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The first peace camp set up in 1981 outside the main gate of the airbase to protest against the deployment of Cruise missiles and occupied until 2000; a commemorative garden opened on the site in 2002
On 5 September 1981 the first peace camp was set up at the Main Gate of the Greenham Common airbase on the A339 Newbury to Basingstoke Road, which was to become known by the peace women as Yellow Gate.
A summary of the history of the Women's Library Greenham Common Collection <1> notes that, " In September 1981 a Welsh group of 36 individuals opposed to nuclear power, called Women for Life on Earth, walked 120 miles from their headquarters to raise awareness of this issue and to protest against NATO's decision to site cruise missiles at Greenham Common. On reaching their destination they chained themselves to the perimeter fence and subsequently established a 'peace camp' there which was to remain for another two decades. The 'camp' itself consisted of nine smaller camps: the first was Yellow Gate, established the month after Women for Peace on Earth reached the airbase; others established in 1983 were Green Gate, the nearest to the silos, and the only entirely exclusive women-only camp at all times, the others accepting male visitors during the day; Turquoise Gate; Blue Gate with its new age focus; Pedestrian Gate; Indigo Gate; Violet Gate identified as being religiously focussed; Red Gate known as the artists gate; and Orange Gate. A central core of women lived either full-time or for stretches of time at any one of the gate camps with others staying for various lengths of time" [http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/genesis/ Accessed 01/03/2011].
A grid reference for the location of the camp is included in other information collated in 2002 <12>; this is centred on SU 504638. The site of the camp was visited in 2003 by the Common Ground Research Group <8> and reported to have completely gone <18>.
Yellow Gate was the longest running peace camp, and was brought to a close after 19 years on 5 September 2000. A small garden had been created at the camp before 2000 to commemorate Helen Thomas, a Welsh peace activity who had been killed in 1989 when she was struck by a vehicle towing a police horsebox while waiting to cross the road. To this memorial was added a peace garden in 2002, designed by Roderick Griffin and incorporating the four elements of fire, earth, water and air. Seven sarsen stones quarried from Wales were erected in a circle, around a metal sculpture of flames representing the camp fire. This symbolic camp fire and a second sculpture called Spiral Water Stone were created by sculptor Michael Marriott.
West Berkshire Museum has photographs showing the Peace Garden in the early 21st century <16>.
The Peace Garden is decorated with two sculptures by Michael Marriott, 'Peace Campfire' and 'Spiral Water Stone' <19>.
The Museum of English Rural Life has a poster commemorating the first anniversary of the establishment of the Peace Camp <21>.
<01> | Nelson, J. 1982-3. The Women's Library: Greenham Common Collection. [Unpublished document / SWB14643] |
<02> | Jones, L (Editor). 1983. Keeping the Peace, Womans Peace Handbook. [Monograph / SWB14039] |
<03> | Blackwood, C. 1984. On the Perimeter. [Monograph / SWB146804] |
<04> | Cook, A & Kirk, G. 1993. Greenham Women Everywhere. [Monograph / SWB14042] |
<05> | Junor, B. 1995. Greenham Common, Women's Peace Camp: A History of Non-Violent Resistance 1984-1995. [Monograph / SWB14038] |
<06> | Kippin, J et al. 2001. Cold War Pastoral, Greenham Common. [Monograph / SWB14041] |
<07> | 2000. World Archaeology: Queer Archaeologies Vol 32, Issue 2. Vol 32, Issue 2. 10.1080/00438240050131216. p236-251 The queer archaeology of Green Gate... by John Schofield & Mike Anderton. [Article in serial / SWB146803] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00438240050131216 (Accessed 10/09/2014) |
<08> | University of Southampton. 2003. Common Ground: Rediscovering Greenham's Cold War Landscape. http://www.soton.ac.uk/~kmp401/index.htm. Accessed 28/09/2007. [Website / SWB14644] http://www.southampton.ac.uk/archaeology/research/projects/the_greenham_project.page (Accessed 02/04/2012) |
<09> | Marshall, Y M. 2005. Archaeologies of Resistance. [Unpublished document / SWB147198] |
<10> | Beck, C, Drollinger, H & Schofield, J. 2006?. Alternative archaeologies of the Cold War: the preliminary results of fieldwork at the Greenham and Nevada peace camps. [Article in monograph / SWB146805] |
<11> | Kidron, B. 2007?. Welcome to Greenham website. http://www.yourgreenham.co.uk/. 29/11/2011. pdf online. [Website / SWB147199] http://www.yourgreenham.co.uk/ (Accessed 29/11/2011) |
<12> | Hawkings, D J. 2002. Information about Greenham Common peace camps. [Unpublished document / SWB147884] |
<13> | Cocroft, W and Thomas, R J C. 2003. Cold War - Building for Nuclear Confrontation 1946-1989. p82-3. [Monograph / SWB14711] |
<14> | Pettitt, A. 2006. Walking to Greenham: How the Peace Camp Began and the Cold War Ended. [Monograph / SWB149226] |
<15> | Harrison, R and Schofield, J. 2010. After Modernity - Archaeological Approaches to the Contemporary Past. p192. [Monograph / SWB149308] |
<16> | Museum Curator. Newbury Museum Accession Records (West Berkshire Museum since 1998). 2022 WBC Network. NEBYM:2015.6.1045, 1047. [Unpublished document / SWB14452] |
<17> | Harford, B and Hopkins, S (ed). 1984. Greenham Common: Women at the Wire. [Monograph / SWB148181] |
<18> | Council for British Archaeology. Jan/Feb 2009. British Archaeology 104. 104. online. [Article in serial / SWB147736] https://reader.exacteditions.com/issues/82231/page/44 (Accessed on 27/07/2022) |
<19> | Hawkings, D. 2003. Greenham: a common inheritance. http://www.greenham-common.org.uk. Accessed 20/03/2008. [Website / SWB13700] http://www.greenham-common.org.uk (Accessed 11/01/2012) |
<20> | Greenham Business Park. 2018. Touching Base 10: Greenham Business Park Newsletter - Autumn 2018. 10. p4. [Serial / SWB150421] https://greenham-business-park.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/touching-base-10.pdf (Accessed on 03/02/2023) |
<21> | Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) - Accession Register. Object Number 2010/62. [Unpublished document / SWB149809] https://merl.reading.ac.uk/merl-collections/search-and-browse/ () |
MWB22820 | 'Peace Campfire' sculpture, Greenham Peace Garden (Monument) |
MWB22821 | 'Spiral Water Stone' sculpture, Greenham Peace Garden (Monument) |
MWB16204 | Greenham Common peace camp - Blue Gate (Monument) |
MWB21764 | Greenham Common peace camp - Emerald Gate (Monument) |
MWB16200 | Greenham Common peace camp - Green Gate (Monument) |
MWB16205 | Greenham Common peace camp - Indigo Gate (Monument) |
MWB16202 | Greenham Common peace camp - Orange Gate (Monument) |
MWB16207 | Greenham Common peace camp - Red Gate (Monument) |
MWB16201 | Greenham Common peace camp - Turquoise Gate (Monument) |
MWB16206 | Greenham Common peace camp - Violet Gate (Monument) |