Google hands £550,000 to Bletchley Park

Google hands £550,000 to Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park - kind of a big deal

Google has donated more than half a million pounds to help the UK's iconic Bletchley Park move closer to its goal of becoming a 'world-class' heritage and education centre.

Bletchley Park's codebreaking huts were a pivotal factor in Allied victory in World War 2, and the site's importance as a monument and also the birthplace of the modern computer mean that its restoration is hugely important.

Google has long supported Bletchley Park and the search giant has now pitched in £550,000 towards the match funding needed to embark on a £15 million project on the site.

Turing test

Peter Barron, Director of External Relations for Google, said, "The Bletchley Park Trust has been doing great work to honour Alan Turing and the codebreakers who helped shorten the second world war and to educate the next generation about the history of modern computing.

"We are delighted to make this charitable donation to help support the next phase of this important project"

Simon Greenish, CEO of the Bletchley Park Trust, added, "We are tremendously grateful to Google for bringing us considerably closer to achieving our development aims.

"We have received other generous contributions towards the project but this is the largest single element of the partnership funding and absolutely vital in potentially getting the project underway much sooner than might otherwise have been the case.

"It would be wonderful if other donors follow Google's example to help preserve our computing heritage.

"We could then proceed as soon as possible with restoration of the profoundly historically significant codebreaking huts".

Patrick Goss

Patrick Goss is the ex-Editor in Chief of TechRadar. Patrick was a passionate and experienced journalist, and he has been lucky enough to work on some of the finest online properties on the planet, building audiences everywhere and establishing himself at the forefront of digital content.  After a long stint as the boss at TechRadar, Patrick has now moved on to a role with Apple, where he is the Managing Editor for the App Store in the UK.