The

The From the home of the codebreakers and the birthplace of modern computing, this is the Bletchley Park podcast.

Welcome to the March 2024 episode of the Bletchley Park podcast.

Before the Code Breakers.

Bletchley Park is famous as the home of World War II code breaking, but what was

there before the government code and cipher school moved in?

Who built Bletchley Park and what remains of the pre-war country estate?

In this episode, research historian Dr David Kenyon and head of content, Erica Monroe,

examined the people who made Bletchley Park their home prior to World War II.

Sir Herbert Leon and his family bought, expanded and lived in the now familiar mansion,

stamping their individual style on the design of the building and the estate.

Surviving historical records shed an intriguing light on the Leon's, their philanthropy, interests

and impact on the local community.

We also hear from Professor Abigail Green of Brazenose College, Oxford University, an expert

on Jewish country houses to discover more about the social context of the family who made

Bletchley Park.

We're outside at Bletchley Park and there's a Victorian mansion here that obviously predates World War II. David, what is it that we can see here

where we're standing that was here before the co-breakers arrived? Well, before the site's taken over by

GCNCS, this is essentially a Victorian country estate. And so we're standing in the formal gardens.

There's the very distinctive mansion just over there. People love it or hate it. And you have to imagine beyond that was a typical country estate of agricultural land and farms and cottages and all of the things you'd expect in that Victorian world.

All property that was managed by the people that lived in the house here. And the gardens we're standing in, the formal

gardens are obviously full of visitors and school groups at the moment, is what we see here

...