For (H)istory in Berkshire, I decided to head out for a bike ride. I don't live too far away from Greenham Common, which had always been on my radar, so I figured it would work perfectly for a bit of history. And it certainly did.
When you look into the past of this place—I’ve had a good read up on it recently—there is an incredible amount to it. It actually started off as an Air Force base essentially the week before World War II began. It was incredibly useful all the way through the war, and increasingly so afterwards, eventually hosting the US Air Force’s Strategic Air Command.
Its prominence seemed to wane a little bit for a while, but as the Cold War started to increase in intensity—if that’s the right phrase—the governments of the time decided to base nuclear cruise missiles there.
If you are of a certain vintage and grew up in the 80s like I did, Greenham Common is definitely etched on your memory. That decision to bring in missiles got people up in arms, particularly the women of Greenham Common. Throughout the early 1980s, there was a whole series of protests. The one big moment that really captured everyone's imagination was when they managed to get 30,000 women to link arms around the entire perimeter of the base. It was quite an impressive achievement.
I sort of remember them as being slightly hippie-ish at the time—whether that's true or not, that is certainly the memory I have in my head. I guess "woke" might be what you would call it now. But looking back, you have to ask: was it right for them to protest against nuclear weapons? Did those weapons actually help the Cold War acting as a deterrent to stop worse things from happening, or did they make the world a worse place?
I guess we will never know the answer to that question, but thank God we didn't actually have to find out through the mass use of nuclear weapons. Well we haven't had to do so to date, which is how you are able to read this !
That said, times are clearly changing. With Russia and Ukraine, things going on in the Middle East, and China pushing forward again, the world becomes a slightly more concerning place follwing a period of what I would call relatively stable peace.
Anyway, I’ve started waffling, so I shall stop.
The Map: