A Visit to Greenham Common.

Monday 10th September, 2012 in Thatcham.
The day started cloudy and rained on us on and off all day - mostly on M, when she was doing the locks and swing-bridges!
After breakfast, we set off for Thatcham in the company of "Dragonfly" with Lizzie and Richard. We both turned under the main road bridge (just!) and then stopped off at the Greenham Canal Services Marina. We filled MM up with water and they purchased two huge cans of "Morris" lubricating oil and an oil filter as Richard planned to do an oil change on "Dragonfly" later.

M and Lizzie did the locks as Richard and R drove the boats. M walked the towpath all the way (about three miles) and Lizzie walked with her for some of the way. At Bull's Bridge lock, M watched a Kingfisher diving repeatedly into the water looking for his lunch (without much success!). Eventually he flew off down the canal looking for a better spot.
At Monkey Marsh swing-bridge, where we had seen the cow cooling her hooves three days ago, there were now three young calves in the field as well. So nice to see calves being reared in the field and feeding from their Mum.

We arrived at Thatcham and moored next to "Dragonfly" for lunch. According to our guide books and the OS map, Greenham Common was just over a mile to the south. We were curious to see it now that the USAF has gone (1991) and it has been returned to common land (in 1997). R had flow over it many time in the past in a light aircraft, and M had a close friend at school who had been one of the famous "Geenham Common Women" and who had subsequently written a book by the same name.
A pleasant walk of about 30 minutes brought us to the Common, as it now is. We were surprised to see that the two and a quarter mile runway and most of the concrete taxi-ways and hard standings have been removed and the Common is now the preserve of dog walkers and cyclists where there had once been B-52s, F1-11s and the infamous nuclear cruise missiles. One small section of the original runway has been preserved in the centre, but the rest is grass, gorse bushes, wild flowers and peace and quiet. What a contrast!

Looking down what is left of the runway from its centre point.

BEFORE

AFTER (You have got to wonder what they did with all that concrete!)

We spoke to one lady walking her three dogs and she told us that yesterday there had been a local "Heritage Day" and that many of the old facilities had been open to the public including the "De-contamination Centre" and the Cruise Missile silos. We wish that we had known, it would have been fascinating to see them.
The Common is criss-crossed with paths and we had to study the OS map carefully to find our way back to the canal. At six miles, it was a longer walk than we anticipated, especially given that M had already walked the three miles from Newbury to Thatcham on the towpath in the morning. However, we arrived back at MM as it became dusk and rewarded ourselves with "High Tea" including boiled eggs, toast and lots of cake!!
Today: 4 miles, 5 locks and 3.0 hours.
Trip: 263 miles, 273 locks and 222.8 hours (373.9 total).