places, people, ships, museums etc that all have justifiable claims for funding, while the Government still has to concentrate on maintaining our country and infrastructure.
It is a tough call, but I do think that some places should be regarded as natural treasures and have earned indefinite preservation. For all that Bletchley might not have the history of Stonehenge, I think that it deserves this level of protection. The Enigma and Colossus stories are not only parts of history, they are also an inspiration in their own right. Engineering at its most exhilarating – if you wanted to encourage a teenager to think about a career in electronics there is no better place to do it.
It is therefore disappointing, in my opinion, that the Government has not given more support to this project. But I thought that I would fulfil a promise to myself this summer and take the family (which includes teenagers!). According to the website it costs £22 for a family – if every one of EPDs readers did the same then we would be contributing around £0.45 million to the cause, which you would hope would go some way towards solving the cash flow problem there!
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