West Bletchley is a district and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

that covers the western part of

Bletchley Bletchley is a constituent town of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated in the south-west of Milton Keynes, and is split between the civil parishes of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford and West Bletchley. Bletchley is best kn ...

, a constituent town of Milton Keynes in

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-eas ...

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 ...

. The parish consists of that part of Bletchley which is south of Standing Way/H8 ( A421), west of the

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

, 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 Bletchley and Fenny Stratford is a civil parish with a town council, in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It was formed in 2001 from the unparished area of Milton Keynes, and according to the 2011 census had a population of 15,313. Toget ...

Geography

West Bletchley contains three major districts with parish council wards within them. These wards/

estates Estate or The Estate may refer to: Law * Estate (law), a term in common law for a person's property, entitlements and obligations * Estates of the realm, a broad social category in the histories of certain countries. ** The Estates, representa ...

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. 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 Buckinghamshire Council is a unitary local authority in England, the area of which constitutes most of the ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire. It was created in April 2020 from the areas that were previously administered by Buckinghamshire Coun ...

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, 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 c ...

. 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 enco ...

was solved with the aid of early computing devices, known as a Colossus. 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 History (derived ) is the systematic study and th ...

, 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 ed ...

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 ...

, 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 r ...

References

External links

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