International Women's Day Tour - Rule Breakers and Code Breakers

- Available 1 day only! Friday 8th March, International Womens Day

 - Refundable up until 7 days before travel. 

This International Womens Day, learn of the lesser known heroes of the war and the women who pushed boundaries to simply be seen and heard.

Tour Includes:

• Admission to Bletchley Park & Hampton Court Palace
• Travel by executive coach 

Bletchley Park 

Halfway between the two great Universities of Oxford and Cambridge at the middle point on the railway line stands Bletchley Park, not only equidistant from these great think tanks but on an express railway link to London. The location was ideal. Now it needed to be populated with the women and men who became the codebreakers, those mathematical brains that cracked the German Enigma cipher codes and the staff of 10,000, 75% of whom were women, working tirelessly intercepting messages and ultimately shortening the war by possibly two to four years.

Many of the women were recruited from the Women's Services and were in uniform, many more recruited locally. They could never mention the work they were doing, not even to those closest to them. Winston Churchill referred to them as "my golden geese that never cackle".

We start the tour at Block C where we learn about daily life for those working at "Station X" then continue to the original mansion that predated the complex and was first requisitioned by the military in 1939. Here we can learn of the beginnings of the project and how a simple newspaper crossword alerted the initial team into inviting other great minds to Bletchley Park.In Huts 3 and 6 we can watch interviews from the codebreakers and staff. There is a full archive interview with Joan Clarke, chief cryptanalyst and mathematician, portrayed by Keira Knightley in The Imitation Game. Hut 8 contains a replica of Alan Turing's office and Hut 11 contains a restored Bombe machine where you can marvel at its operations and see the conditions that the women had to work in, a building they called the Hell Hole.

Other exhibits include the National Museum of Computing and The National Radio Centre. Please grab some lunch here, our departure is at 12.45pm for our two hour journey to Hampton Court Palace.

Hampton Court Palace

Hampton Court Palace was originally built as a residence for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop and Chancellor to Henry VIII from 1514 but was given to the King as a "gift" in order to keep his head!! It was also here that Henry would entertain his many wives and even order the execution of one of them, wife number 5, Catherine Howard! As a 'grace and favour' Palace many minor royals and relatives would live here including Princess Sophia Duleep Singh, daughter of the last Maharaja of Lahore and goddaughter of Queen Victoria. Her strong belief in women's rights saw her regularly positioned by the Palace gates with her signboards and placards constantly making the public aware of the discrimination and unethical actions that befell the women of the United Kingdom. She befriended Emmeline Pankhurst and other leading suffragettes and was involved in the Black Friday confrontation in Parliament on 18th November 1910 which sadly escalated into violence with many of the 300 female protesters being injured.

Therefore Hampton Court is not just about Henry VIII and his six wives but it is about people like Princess Sophia whose philanthropy and kindness, alongside her steadfast belief in women's rights should not be forgotten. 

We have about two and a half hours here. Explore this beautiful Palace, see the Tudor Base Court and Clock Court, the extensive kitchens, the Great Hall and Chapel, the late 17th century additions by Sir Christopher Wren for King William and Queen Mary including the Fountain Court and then get yourselves lost in the maze!