I live in Newbury in Berkshire (u.k), about 2 miles away from the now disused Greenham USAF base.

For someone that lives this close to it, I know very little about it!

All I know are the following skecthy details:

1) It used to house cruise missiles.
2) There was an aircarft fire there which may have involved a nuclear substence or weapon.
3) There were lot's of peace protesters there during the 80's.
4) It had the longest runway in Europe?

Like I was saying, I know very little.....

So I was wondering if any one else could shed some light on the place for me.

Any contribution would be great/ interesting.

Cabalx

CabalX, this book contains some interesting information and pictures of Greenham Common USAF Airbase; both in the 1950s-60s and some amazing cut-aways of the Cruise missile bunkers.

Cold War: Building for Nuclear Confrontation 1946-89
Wayne D. Cocroft, Roger J.C. Thomas

Paperback 288 pages (January 10, 2005)
Publisher: English Heritage Publications
Language: English
ISBN: 1873592817


zero lift

Thanks for the info.

This really intrested me, from what I read in the wikipedia:

"Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston in 1961 in a secret report, released by the CND in 1996 that the fire detonated the high explosives in the nuclear weapon and plutonium and uranium oxides were spread over a wide area — foliage up to 8 miles (13 km) away was contaminated with uranium-235 and that they had discovered high concentrations of radioactive contamination around the air base. However, a subsequent report commissioned by Newbury District Council and Basingstoke and Deane found that there was no evidence that there was a nuclear accident."

Like I said, I live within 2 miles of the base, and now it's gone back to Common land, It might be fun to go up and have a good look about.

I'm, pretty sure there wouldn't be anything weird there, but never the less.....

Thanks again for the info, I'm just gonna go look for a copy of that book.

Cabalx

Go into bowdown woods whith a Geiger-conter, you'll have a hart attack.

Just sat around talking to a friend, and we both relised we had prob been in Bowdown woods.

What were these readings like?

Cabalx

[edit on 17-6-2005 by CabalX]

Originally posted by CabalX
Just sat around talking to a friend, and we both relised we had prob been in Bowdown woods.

What were these readings like?

Cabalx

[edit on 17-6-2005 by CabalX]

I have not personally done this I was reporting second hand news, I should have made that clear in my first post, but from what I have been told the reading are not something you would want to live too close to. i.e more than they should be, taking into account natural background radiation.