Spectacular Flypast - BANK HOLIDAY MONDAY 25 MAY

 

Join in the family fun at Bletchley Park in Milton Keynes on Monday 25th May for a Bank Holiday ‘Forties Family Festival’, featuring Second World War re-enactors, a 1940s Lindyhopper dance troupe, wartime cinema reels and other 1940’s attractions, including the re-enactment of a wartime plotting table and a bombed-out London display. 

There will be a rare opportunity to see a stunning display of World War Two airpower with a flypast by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight*, featuring a Lancaster, Hurricane and a Spitfire; and a flypast by the Red Arrows*.  There will also be lectures on a range of fascinating subjects by a GCHQ historian, a former Bletchley Park codebreaker and former Bletchley Park Wren:

• 'British Signals Intelligence before Bletchley Park (1653-1939)' by GCHQ’s Departmental Historian. 
• Wartime Bletchley Park codebreakers, Mavis and Keith Batey, give an informal Q & A session.  The then 19 year old Mavis worked for Dilly Knox in ‘The Cottage’ from April 1940, before moving to Hut 6 and Hut 8.  Known as one of 'Dilly's Girls', she worked on the Italian naval, Abwehr and GGG Enigma Machines.  Knox paid tribute to Mavis in a poem he wrote about Bletchley Park.
• Talking from personal experience, Bletchley Park volunteer, Joan Draper, will discuss her life during the war as an Evacuee.
• Bletchley Park volunteer, Jean Valentine, will talk about her life as a Wren during the War at Bletchley Park and elsewhere.

The ‘Forties Family Festival’ makes a great day out for the whole family.  Under 12s are free and there is a £22.50 family annual season ticket or £10 adult season ticket, allowing free and unlimited visits to Bletchley Park for 12 months following purchase, including many special events.  The event starts at 10.30am through to 5pm.