The National Museum of Computing (TNMOC) at the world-famous Bletchley Park is asking for public donations to help it restore the Harwell/Witch - the world's oldest computer.

After its projected restoration by experts at the Museum, it will be the oldest functioning electronic-stored program computer in the world.

Dating back to 1949, the finished product will be housed alongside the world's first electronic computer, the rebuild of Colossus Mk II.

The old-school IT support staff are eager to start, according to director and trustee of TNMOC Keith Murrell.

He continued: "They have proved their skills, perseverance and sheer ingenuity in many projects and for most of them this will be the toughest project yet. It's the computing equivalent of the raising of the Mary Rose and they are up to challenge!"

The earliest-functioning computer is the 1956 Pegasus machine, which currently takes pride of place at the Science Museum in London.

Bletchley Park, the home of the Enigma codebreakers in the Second World War, is currently open on Thursdays and Saturdays from 13:00 BST to visitors wanting to see one of the UK's leading historical centres.

More than half of small businesses (53 per cent) believe that the most important benefit of outsourcing is guaranteed response times for IT support. London-based Connect conducted the research in 2007.