Pub history
Captain Ridley’s Shooting Party
Bletchley is best known as the World War II headquarters of Britain’s famous codebreakers – Bletchley Park. Sir Herbert Leon, a wealthy stockbroker, had bought the estate in 1882 and was key in its development. In 1937, the estate passed into government hands. Then, an undercover MI6 group arrived using the name ‘Captain Ridley’s Shooting Party’, with ‘an air of friends enjoying a weekend at a country house’. Their real purpose was to see whether Bletchley Park would work as a wartime location.
Have you got what it takes to crack the Enigma code?
An illustration of Captain Ridley’s Shooting Party
An illustration of Captain Ridley’s Shooting Party
A copy of a crossword from the Telegraph
The text reads: In 1942, The Telegraph newspaper upped the intensity of their crosswords, challenging readers to solve them in 12 minutes during a live timed event. With the war office looking in, each of the fastest solvers received a letter inviting them to work at Bletchley Park. A copy of the crossword in question was printed in the paper the day after the challenge, on 13 January 1942.
An illustration and text about Alan Turing
The text reads: Turing is perhaps most famous for his work during World War II at the code-breaking centre in Bletchley Park. There, he and others broke a number of German codes, including that of the Enigma machine.
An Enigma machine
An old telephone used in the war
A poster for The Imitation Game
The Imitation Game is a film about Alan Turing and his attempt to crack the Enigma code.
Old signage for the London Brick Company Limited
External photograph of the building – main entrance
