E136 - Scaling Up

April 2022

Thursday 28th April 2022 sees Bletchley Park unveiling its largest exhibition to date, in the newly restored Block A. Its focus is the period from late 1942 to early 1945, when the demands of its crucial wartime work changed the Government Code and Cypher School from a ‘cottage industry’ into an industrial-scale intelligence operation. The name of the exhibition is, very aptly, ‘The Intelligence Factory’. 

Block A was the first of the purpose-built ‘Block’ buildings that marked the scaling up of the codebreaking operation. Therefore it is fitting that it houses this major new addition to Bletchley Park’s visitor experience. 

Exhibitions Manager Erica Munro will take listeners through the same corridors that were at the very heart of the expanding top secret site 80 years ago. Join us on an exclusive preview tour to uncover the stories, displays and activities that visitors can explore as they walk in the footsteps of our Veterans.

It took a huge team of people to create ‘The Intelligence Factory’ and for this special behind-the-scenes episode, Research Historian Dr David Kenyon and Research Officer Dr Thomas Cheetham will also be taking us through the rigorous historical research that underpins the entire exhibition. Tomatoes, oars and coal-fired boilers don’t normally spring to mind when thinking of WW2 codebreaking - find out what part they played in the story of the scaling up of Bletchley Park.

This episode features the following contributors from our Oral History Archive:

Rozanne Colchester

Sheila Willson

Image: ©Bletchley Park Trust 2022

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