Royal Air Force Station Greenham Common
Royal Air Force Station Greenham Common is one of the most historically layered and emotionally resonant sites in southern England, occupying a stretch of open heathland on the southern edge of Newbury in Berkshire. Once a major military airfield jointly operated by the Royal Air Force and the United States Air Force, the site is now largely returned to nature as a public common and nature reserve, with the old runway and some Cold War infrastructure still visibly embedded in the landscape. Its combination of military heritage, political history, and ecological recovery makes it genuinely unique in Britain.
The airfield was established during the Second World War, opened in 1942, and played a significant role in supporting operations including the D-Day landings in 1944, from which American paratroopers departed on their way to Normandy. After the war it fell largely dormant, but was dramatically reactivated during the Cold War when the United States Air Force returned in 1951. The base became a front-line nuclear deterrent site, eventually housing ground-launched cruise missiles (GLCMs) carrying nuclear warheads under NATO's 1979 dual-track decision to counter Soviet SS-20 missiles deployed in Eastern Europe. It was this decision that transformed Greenham Common from a regional curiosity into an international symbol.
In 1981, a group of women marched from Cardiff to Greenham to protest the siting of nuclear weapons, and upon arriving, several of them chained themselves to the perimeter fence. From that act grew the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp, one of the most sustained and celebrated acts of civil protest in British history. At its height, thousands of women encircled the nine-mile perimeter fence in a human chain; the peace campers endured harsh winters, repeated evictions, and considerable official hostility, yet maintained a continuous presence at the gates for nearly two decades. The camp became a focal point for the global anti-nuclear movement and is remembered as a landmark moment in feminist political activism.
The cruise missiles were eventually withdrawn following the INF Treaty signed by Reagan and Gorbachev in 1987, and the American forces departed in 1992. The RAF finally closed the base in 1993. Rather than being developed, local campaigners successfully fought to have the land restored to its original status as a common, and in 2000 Greenham and Crookham Common was formally reopened as public open land, managed by the Greenham Common Trust. The restoration is considered an environmental success story, with rare lowland heathland species — including Dartford warblers, nightjars, woodlarks, and silver-studded blue butterflies — returning to a landscape that had been sealed under concrete for half a century.
Physically, the site today presents a striking and sometimes eerie contrast. The vast main runway, over two miles long and built to carry heavy bombers, still exists largely intact and cuts through the heathland in a great grey slab, now used for walking, cycling, and model aircraft flying. Around it, the heather, gorse, and silver birch scrub have reclaimed enormous areas. The old hardened aircraft shelters — bombproof structures designed to protect nuclear-armed aircraft — dot the landscape like bunkers from another age, their curved concrete forms half-swallowed by vegetation. The air is quiet, often filled with birdsong, and the sense of desolation tinged with history is palpable, particularly on overcast days.
The Greenham Common Control Tower has been preserved and partially restored, and serves as a visitor centre and heritage attraction run by the Greenham Common Trust. Inside, visitors can learn about the wartime and Cold War history of the airfield, the peace camp, and the ecological restoration. There is a permanent memorial at the site of the women's peace camp at the former main gate — a simple, moving installation that acknowledges the women who lived and protested there over so many years. Several of the original gate sites around the perimeter have interpretive boards explaining the different encampments, each of which had its own character and political identity among the campers.
The surrounding area is pleasant west Berkshire countryside. Newbury town centre, with its shops, restaurants, and the famous Newbury Racecourse, is just a short distance to the north. The wider common connects to Crookham Common, extending the walking and cycling opportunities considerably. Highclere Castle, famously used as the filming location for Downton Abbey, is roughly ten miles to the south, making a combined visit quite feasible. The area is also within easy reach of the North Wessex Downs, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Greenham Common is freely accessible to the public at all times, as befits its status as common land. Dogs are welcome, and there are well-maintained paths and tracks throughout. The control tower visitor centre has limited opening hours and it is advisable to check with the Greenham Common Trust before visiting specifically for that. The site is best reached by car, as public transport to the common itself is limited, though Newbury railway station on the Great Western Main Line is served by regular trains from London Paddington and Reading, and is about two miles from the main entrance. Spring and summer are the finest times to visit for wildlife and the full spectacle of the heathland in bloom, but the vast open skies and austere concrete of the runway carry their own atmosphere in winter.
One detail that lingers long after a visit is the sheer scale of the infrastructure built for the nuclear age and now quietly subsiding into nature. The hardened shelters, known as HAS or Hardened Aircraft Shelters, were each built to withstand a near-miss from a nuclear weapon, and yet they stand today as picnic spots and curiosities for dog walkers. There is something quietly extraordinary about a place where women in sleeping bags and benders of bent hazel wands effectively outlasted the most powerful military alliance in history — and where the land itself has since made perhaps the most eloquent argument of all for what was being fought for.