The National Museum of Computing is dedicated to collecting and restoring historic computer systems. The museum is based in rented premises at Bletchley Park in Milton Keynes and opened 13 years ago. The building was the first purpose-built computer centre in the world, hosting six Colossus computers by the end of World War II.

 The museum relies on volunteers and charity donations, with entry prices playing a part but even those have disappeared. Part of the attempt to re-open requires raising £15k to pay for so called Covid Protection, Screens, used to protect their ‘at risk’ volunteers who, in their retirement, come back to explain what it was like back in the 1940’s and how they used these very machines.

 If the museum is forced to close, then we lose access to the nation’s history and heritage of computing and the roots of cyber security itself. The amazing STEM and diversity encouragement programmes would be lost, and the ability to come and see the real, working hardware that has been fundamental in shaping the computing devices we rely upon today.

The National Museum of Computing is not only the birthplace and home of Colussus and Bombe but also contains the complete collection of the 1940’s WW2 story covering Enigma, Lorenz, and the Heath Robinson. All the machines are working and there is nowhere else on the planet to gain access to this.