The National Museum of Computing

A museum housing the world's largest selection of working vintage computers. It tells the story of computing from the 1940s Colossus computer, which helped the father of computers Alan Turing break the Nazi Enigma Code machine in the Second World War, through the monster mainframes of the 1970s, home computers of the 1980s to the Touchtable of the present. Most machines are working and many are hands-on.

The National Museum of Computing is located on the secret wartime codebreaking campus of Bletchley Park.

You can see: a rebuild of Colossus, the world's first modern computer in action; the WITCH, the world's oldest working digital computer (it's the size of a wall and flashes and clatters as it calculates) and "big iron" computers that look like washing machines.

You can try out: the first home and school computers from the 1980s; the famous 1986 school's BBC Domesday project on the original laserdisc technology; and the 2011 Domesday update on today's Touchtable that is like a huge iPad.

You can even try your hand at coding on BBC computers from the 1980s.

Educational Visits

A visit to The National Museum of Computing is designed in support of the Computing curriculum. Most schools and colleges visit the museum with students studying at GCSE, A level, Level 2 or 3 equivalents.

The Museum can also benefit study in;

• Information and Communication Technology
• Design and Technology
• Mathematics
• History

All our exhibits can support the teaching of Computing and ICT