West Bletchley
West Bletchley is a district and civil parish[1] that covers the western part of Bletchley; a constituent town of Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, England. The parish includes part of Bletchley which is south of Standing Way (A421), west of the West Coast Main Line, and north of Water Eaton Brook. (The remainder of Bletchley is combined with Fenny Stratford to form the parish of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford).
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[edit] Population and geography
- The 2001 census showed this parish to have a population of 20,994; as of 2010 the population of the West Bletchley parish was estimated to be 21,900.[2]
West Bletchley contains three major districts with parish council wards within them. These wards/estates include:
Old Bletchley
- Church Green
- Bletchley Park
- 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.
[edit] Bletchley Park
Within the West Bletchley parish, in the Church Green district, is Bletchley Park. During the Second World War, this district was home to the Government Code and Cypher School. The German Enigma code was cracked here by, amongst others, Alan Turing. Another cipher machine was solved with the aid of early computing devices, known as a Colossus. Bletchley Park is now a museum, although many areas of the park grounds have been sold off for housing development.
[edit] Education
Children in the area attend a number of primary schools which include: Milton Keynes Preparatory School, St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Primary School, Holne Chase Primary School, White Spire School, and Chestnuts Primary School.
[edit] Cultural References
George Bowling, the protagonist of Coming Up for Air (the 1939 novel by George Orwell), lives in West Bletchley.
[edit] See also
- Bletchley and Fenny Stratford, the other civil parish for 'greater Bletchley'.
[edit] References
- ^ Parishes in Milton Keynes - Milton Keynes Council.
- ^ [1] - Milton Keynes Council.
[edit] Further reading
- Edward Legg, Early History of Bletchley Park 1235–1937; Bletchley Park Trust Historic Guides series, No. 1, 1999
