Bletchley Park cashes in on repair funds

Bletchley Park has a backlog of maintenance and urgent repairs

The curators of the historic Bletchley Park mansion say that they have received £600,000 in new funding.

The money will go to repairs for the building, which housed British code-breaking operations in World War II. Researchers working within the facility famously cracked the German Enigma code, a feat widely considered to be a pivotal moment in the war.

Later work at Bletchley Park led to the creation of some of the first electronic computers. Famed engineer Alan Turing planted the seeds for the modern computing movement at Bletchley Park, and the facility houses a working replica of Turing's crowning achievement, the Colossus computer.

In recent decades, however, Bletchley Park has fallen into a state of disrepair. In 2007, concern over its future prompted a major restoration effort backed by historical groups and IT corporations such as IBM and PGP.

The latest investment will come from £300,000 in matching pledges from English Heritage and Milton Keynes Council. The Bletchley Park Trust said that the money would be used to address a "backlog of maintenance and urgent repairs ".

"Another huge step forward for Bletchley Park," declared trust director Simon Greenish. "This vital endorsement takes us one step closer to achieving our aim of creating a world-class educational and heritage site reflecting Bletchley Pa rk's crucial contribution to the outcome of WW2 and the 20th century."