Post office in Milton Keynes is first place outside London to stock new Alan Turing £50 note

A local Post Office in Bletchley is the only place outside the City of London today where the new Alan Turing £50 note can be seen by members of the public.

The note, which bears the face of the legendary World War Two codebreaker, has been specially delivered to the town's Post Office to commemorate the work done by Turing and his team at nearby Bletchley Park.

Ahmed Butt, Postmaster for Bletchley Post Office, said: “It’s great that the town’s residents and visitors can get their hands on the new £50 note at our Post Office before it goes into wider circulation across the rest of the country.

"Many of my customers feel more comfortable dealing in cash and the great news is that anyone with the old £50 note can still come into Post Offices and deposit them into their bank account, even after the old note is withdrawn by the Bank of England.”

The Post Office network maintains more than 11,500 branches, with 99% of the population living within three miles of a branch. On average, over £2 billion of cash is withdrawn and deposited every month at Post Office branches. The Post Office recently launched a campaign to ‘Save Our Cash’ at www.saveourcash.co.uk in order to ensure widespread access to cash, including this historic new Alan Turing note, across the country.

Amanda Jones, retail and franchise network director for the Post Office, said: “We’re so pleased that Bletchley Post Office is one of the first places to have the new £50 note today. What happened less than a mile away at Bletchley Park helped end World War Two and Alan Turing played such a pivotal role as a codebreaker. It’s a fitting tribute that he’s the face of this new note.”

The note will be available nationwide from tomorrow.