# Bletchley Park - Jan 16



## UrbanX (Jan 10, 2016)

History. 
I'm not actually going to put a history here. I just cant even begin to touch on it here. 

If you go onto Amazon.co.uk there are 917 books on the place. 

In one sentence: It was bought in 1938 for intelligence just in case a war broke out (lucky eh?) It broke the enigma code, letting us read all of Hitler's tweets, arguably winning us the war. 

Some sites, no matter what state they're in, you just instantly develop a soft spot for, this is one of them.

I have actually been in two minds about whether to post this at all - There's a load of documents you'll see at the end which I want to see preserved. By putting them online it puts them at risk of theft. But by photographing them, and sharing them I hope I preserve them in one sense. Additionally, if anyone at the Bletchley Archive Centre is reading this - I hope this report is enough encouragement for you go 20ft and rescue them. It's criminal they've been left to rot like that. 

The Explore.
Explored with Ian, Jon, and Chris. After finding out our first site had been demolished only days ago, we arrived here as light broke. The rain was heavy, everything was wet. The smell of sickly sweet Relentless was punctuated only by the odour of Ralgex, healing one of our stiff backs.

As soon as we were inside we could feel the history seeping from the walls. It held all the gravitas of any other of any of the other world famous derelict icons; Battersea Power Station, The Nazi Olympic Village, Dachau, Chernobyl etc.

The peelage was just immense... Really pornographic. 



Room 117: (There was a room 101, but my photo was terrible) 



Secca pigeon:















Individual booths, presumably for privacy: 





















Rooms:















Brick Booths: Does anyone know what would have gone into these? Computers? They had their own canopy.



You know it's a military grade blind when it outlasts the building that it's fitted in! 
It still worked too, I'll post a vid of me adjusting the slats with the pull cord!













Peelage:









The Paperwork:  

I've said my piece about this even being here to rot at the top of the report, so won't repeat it here.

I arrived here before anyone else in the group (I'm a quick explorer, I don't spend long taking photos) but I left long after they had become bored of them.

I felt it my duty to document each and every document of every file, even if only in my own insignificant way. I photographed over 100 of the documents before I realised they were worryingly close to an open door, with the pouring rain just inches away. I stopped photographing them and began moving them file by file deeper into the safety of the building. 

Each file was a staff member's personal file. 

It started at their initial employment offer (usually in the early 1950's) and documented every sick day, medical records, pay rises, and eventually termination of employment letter (usually late 70's)




_Tariff Code Analysis Area - November 1976_



_"The attached papers, now due for destruction... - 10th February 1971"_




*Handwritten coding! *




_"Budget Accounts"_




*Medical records from 8th August 1954:*




New salary letter - the recipient got a salary of * £8303 *iIn 1979. In today's money that is equivalent to £42,629. 




_16th November 1955:_




Thanks for reading:


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## tazong (Jan 11, 2016)

Just flawless - wow


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## HughieD (Jan 11, 2016)

Fantastic report UrbanX!


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## oldscrote (Jan 11, 2016)

Love it, a fascinating place,the Hitlers tweets comment made me giggle


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## Conrad (Jan 11, 2016)

Awesome place well shot, really cool to see that paperwork there as well after all that time.


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## Malenis (Jan 11, 2016)

Wow, love it!


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## UrbanX (Jan 11, 2016)

Cheers guys! 



oldscrote said:


> Love it, a fascinating place,the Hitlers tweets comment made me giggle



Lol sometimes I may get my history slightly mixed up!


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## Mikeymutt (Jan 11, 2016)

That's a great set Mr x from this very historical place..one of my favourite places I have been too.and so much history and so many memories..still can't believe pianoforte has all gone now


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## UrbanX (Jan 11, 2016)

Mikeymutt said:


> That's a great set Mr x from this very historical place..one of my favourite places I have been too.and so much history and so many memories..still can't believe pianoforte has all gone now



Thank you Sir!  

Pianoforte always loomed heavily over the residential street leading to it. We knew something was wrong driving down the road and it having a clear, bright view at the end!


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## smiler (Jan 11, 2016)

I enjoyed your report and pics X, it is disgusting that so much history is being left to decay, well done for moving it, The pic of the pigeon on the window frame, Nice, Thanks


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## Rubex (Jan 11, 2016)

Fantastic photos UrbanX! That paperwork is very interesting


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## TheNarrator (Jan 11, 2016)

Turing did some phenomenal work here and really changed computing as we know it. Absolutely fantastic photos. I'm so surprised those documents were still there 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk


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## flyboys90 (Jan 11, 2016)

Cracking report and great images.


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## tumble112 (Jan 11, 2016)

Brilliant post, every picture is captivating. I really liked looking at all that documentation, I hope it can be saved somehow. The Hitler's tweets comment made me laugh too. # genocidal maniac.


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## SlimJim (Jan 11, 2016)

Very nice report, Mr.X! Love the old Commodore!


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## URBANMYTH (Jan 11, 2016)

Very nice great photos stunning report


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## rockfordstone (Jan 12, 2016)

great set of shot's buddy, kudos for taking photo's of the documents, hopefully you can retain some history when the place inevitably gets knocked down for housing


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## UrbanX (Jan 13, 2016)

rockfordstone said:


> great set of shot's buddy, kudos for taking photo's of the documents, hopefully you can retain some history when the place inevitably gets knocked down for housing



Cheers dude! I'm terrible with stuff like that. I can spend a day filling a hard drive just digitising all those documents! 
Have you abandoned your house yet? When shall I come round with my camera?


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## DirtyJigsaw (Jan 14, 2016)

Very nice set of pics there indeed. Sounds like you guys had a good day exploring


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## rockfordstone (Jan 14, 2016)

UrbanX said:


> Cheers dude! I'm terrible with stuff like that. I can spend a day filling a hard drive just digitising all those documents!
> Have you abandoned your house yet? When shall I come round with my camera?



not yet mate, but a builder has bought it, so you may want to come and document it before he changes it forever... i'll leave a window open for you, just mind the dog


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## Dirus_Strictus (Jan 14, 2016)

smiler said:


> it is disgusting that so much history is being left to decay, well done for moving it,



All the really important historical paperwork from this place is already archived in the Public Records Office and salaries and wages paid by the old Post Office organisation are also in the Public domain. What you have here is a pile of paperwork, that in the days before scanners and hard drives, would have been subject to a rolling program of 'cast off and burn'. Depending on 'in house rules' mundane/routine paperwork was stored for a specific time and then either burnt or buried on the tip - my old organisation evidently had a 2 year limit after payment/cheque clearance and on none health staff matters 5 years, before things could be destroyed, obviously serious problems sent the individual's file to a special department for longterm saving. Organisations, Companies and even individuals when moving premises or offices just tend to walk away from piles of old paperwork, even today. It just has nuisance value to them, nothing else. My personal view is this stuff, if just private personal records, should go where it was intended - the incinerator. Old identity files are an identity thief's dream find, even old ones can be used to build up a false identity.


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## Ethan (Jan 15, 2016)

This is incredible,I took History as an A-Level and we spent a few weeks learning about this (we also watched the Imitation Game, easily in my top 4 films). I find it amazing how they've left it like this, even with all the files supposed to be destroyed, just left lying around!


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## Jon6D (Feb 26, 2016)

Brilliant fair play


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## UrbanX (Feb 27, 2016)

Cheers Jon


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## Potter (Feb 27, 2016)

Superb. So much here needs to be preserved. Shame that old Commodore is trashed. The related computer museum may be able to use the parts, and would be interested in that hand written code.


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