Cottages 1, 2 and 3

A row of three cottages forming the north side of the former stable yard at Bletchley Park, now comprising two dwellings and an exhibition area. The range probably originated as an alteration and extension of an earlier north range, undertaken around 1890 by Edward Swinfen Harris, architect of London and Stony Stratford, for Leon's Head Groom. Originally, Cottage 1 was the Head Groom's accommodation, No. 2 a feed store with hay loft above, and No. 3 at the east end a tack room with rooms for stable lads overhead. The buildings were converted in 1938–39 to provide accommodation for the Government Code and Cypher School by Hubert Faulkner, a local builder.

Cottage 1 (Head Groom's Cottage)

The Head Groom's cottage is two-storey and L-plan in red brick, with shaped tile hanging to the south-facing upper storey and a half-hipped gable at the rear. The roof is plain red tile with crested ridges. The entrance lies in the angle of the L under a forward extension of the roof, facing south into a recessed porch with a two-bay timber arcaded front on turned columns. The porch covers a five-panelled door and a two-light hall window with diamond lattice lead glazing. The main living room in the south gable has a canted bay window with PVCu glazing and a hipped tiled roof. Above on the first floor is a four-light window, later altered. To the rear are two segmental-headed plate glass sash windows on the ground floor and two two-light windows on the first floor. A large brick stack with brick string and outsetting head carries four clayware pots. The west side upper floor is tile hung above a double chamfered brick course. Attached at right angles is a low service outbuilding providing a covered lobby for the side door, a fuel store, and a door to the rear garden. A short two-storey service wing to the east with a rear entrance extends to meet the rear of Cottage 2.

Cottage 2

Cottage 2 stands forward of the Groom's Cottage, attached by an angled rendered brick wall flanked by offsetting brick buttresses. The wall is now infilled with two four-paned windows, probably an alteration of around 1910. The cottage is one storey with attics, consisting of two parallel ranges with a central valley gutter. The roof is plain red tile with crested ridges. Beyond the forward buttress is a panelled door with a six-pane light, and to the right a further sash window, followed by a projecting one-and-a-half-storey brick stair tower with canted angles. The stair tower rises from a high chamfered plinth to a hipped roof with open eaves and has two-light windows directly under the eaves around the southwest angle. A six-flue brick chimney stands between Cottages 2 and 3.

Cottage 3

Cottage 3, now a private dwelling, continues the double-banked building past the stair tower. The roof returns at a slightly higher level at the east end, forming a small louvred gablet above the front ridge. Window details and the white-painted front are similar to Cottage 2. A large dormer sits on the return end, and a brick stack with red clayware pots rises from the roof. The front has a four-light window and a long lean-to against the gable end. To the rear are paired four-light sash windows under a painted lintel, a four-light window with a segmental head, and two dormers—one four-light and one two-light—with tile hung gables.

Interiors

The interiors have been modernised. Cottage 1 has a through corridor with a door to the former sitting room on the left and a dog-leg stair on the right. In Cottage 2, the corridor runs at an angle. The stair has a high match-boarded dado and a pole handrail supported on square chamfered balusters. Rooms are plastered. There is a half-storey in the attic.

Historical Context

Following the acquisition of Bletchley Park by the Government Code and Cypher School in 1938, Cottage 1 was occupied by Lieutenant Commander Dunn, head of Naval Intelligence, with his two ATS drivers billeted on the ground floor. Cottage 2 was occupied by the Head Storeman, and Cottage 3 by the Catering Officer responsible for feeding the very numerous staff of Bletchley Park.

The cottages form part of a group of buildings intimately associated with Bletchley Park, lying to the north of the main house. This group consists of two ranges forming the south and west sides of the former stable yard, the row of three cottages forming the north side, and two estate buildings (The Bungalow and Fenella, not included) continuing the west range further north beyond the north gate. A range of eight loose boxes enclosing the stable yard on the east was demolished in 1937.

Bletchley Park succeeded Water Hall, a fine mansion built in 1711 by the eminent historian Dr Browne Willis, co-founder of the Society of Antiquaries of London, on land purchased by his ancestor from the second Duke of Buckingham in 1694. The house was demolished in 1798 by Thomas Harrison, steward to Earl Spencer, the then owner. The estate was split up and bought in 1865 by a descendant, Spencer Harrison, who sold it in the 1870s to a Mr Coleman, who erected a new house that now forms the rear part of Bletchley Park. This was enlarged in 1881 by a succeeding owner, Samuel Beckham, who had bought it with 430 acres. The estate was again sold in 1883 to Herbert Samuel Leon, an eminent stockbroker, financier, company director, and later a county councillor and Liberal MP for the North Division of Buckinghamshire (1891–1895). He was also a newspaper proprietor, successful farmer, and a good friend of Prime Minister David Lloyd George, who frequently stayed at the house. Leon was created baronet in 1911. Through his local interest and beneficence, the town benefited considerably.

Sir Herbert considerably enlarged the house immediately following his purchase, adding an opulent new south front range. The identity of his architect is not known. He also developed ancillary accommodation to the north around a stable yard and his extensive nursery gardens, which included a walled garden and orchid houses. Further buildings on the estate, which at one time had about 200 staff, included the Lodge (1886), Dauphin House for the mechanical and electrical engineer (1886), the Laundry (1888), a lodge and pavilion on Buckingham Road (1896–97), a house in School Lane (1899), and the eight Noel Cottages on Church Green Road (1904). He died in 1926. Lady Fanny Leon continued to live at Bletchley Park and actively support the community until her death in 1938. The estate was then further split up and sold.

After March 1938, with tensions in Europe rising fast following the Austrian Anschluss, the property, then vacant, was identified from a list of available properties by Commander Alastair Denniston of the Ministry of Works as a new dispersal location for the Foreign Office's Code and Cypher School, later renamed GCHQ. The first elements of the organisation, known flippantly as "Captain Ridley's Shooting Party," moved in during August 1939. Accommodation in the house was soon insufficient for the rapidly growing organisation, and personnel spilled over into all outbuildings and a range of hastily erected prefabricated huts.

The organisation, under Rear-Admiral Sinclair, who was later referred to simply as "C," was equipped with and developed the Enigma electro-mechanical deciphering machines originally designed in the 1920s. The enemy coded messages deciphered here by the 7,000-plus staff were greatly instrumental in the prosecution and successful outcome of the Second World War. Accommodation was soon expanded into a series of huts, with further expansion occurring in response to German expansion into the Balkans and North Africa. The station was responsible for developing methods to penetrate up to 58 German Enigma codes and to sift the intelligence, termed top secret ULTRA, for direct transmission to the Prime Minister, Whitehall, and operational field stations known as Special Liaison Units. One of its most significant early successes was the interception of the German Knickebein beam guidance system in June 1940. Later, it became the hub of the Battle of the Atlantic and was able to forewarn accurately the disposition of German defences prior to Operation Overlord. It also identified secret work at Peenemünde and forewarned the V-weapon attacks.