Infrastructure, Greenham Common, Berkshire.

Infrastructure

15 Jun

Visited August 2025.

After learning so much about it, watching it on TV as a kid, reading the books and hearing the words Greenham, I had finally got there to see it. Actually in the car park and about to actually see it all.

I was most interested in the Greenham Women’s Peace Camp but also the whole site and the Cruise missile bunkers.

‘Before the building of an airfield, Greenham Common was a piece of common land. It was used for troop movements during the English Civil War and in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. For some of that time it also had a firing range at its Western end.

Greenham Control Tower was built between 1951 and 1953 to replace the original WW2 tower that was located on the opposite side of what was then a military airfield.

The building lay empty for many years after RAF Greenham Common closed in September 1992, but was bought by Greenham Parish Council in 2014. Work then began with the support of funding from a number of national and local funders to transform the building into a heritage visitor destination, a Café for users of the common and a community space. The doors were opened to the public in September 2018.’ SOURCE.

It is a really weird place, the common is beautiful with grazing cows, massive skies and and thousands of Sloes on the Blackthorn.

The Control tower is good and it is very exciting at the top. Lots of old signage and an excellent telephone.

The original piece of runway is very strange. You know its important as it is THE runway, but standing on it is quite bizarre. A fire hydrant is next to a beautiful pond. Original runway lights sit where they were left.

It actually hurt my head as it was so big to be there. The bunkers were a drive away and the Blue gate that I really wanted to see.

The perimeter of the site is huge and nothing really prepares you for walking through the gate, past beautiful woodland and then seeing the Gama site. It is all just so massive. I didn’t have time to see the Peace Garden, but hopefully I will go back there. Maybe in the winter.

I cant fit it all in about what I want to say about Greenham, but I am very glad that I have finally visited.

Links of stuff

READ

https://greenhamwomeneverywhere.co.uk/

https://lacuna.org.uk/protest/memories-of-a-protest/

https://www.bbowt.org.uk/nature-reserves/greenham-and-crookham-commons

https://www.greenhamcommon.org.uk/greenham-history-1941-1992

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/cold-war-on-file/greenham-common-protest/

https://cymru.global/our-work/peace-heritage/helen-thomas-greenham-memorial/

WATCH

https://youtu.be/lwaUh9DS_xM?si=ZTn9oNyuqbbbxpBm

https://youtu.be/P4UKITFcjMs?si=hFy3jQiT8A35d_tu