West Bletchley is a district and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

that covers the western part of Bletchley, a constituent town of

Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city and the largest settlement in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of its urban area was over . The River Great Ouse forms its northern boundary; a tributary ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The parish consists of that part of Bletchley which is south of Standing Way/H8 (

A421 The A421 is an important road for east/west journeys across south central England. Together with the A428 road, A428, the A43 road, A43 and A34 road (England), A34, it forms the route from Cambridge through Milton Keynes to Oxford. The sectio ...

), west of the West Coast Main Line, and north of

Water Eaton Brook The River Ouzel , also known as the River Lovat, is a river in England, and a tributary of the River Great Ouse. It rises in the Chiltern Hills and flows north to join the Ouse at Newport Pagnell. It is usually called the ''River Ouzel'', e ...

. (The remainder of Bletchley is combined with Fenny Stratford to form the parish of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford).

Geography

West Bletchley contains three major districts with parish council

wards Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a priso ...

within them. These wards/ estates include: Old Bletchley * Church Green *

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following ...

* Poets Far Bletchley * Castles * Fairways * Racecourses * Rivers * Saints West Bletchley * Abbys * Scotts * Counties Most districts of West Bletchley parish are residential, but the district of Bletchley Park is important enough to be summarised here.

City Council wards

West Bletchley is split between two electoral wards for representation to

Milton Keynes City Council Milton Keynes City Council is the local authority of the City of Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, England. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. It has both borough status ...

. Far Bletchley and the golf course area is in the Whaddon Ward (which, despite its name and proximity, does not include the village of

Whaddon Whaddon may refer to several places in England: *Whaddon, Buckinghamshire *Whaddon, Cambridgeshire *Whaddon, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire * Whaddon, Stroud, in Brookthorpe-with-Whaddon, Gloucestershire *Whaddon, Wiltshire, hamlet near Trowbridge * Wh ...

in the Buckinghamshire Council area); the remainder of the parish is in the Bletchley and Fenny Stratford ward.

Bletchley Park

Within the West Bletchley parish, in the Church Green district, is

. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, this district was home to the Government Code and Cypher School. The German Enigma code was cracked here by, amongst others,

Alan Turing Alan Mathison Turing (; 23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954) was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist. Turing was highly influential in the development of theoretical com ...

. Another

cipher machine In cryptography, a cipher (or cypher) is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption—a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure. An alternative, less common term is ''encipherment''. To encipher or encode i ...

was solved with the aid of early computing devices, known as a

Colossus Colossus, Colossos, or the plural Colossi or Colossuses, may refer to: Statues * Any exceptionally large statue ** List of tallest statues ** :Colossal statues * ''Colossus of Barletta'', a bronze statue of an unidentified Roman emperor * ''Col ...

. Bletchley Park is now a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

, although many areas of the park grounds have been sold off for housing development.

Education

Primary

Children in the area attend a number of

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

s in the parish, which include: Milton Keynes Preparatory School, St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Primary School, Holne Chase Primary School, White Spire School, Rickley Park Primary School and Chestnuts Primary School.

Special school

White Spire School, an all age (5-19) mixed special school for pupils with Moderate Learning Difficulties, is located on Rickley Lane in West Bletchley. All pupils at the school have a statement outlining their special need and are referred to the school by the Inclusion Division of Milton Keynes Council. As such there is no reserved area with pupils transported to the school from across Milton Keynes and, in some instances, further afield.

Secondary

Lord Grey Academy Lord Grey Academy (formerly Lord Grey School) is a comprehensive 11-19 coeducational secondary academy and sixth form in West Bletchley, Milton Keynes, England. Previously a grant-maintained foundation school and specialist language and hu ...

, a

comprehensive school A comprehensive school typically describes a secondary school for pupils aged approximately 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is res ...

References

External links

West Bletchley Parish Council
{{Milton Keynes parishes Civil parishes in Buckinghamshire