According to Nilofer Merchant and others, we have entered the social era. It is a time when the collaboration of many small individuals and enterprises can come together to create something far greater than the sum of their parts.
For a time, one of the largely unknown but greatest exponents of this approach was Bletchley Park. It had been found and resurrected by a small group of individuals, later backed by local clubs and collectors who enabled a small but growing historic site to have something to show their visitors. The collections were linked to the Park or the era in which the code-breakers worked there. It has included a model boat club showing military and other model vessels, a toy collection and other everyday objects of the 1930's and 40's. There's a collection of Churchill memorabilia, a vintage cinema and a display on Pegasus bridge. This isn't an exhaustive list; some of the items are central to the work of the codebreakers and the history of the park but belong to other collectors. The Colossus, the first program-controlled computer, belongs to the National Museum of Computing on the Park site. Many of the enigma machines on display belong to other parties. Put simply, the Park was a whole made up of many small collections creating one whole vision of the era in which Bletchley Park was central to the allies in WW2.
Now, it would be incorrect suggest that these groups and exhibits have always been a good fit. The boat club have speedboats in their collection for example. Neither has the relationship between the clubs and exhibitors and the Park always been friendly. We heard rumbles that the Park have long planned to oust those small collections from the site. Lately, we hear again that not just is this possible, but that the marching orders have been delivered to some. We believe that the National Museum of Computing is safe. However, it appears possible that many of the others will go.
So what's our beef? Bletchley Park has to grow and develop. To do any less would be wrong and it would devalue the place and it's history. At the end of the day, a visitor attraction has to deliver to bring in the public and, if it fails to do so, it fails to exist. It must have funding and that funding will have rules. The preservation of Bletchley Park arguably exceeds the rights of a few clubs and collectors, right?
We're not sure.
One of the delightful things about Bletchley Park when we first visited 10 years or so ago was the fact that it seemed like it had closed it's doors at the end of the war and you were the first people to walk back in. It had a solemn and stark beauty in it's somewhat ramshackle appearance. There was a grace to the little collections about animals at war and vintage vehicles. Then there's the awesome size of the Churchill Collection; the result of one man's passion and respect for Winston himself; one of the central figures of WW2 and a visitor to the codebreakers at the Park.
Go into the toy area and speak to the couple, Mark and Min, who own and run the collection. They run workshops and activities in summer for kids and will show them to make toys from cotton reels and walnut shells, just as children had to during WW2. Some of the volunteers at the Park own parts of the exhibition because they were ex-service men and women. They were part of the War effort. How do we gauge whether they are more or less important than the surviving code-breakers themselves? Or the site?
You see, at the end of the day, the little collections and the people who run them are part of Bletchley Park's history. The volunteers and the tour guides; they are too. The Park was saved by people with a passion for history and what happened there. The Park became a place to go because other people donated their possessions and their time to educate people about the past and to ensure that Bletchley Park remained. It was the social era incarnate. The effort of individuals created an atmosphere which made and still makes people visit the Park again and again. Whether the current management of the Park likes it or not, these people and their collections are part of Bletchley Park's history and part of what makes it special.
So, whilst we understand the need for the Park to develop and yes, we even understand that there are incongruous displays and strange corners, the Park shouldn't disrespect it's own social era. As it moves forward to a future of high-tech displays and everything correct and in it's place, some of us will miss a Barbi-doll driving a speedboat in a little shed out the back. People who love history will consider the Churchill Collection to contain treasures the Park perhaps shouldn't squander. And the children will miss Mark and Min should they be told their services are no longer required. They may not have been in battle, but they have fought off developers and nay sayers. And really that's the key. It's not about the things, it's about the people and the love they put into the place. That love deserves respect. It's what kept Bletchley's Park.
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