Bletchley Park wins £4.6m grant

That's fantastic news.<p>I was at Bletchley Park last weekend for Over The Air, a mobile development conference/hack day. It's a truly extraordinary place - if you haven't been yet, you have a real treat in store.<p>They've already done a fantastic job bringing the place to life, and the working reconstructions of both Colossus (the first electronic programmable computer) and Alan Turing's Bombe (the mechanical device that cracked Enigma) are both completely spellbinding. They also do a really good tour.

I just read that the Bletchley Park Trust needs to raise a further £1.7m on their own in order to 'unlock' the £4.6m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.[1]<p>Time to get that bank card out of my wallet.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/content/contact/donation/support.rhtm" rel="nofollow">http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/content/contact/donation/sup...</a>

JGC will be pleased as punch with this:<p><a href="http://blog.jgc.org/2010/01/1000-for-bletchley-park-thanks-to-geek.html" rel="nofollow">http://blog.jgc.org/2010/01/1000-for-bletchley-park-thanks-t...</a><p>Great to see that Bletchley Park will live on, it's one of very few historical sites that have meaning to those that are interested in our digital beginnings.

I have to admit that the first time I got really aware of Bletchley Park was while I was reading Cryptonomicon from Stephenson and started looking into its actual history. One of the few monuments in reality the digital age actually has. Nice to see it preserved.

This is really great news for all that love Bletchley Park and for all that have yet to see it.

How much of it is going to be wasted like this:<p><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12575029" rel="nofollow">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12575029</a><p>Why use tax payers money to buy prints of Turings papers when the original papers weren't lost and the content of the prints was known? Makes no sense to me. Just so you can stick some pieces of paper in a glass case somewhere?

The history is important, and I'm really pleased they got some money. They still need a bit more. And really, in the scheme of things, a couple of million is not much for such an important site. I am worried about them being able to get it, especially at the moment.<p>It's a bit depressing that programming and that kind of thinking is neglected in the curriculum.

I went recently, it really needs the money. It needs it so bad I wouldn't bother going until they've spent this money. Donate in the meantime.

Terrific news - a shame Tony Sale was not here to see it.