IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF SAMMY LEON – an update

MODERN DAY BLETCHLEY PARK

I am not a fan but I am open to have my mind changed. I WANT TO HAVE MY MIND CHANGED

I speak as someone who lived in Bletchley Park for 3 years (1971 to 1974) while I attended Teacher Training College. I also speak as the one who through my project IN SEARCH OF THE LEONS reunited the Leon Family with their ancestral home.

In preparing to write IN THE FOOTSEPS OF SAMMY LEON I did initially think I would not

include a chapter on the park as I do not like what it has become but such would be ridiculous. This will be a happy, positive work so I am open to have my negative attitude toward the former Leon home changed.

Bletchley Park dates  right back to The Doomsday Book. From 1883 to 1937, a relatively short period in its history, it was the home of The Leon Family who gave us so much heritage which is central to our present community. It’s wartime operation is internationally famous.

So what in 2022  (The year in which the book will be published)  is Bletchley Park today ?

A museum

A college of further education

A vast housing estate

A care home

And oh yes – a location for crime !

No, I am NOT a fan of Bletchley Park as it is today and the clocks can not be turned back BUT I am open to having my mind changed. Indeed I WANT to have my mind changed.

Bletchley Park dates back to The Doomsday Book but it was within the years of the Leon Family – 1883 to 1937 that it gave so much heritage to our community.

As Churchill’s Ultra Secret it is now famous for the work done by the codebreakers in World War Two.

When I  lived there in the early 1970’s the work of the codebreakers was still an enigma. Pardon the pun ! However, it was at the heart of the community and was a VERY busy place. 

·     With its teacher training college so much of Milton Keynes education was associated with it. It was the centre for Royal Mail telephone engineers - there was no BT back then !  It was a

training centre for air traffic controllers. Semi-secret it was part of the Diplomatic Wireless Service.

My book  IN SEARCH OF THE LEONS ends by saying the park was up for sale. What would Sammy Leon say about that sale ? I will not put words into his mouth but from my mouth I do not like what that sale brought about. But let me repeat I AM OPEN TO HAVING MY MIND CHANGED.

 

My work IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF SAMMY LEON is to be a positive piece of writing into which I will not allow negativity to enter the text.

 

In the New Year of 2022 I plan to walk a round the area, soak up what is there and metaphorically share it with Sammy Leon.

I will visit the museum.

I will walk around the housing estate.

I will see what has happened to the area that was once Bletchley Pavilion and the home of Bletchley Week.

I will attempt to make contact with the management of the college.

The care home – Flowers. Before the pandemic I visited this lovely place with a friend who does disco events in care homes. What was so special to me on that day was my meeting a resident who had been Doctor Garwood’s secretary at the teacher training college when I attended in the early 1970’s. That for me was so special and yes I did remember her. Then during lock down I sent weekly quiz sheets to residents giving them a bit of fun. These quiz sheets later formed part of my book WHO NEEDS A PUB TO HAVE A QUIZ.  In just know that Lady Leon would have approved of Flowers and done a bit more than I did simply sending in quiz sheets.

In drafting the book the Bletchley Park chapter I see coming towards the end with my visiting Golders Green Crematorium and telling the story of Bletchley Park’s ghost to end the book.

Sharing my planning in a blog I have several thousand people following my early work. When the book is published I hope it sells many thousands of copies in celebration of the heritage the Leon Family gave to us. (To deal with the elephant in the room ALL royalties from sales will be given to good causes close to my heart and good causes I support. Nothing will remain in my pocket.)

BLETCHLEY PARK:

A museum

A college of further education

A vast housing estate

A care home

A location for crime ! WHAT ? A location for crime !

Bletchley Park Pavilion

In Sammy Leon’s day this was a major feature of Bletchley Park and at the centre of Bletchley Week. The picture left shows it during one of these events.

That original building is not how I remember it from my early days living in the area. It was a smaller building at the bottom of Bletchley Grammar School’s the sports field. It was then the Bletchley Music Centre, I presume run by Aylesbury County Council but I am not sure.

1n 2017 here was a fire which destroyed the building but this occurred at the same time of my

daughter’s death so I paid the news reports little interest.

On Monday 11^th October 2021, more than four years after the fire, I visited the site and am utterly appalled at what I found.  I can not believe that the current site owners have allowed such a situation to develop and for it to now be an everyday part of our community.

The dangerous skeleton of the fire damaged building still stands !  This is an obvious danger and hazard to anyone who approaches it. Such an approach is open and easy to find.

Many empty beer barrels litter the site. I assume alcohol is sold from this portable unit which is semi-plumbed into the ground. I find it impossible to believe this operation has a license to sell alcohol !

A portable hot tub has been set up within the location. Anyone using such would be endangering their health.

I could find no evidence of drug paraphernalia but extensive evidence of alcohol misuse. The entire site is covered with litter and rubbish, some from the original fire and some from later fly -tipping.

ALL OF THIS IS ADJACENT TO OR INDEED PART OF AN EDUCATION CAMPUS

Yes, I will be including the former Bletchley Park Pavilion in my writing project IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF SAMMY LEON but what I have found is not just of concern to the community, this is a COMMUNITY EMERGENCY demanding immediate action.

Who owns the site ? 

Are the owners aware of what is happening ?  If not why not ?

I can not accept the owners are fit and proper persons to be allowed to have ownership. THIS HAS TO CHANGE. I want to be able to include a happy report regarding the former pavilion in my book.

So………..

To contact me either drop me an e-mail at dashford566@gmail.com or friend me onfacebook and send me a message.

Check my profile at

www.maxrobinsonwriter.com 

and follow me. (I am David Ashford who writes under the pen name of Max Robinson.)

I am thinking to set up a website to share the writing of IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF SAMMY LEON but let me mull it over a bit before finally deciding. The problem with Google Blogger is it does not always format text and images properly.

THANK YOU to the various facebook groups who are giving this project support by allowing me to share these blog posts.