1 Greenham Common
Berkshire
Cold War-era base filled with birdsong
DURING THE COLD WAR, RAF GREENHAM Common was famously the home of NATO’s nuclear deterrent: an arsenal of short-to long-range cruise missiles targeted on Soviet Russia. From the early 1980s until 2000, the perimeter fence also became home to the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp. At its height, 30,000 women protesters lived permanently at the site, attracting worldwide media interest and edifying the international peace movement.
Visit today and you won’t hear the sound of fighter jets taking off or the melodies of protest songs, rather the shrill calls of larks breaking the silence over this long expanse of grassland. Peppered with egg-yolk-yellow flowering gorse and vibrant pink heather, the site is home to 30 species of butterfly and its open heath attracts birds such as skylarks, woodlarks, nightjars and linnets. Though the runway is now mostly grown over, you can still trace its path with a keen
