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View Full Version : Archived: Greenham Common - In The Shadow of Peace! May 09



Tankman
16-05-2009, 03:58 PM
Pic heavy!
Everyone know's Greenham, as a result of the woman's peace campaign's of the 80's & 90's! Against the mobile cruise missile launchers that were based here.
But now they are a thing of the past:) and Greenham has been returned to the public. This has always been on my list of visits:thumb

Coming back from a days research at the ROC Archives in Winchester:thumb A stop off was in order:coffee

The sheer size of this place begger's belief! No pictures can fully show the scale of what was once one of the biggest bases in Europe. I intended only spending 1 hour here, but in the end spent three. Not even then had I covered the full site:(
As I walked from one section to another, what came over me was that the peace campaigner's were probably right in what they did!

If there is any one such place that epitomised the Cold War in the UK!
Then Greenham Common stands Heads up:thumb

You can now freely roam over the Common and walk anywhere apart from the Silo's, which are still guarded by their fencing and are now listed as Scheduled Ancient Monuments, including the fencing:lol:

On with the pics:coffee

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii38/tankman_2008/GREENHAM%20COMMON/405.jpg

Bury's Bank Road Entrance. This was the site of 'Blue Camp' for the Woman Peace Campaigner's:) A relatively quite part of Greenham situated at the end of the runway.

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii38/tankman_2008/GREENHAM%20COMMON/257.jpg

The Silo's are one of the most impressive sites you will come across:thumb But they are still heavily secured behind the wire:secret For some time I followed the Peri track, hoping to find an entrance, but to no avail:(


http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii38/tankman_2008/GREENHAM%20COMMON/273.jpg


http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii38/tankman_2008/GREENHAM%20COMMON/271.jpg

The security at one of the silo entrances was pretty heavy! Note the barrier that had to be wheeled back before any entry was to be made towards the compound gates:w00t

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii38/tankman_2008/GREENHAM%20COMMON/305.jpg

The Fire Plane that was used by the base fire fighters in the 1980/90's stayed behind:lol:

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii38/tankman_2008/GREENHAM%20COMMON/325.jpg

Rear Blast door from the Command centre that protects air filtration units, (still working) directly in front of this door was another blast door into the command centre itself (locked):(

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii38/tankman_2008/GREENHAM%20COMMON/327.jpg

Air filtration inlets:confused:

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii38/tankman_2008/GREENHAM%20COMMON/339.jpg

Small Blast door:thumb

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii38/tankman_2008/GREENHAM%20COMMON/354.jpg

Control tower heavily fenced and boarded up!

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii38/tankman_2008/GREENHAM%20COMMON/357.jpg

Opps! Someone left this behind:w00t

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii38/tankman_2008/GREENHAM%20COMMON/277.jpg

Moody shot of the silo fencing:coffee

More pics can be found here:

http://s260.photobucket.com/albums/ii38/tankman_2008/GREENHAM%20COMMON/?start=all

some links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenham_Common

http://www.yourgreenham.co.uk/#homepage

Tankman
16-05-2009, 11:20 PM
Thanks everyone:thumb Glad you like it!
If you do go though make sure you go on a sunny day, intermittent showers caught me out and I got a right soaking there is no cover on the common at all, wet grass and trainers don't make for dry feet.

But once wet I had to continue, as things kept popping up:thumb

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii38/tankman_2008/GREENHAM%20COMMON/356.jpg

One of 21, 80,000 gallon fuel tanks that were stored around the base, like the runway most have been dug up and left on the side to rust.
Note the American fire hydrant:thumb these were dotted about the common in several places. A real piece of 'Uncle Sam':jester

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii38/tankman_2008/GREENHAM%20COMMON/387.jpg

The only bit of runway left! Affectionatly known as 'Runway Cross' is about half way down the common:coffee The rest was dug up and re-used in the Newbury bypass:thumb