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Barney Trip to Bletchley Park – By Lorcan O

Full of anticipation, 12 of my peers and I set off at 6pm bound for Milton Keynes. We arrived at our hotel at 10pm and settled down for the night. After a hearty breakfast the next morning we headed to Bletchley Park. Bletchley is a place of massive historical importance. The work done there during the war remains highly relevant to our lives today and for the future. It was the home of British codebreaking and a birthplace of modern ICT & Computer Science. The work at Bletchley a major role in World War Two, producing secret intelligence which had a direct influence on the outcome of the conflict. Over the past twenty years Bletchley Park has been converted into an award winning museum; visited by people from around the world.

Bletchley was thrown into the limelight recently with the release of the Imitation Game’ film starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Alan Turing being added to the £50 (I have yet to see one in real life!)

We were given a tour by Graham who’s great aunt worked at Bletchley during the war, he told us lots of stories and answered all our questions about life at Bletchley and the work done here. The weather was cold and damp but the interesting subject matter took out minds off the weather.

We were given time to explore the site and have a look inside ‘the huts’ where much of the code breaking took place. We learned about the Enigma machine, the Lorenz machine and the story of the boarding of U-559 that effectively changed the codebreaking game.

Next we attended an encryption workshop where we learned all about past, present and future methods of encryption. We discussed quantum computing and how we may be on the cusp of a cyber security meltdown/revolution.

We finished the day off in the gift shop buying a couple of goodies for friends and family and stocking up on a few treats for the journey home. We has a great trip, in spite of the long journey, and would like to thank Mr Fairwood for organising and taking us on the trip.