Bletchley Park was once Britain's best kept secret. The house and grounds were the location of intelligence services during World War II who developed technology to crack the seemingly unbreakable German Enigma machine. Man and women from many different countries were part of the 8,500 people who lived and worked at the park including contributions from Polish mathematicians, chess and crossword champions, American allies and well-known early computer scientist Alan Turing. It is said that the efforts from people stationed at Bletchley Park helped to shorten the war. The British wartime prime minister, Winston Churchill, called the code-breakers his "geese that laid the golden eggs and never cackled".
The task facing the mathematicians and cryptographers was daunting. The odds against them were 158 million million million. To tackle the cryptanalysis one of the earliest programmable digital electronic computers was built - Colossus. A replica machine is now on display at the National Museum of Computing at the park. The museum also contains a large collection of other early computer equipment.
Bletchley Park is a heritage site with exhibitions and activies, open daily to visitors. Conference attendees will have the opportunity to do a tour of the park and learn more about it's history before the conference dinner will be held in the mansion.
