The main attraction at the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle is a silver swan automaton. The model in itself is a beautiful object:-

Replacement parts:-

Unfortunately when we were there the swan wasn’t in operation. I think it needed maintenance work.

Hoewvere there was an explanatory video of its operation and movement. (The video is also available on YouTube. See below.) The articulation is amazing, the glass rods representinng water in motion are particularly effective. The swan “catches” and “eats” a fish at about 4.50 in the video. Real swans are of course vegetarian:-

I liked this piece of stained glass too:-

Bowes Museum is housed in an imposing building in Barnard Castle, County Durham:-

Bowes Museum and formal garden. Barnard Castle’s War Memorial is in the distance to the right here:-

Model of Bowes Museum inside museum:-

Topiary in formal garden. Barnard Castle War Memorial in background:-

Topiary from museum’s upper floor. Barnard Castle War Memorial to back left:-

This is an obelisk on a square based stepped plinth and lies in the grounds of the Bowes Museum.

There is a wood carving/sculpture to its left in this view:-

Facing view:-

Great War Dedication, “Pro Patria 1914 – 1919. In grateful remembrance of the men of Barnard Castle of all ranks who fell in the Great War. For God and King and Right they gave their all,” and names F Allison – P Finn:-

Second World War Dedication, “In memory of those who fell in the Second World War 1939- 1945,” names for World War 2, and, “They died that we might live.”

Great War names, W Fleet – T B Kipling:-

Great War names E Lee – C H Smith:-

Great War names, J T Smith – R E Young. Bowes Museum in background:-

The North Gate was the only part of Housesteads Fort that opened to the north. From this angle Hadrian’s Wall itself snakes off mid right towards upper centre.

North Gate information:-

The fort’s northwest corner:-

Internal ruins:-

Fort’s southwest corner. The Fort’s museum building is in the background:-

Southeast corner:-

West wall of the fort and the museum building:-

The codebreakers at Bletchley Park were indebted to the Polish secret service for helping break the Enigma code and for smuggling an Enigma machine to them just as war broke out.

At the entrance to the courtyard of houses seen in yesterday’s post lies a memorial to three of these Polish contributors. In Polish and English it commemorates, “the work of Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Różycki and Henryk Zygalski, mathematicians of the Polish intelligence service, in first breaking the Enigma code. Their work greatly assisted the Bletchley Park code breakers and contributed to the Allied victory in World War II.”

Nearer the main museum building is this memorial to those who worked at Bletchley Park. The letters read, “WE ALSO SERVED.”

Reverse of memorial:-

World War 2 wasn’t all technology driven.

One of the exhibits at Bletchley Park featured the contribution pigeons made to message carrying.

The pigeons were parachuted into occupied Europe using contraptions like this:-

Information board:-

Memorial to a pigeon winner of a gallantry medal. They also served:-

There were few facilities at Bletchley Park other than the working spaces. They did have a tennis court and there was the possibility of picnics etc on the lawns.

To simulate this outdoor loudspeakers at the modern museum play voices as if there’s a tennis match or picnic going on.

Some of the workers lived (just slept probably) off-site but there was some accomodation for others.

These buildings enclosing a courtyard were beyond the tennis court:-

Side of building to left above:-

There was a lovely stained glass window in the side wall here:-

Other side of courtyard:-

In courtyard to right of arch in photo above:-

Arch into courtyard:-

A couple of the exhibits at Bletchley Park related to the film Enigma. (I see from that link that the model submarine used in the film was also donated to Bletchley Park. This may be the model which is near the car park and can be seen in the third photo in this post.)

Austin 18 Ambulance:-

Sunbeam Talbot (note “blackout” headlights):-

As I recall this Packard saloon car was used by Bletchley operatives if they had to travel about the country. A lot of the messages from listening stations were carried to Bletchley by motor bike – see photos on the wall behind the Packard:-

This is one of the sentry boxes where the despatch riders would have to check in:-

Most of the work at Bletchley Park was carried out in huts.

Hut corridor:-

Room with security reminder poster:-

The famous “Careless Talk Costs Lives” slogan and First Aid box:-

Another room in one of the huts:-

Alan Turing’s office:-

Statue of Alan Turing, made in slate. (This is situated in the main building, where most of the Enigma machines are displayed.)

It wasn’t merely European languages that were decoded during WW2. Japanese codes were also broken. One of the decoders taught himself Japanese in weeks to help do so.

These two exhibits refer to the efforts in Japanese.

Index Cards for Japanese words:-

Captured Japanese flag:-

This irreverent cartoon referring to BP (Bumph Palace; aka Bletchley Park) is about all the paperwork etc involved in the war effort:-