GREENHAM COMMON
BY PAUL HORNSBY
I bought a used mirrorless camera and had it converted into an infrared device, which involves stripping out the colour array so the camera is only sensitive to the invisible part of the spectrum. Keen to find a project to experiment with this treatment, I settled on making a documentary series about the former USAF Greenham Common airbase in Berkshire, England, once one of the most heavily defended and politically sensitive military sites in Europe during the Cold War. You may already know about Greenham Common and the Peace Movement, but if not, here’s a little background.
Old and mysterious remnants are everywhere, as nature tries to reclaim them. Vast open spaces give way to beautiful woodland, and there's even an unusual water tower, known locally as 'The Wine Glass', which once supplied water to the nearby American officers' homes. Despite the base being closed in 1993, strange buildings and objects still litter the site, all of them adding to the sense of mystery this place carries.
RAF Greenham Common was leased to the United States Air Force during the height of the Cold War. Between 1982 and 1991, 96 nuclear-armed ground-launched cruise missiles (GLCMs) were stored at the facility. Each warhead was estimated to be around ten times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.
During the USAF’s tenure, the runway was the longest in Europe, allowing huge aircraft such as the C-5 Galaxy and C-141 Starlifter to land there. The missiles and warheads were stored in six massive bomb-proof shelters.
Opposition to the base was immediate and widespread. A peaceful protest camp remained outside Greenham Common for more than a decade, becoming one of the most recognisable protest movements in modern British history. During one protest, hundreds of women marched 110 miles from the Welsh capital, Cardiff, to Greenham Common, where many chained themselves to the fences surrounding the base upon arrival. The protest remained women-only throughout its existence.
In 1992, American forces left the base, and Greenham Common was decommissioned a year later, with large sections of the runway broken up and reused in local road building and infrastructure projects around Newbury in Berkshire.
Today, the site is preserved as an important historical location, looked after by knowledgeable volunteers based in the old traffic control tower. Visitors can walk across much of the former airbase now reclaimed by nature, although the missile silos remain sealed behind multiple layers of fencing.
Greenham Common is well worth exploring with a camera. There’s something striking about the openness of the place, knowing the history that once sat behind those fences.
