West Bletchley is a district and civil parish

Civil parish

In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

 that covers the western part of Bletchley, a constituent town of Milton Keynes

Milton Keynes

Milton Keynes , sometimes abbreviated MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, in the south east of England, about north-west of London. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes...

 in Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. The parish covers that part of Bletchley that is south of Standing Way (A421

A421 road

The A421 is an important road for east/west journeys across England. Together with the A428, the A43 and A34, it forms the route from Cambridge through Milton Keynes to Oxford...

), west of the West Coast Main Line

West Coast Main Line

The West Coast Main Line is the busiest mixed-traffic railway route in Britain, being the country's most important rail backbone in terms of population served. Fast, long-distance inter-city passenger services are provided between London, the West Midlands, the North West, North Wales and the...

 and north of Water Eaton Brook. (The remainder of Bletchley is combined with Fenny Stratford to form the parish of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford

Bletchley and Fenny Stratford

Bletchley and Fenny Stratford is a civil parish with a town council, in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It was formed in 2001 from the unparished area of Milton Keynes, and according to the 2001 census had a population of 13,971....

).

Population and geography

• The parish has a population of 20,994 according to the 2001 census. As of 2010, the West Bletchley parish population is estimated to be 21,900.

West Bletchley contains three major districts with parish council wards within them, these wards/Estates include:

Old Bletchley

• Church Green
• Bletchley Park
  Bletchley Park
  Bletchley Park is an estate located in the town of Bletchley, in Buckinghamshire, England, which currently houses the National Museum of Computing...
  
  
• Poets

Far Bletchley

• Castles
• Fairways
• Racecourses
• Rivers
• Saints

West Bletchley District

• Abbys
• Scotts
• Counties

Most districts of West Bletchley Parish are residential, but the district of Bletchley Park is important enough to be summarised here.

Bletchley Park

Within the West Bletchley parish, in the Church Green district, is Bletchley Park

Bletchley Park

Bletchley Park is an estate located in the town of Bletchley, in Buckinghamshire, England, which currently houses the National Museum of Computing...

, which, during the Second World War, was home to the Government Code and Cypher School. The German Enigma code was cracked here by, amongst others, Alan Turing

Alan Turing

Alan Mathison Turing, OBE, FRS , was an English mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, and computer scientist. He was highly influential in the development of computer science, providing a formalisation of the concepts of "algorithm" and "computation" with the Turing machine, which played a...

. Another cipher machine was solved with the aid of early computing devices, known as Colossus

Colossus computer

Not to be confused with the fictional computer of the same name in the movie Colossus: The Forbin Project.Colossus was the world's first electronic, digital, programmable computer. Colossus and its successors were used by British codebreakers to help read encrypted German messages during World War II...

. The park is now a museum

Museum

A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...

, although many areas of the park grounds have been sold off for housing development.

Cultural References

George Bowling, the protagonist of Coming Up for Air, the 1939 novel by George Orwell, lives in West Bletchley.

See also

• Bletchley and Fenny Stratford
  Bletchley and Fenny Stratford
  Bletchley and Fenny Stratford is a civil parish with a town council, in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It was formed in 2001 from the unparished area of Milton Keynes, and according to the 2001 census had a population of 13,971....
  
  , the other civil parish for 'greater Bletchley'.
• Holne Chase Primary School

Further reading

• Edward Legg, Early History of Bletchley Park 1235–1937, Bletchley Park Trust Historic Guides series, No. 1, 1999

See also

• West Bletchley Parish Council