Enigma, now there’s a great film. It is all about efforts to break the code of the German Enigma machine; a complex device used by the military in the Second World War to send encrypted messages. As it happens, on News Year’s day 2008 this correspondent swam in the very loch in Scotland that appears at the end of that there film.

But I digress… Bletchley Park, in the heart of the English countryside, was the home of the British war time code-cracking efforts. It hit hard times lately and was at risk of becoming a dusty pile of rubble. So it is with a happy heart that the Great Beyond can update this tale with good news: Bletchley Park has been saved! (Press release.)

English Heritage has stumped up £300,000 to pay for urgent repairs to the buildings, and talks are underway to get another £600,000 to pay for the rest of the repairs that will be needed over the next three years. This news has hit the PC press, focussing on the fact that Bletchley was home to Britain’s first programmable computer. It’s nice to see that computer geeks also have a sense of history.

Hooray! Nice news as we go into a bleak and dreary weekend here in London.

Photo of Bletchley Park by Draco2008 via Flickr