Bletchley Park is the home of the Enigma Machine, Alan Turing's computer which helped crack the code that won World War Two. You'll have seen it in the Benedict Cumberbatch film The Imitation Game, as well as other films about the amazing work that happened there.
My son had recently done a project at school about people that inspired him, and he'd made a presentation about Alan Turing - classed by many as the original creator of the concept of AI (so very timely) - and that had gotten us talking abut Bletchley Park. We live in the South West, so Milton Keynes is quite a long way from us, but as we were going to Legoland Windsor in the Easter Holidays, we stayed in High Wycome and drove 1 hour from there to visit Bletchley Park in the same weekend (High Wycome is less than 30 minutes from Legoland).
Is Bletchley Park good for kids?
We took 3 kids with us to Bletchley Park, aged 11, 7 and 3. The 11 year old has a real interest in computers and programming and was the main reason we went, so for him to be free was brilliant. Our 7 year old didn't have the best day to be honest - she found it quite boring - BUT she'd had a really late night the night before (just because the first night in a hotel is always really exciting and she couldn't get to sleep) and so she was really tired. The 3 year old just came along for the ride really but seemed happy enough as there were lots of interactive features.
Bletchley Park is free for kids under 12, which is brilliant. And any ticket you do buy is valid for 12 months - we've got a map of attractions that get you in for a year here.
Because they obviously realise it's a bit of a dry, complicated topic for younger kids, they have put in place LOADS of interactive displays. There is so much to touch and press and see move, and phones to listen to and even clothes to dress up in. So that kept the 3 year old entertained because he could touch stuff, and it didn't matter what it did - but for the 7 year old, she was perhaps the weak spot because just something moving when you touch it isn't quite exciting enough, and she was too tired to really be able to take in what it was trying to teach her.
And having tired little ones with us - as the 3 year old was quite tired too - did make it harder, naturally, for us to take in everything there was to learn, so even the 11 year old probably didn't get as much out of it as he could have done had it been just him with an adult.
The main thing I'd say about Bletchley Park is that there is SO MUCH INFORMATION. There's no way with small kids you can stop to read it all and take it all in. And they explain it brilliantly and they have so many machines and diagrams and so much signage - but unless you have a full day there, and no one nagging you because they want a snack, you'll never take it all in.
There's a great AI exhibition at the moment which entertained the 7 year old for quite a while because it projected pictures onto a big screen and asked you to guess if they were real photos or created by AI - that entertained all of us - and a large digital table in another part of the museum asking you to plan the logisitcs of a busy day at the site. So much to see and do! But therefore lots to take in.
There was also a room dedicated to kids, with arts and crafts in one room and somewhere for - I think - making some kind of robot, but that room was full (despite us not really seeing any other kids the rest of the day). Most of the visitors I'd say were older - around retirement age.
The mansion at Bletchley Park
The mansion at Bletchley Park is much more interesting inside than I expected. It looks like a grand house from outside, although not really as grand as National Trust properties you see, but inside it's probably the most ornate building I've been in for a long time. I went for afternoon tea at Bath Spa, but the room that was laid up here for afternoon teas looked far grander. With ornate glass ceilings in places and all the wood paneling, it's very grand. It's quite dark and heavy with its marble pillars in the hallway and you can absolutely imagine something like Downton Abbey being filmed there.
What was really interesting was the way it was all laid out in order to reconstruct how it would have been during the time that the code breakers were here - I found that far more interesting than when I've been around National Trust properties and it's an Elizabethan bedroom or something. The rooms were reconstructed to be offices and because, growing up, my grandma had an office with lots of old furniture, I guess I found it quite nostaligic, seeing the old typewriters and files and desk tidies and the wooden filing cabinets. And the old coats and scarves hung on the coat horse. So it's all very, very interesting and very well reconstructed, with lots and lots of information to read in there too, as there is everywhere. But good big green signs in the main dining room to just tell you the highlights.
There was a nice cafe, a take away hut to buy other food, and a really nice gift shop. The grounds are really lovely, with plenty of space for picnics (we took our own snacks). The National Museum of Computing is also on the grounds, but is a completely seperate attraction and you can't get into it from within Bletchley Park once you're through the ticket office - you get to it from the car park or possibly from a main road on the other side, but we went there (as we bought tickets for both) from the Bletchley Park car park, leaving our car in the same spot all day.
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