Royal Signals Museum Museums

The Royal Corps of Signals Museum is located in Blandford Camp in the beautiful Dorset countryside and only a stone's throw from the scenic and interesting Georgian Town of Blandford Forum.

There are numerous prehistoric sites within the camp boundaries, but the first recorded use of the site was as a racecourse. Race meetings began in the late 16th century and an annual race week was held until the end of the 19th Century.

The military use of the site began in the 18th century when local volunteer units used it as a training ground. In 1806 a Royal Navy Shutter Telegraph Station was built near the racecourse on the site now known as Telegraph Clump. This signal station was on the London to Plymouth route and was closed after the Napoleonic War, though the site remained occupied until 1825. There is an interactive display of the Shutter Telegraph in the Museum.

It is the national museum of Army communications and the exhibits and displays show the part that communications have played in the many wars and campaigns of the last 150 years. The Museum collection is regarded as being of National importance and the excellent Archives are recognised by the Public Record Office.

Come and see the world famous ENIGMA MACHINE and find out how it worked. The exhibition consists of an interactive display designed particularly for younger visitors. It looks at codes in wartime and shows how the German Enigma codes were broken during the Second World War by British Codebreakers using the first digital computer - THE BOMBE. The information gained from the German messages was then made into ULTRA intelligence and was seen by some people as one of the most important breakthroughs in securing an early end to the war. .