When 20-foot-long missiles moved into the Greenham Common Air Force base in the 1980s, it was the last straw for a group of women in England and Wales. Thus, the collective Women For Life On Earth …

People are retracing the steps taken by protesters on August 26, 1981.

People are retracing the steps taken by protesters on August 26, 1981.

The 1980s peace camp against US cruise missiles was a demonstration of joyous female power that echoes through to the women’s marches of today. Activists recall those heady, scary, inspiring days

-These handy tote bags are ethically made with recycled organic cotton. -This design was created exclusively for us by artist Kayleigh Hilsdon and features two of the iconic Greenham emblems, the flowers of Greenham Common and the boltcutters the women used to get into the base. The Greenham Womens Peace Camp remains the largest female led protest in history and yet many people have never heard of it. We've made these items so YOU can start a conversation and get people talking about Greenham again!

Thirty years on, the occupation of Greenham Common is judged by some to be irrelevant, but its lessons are just as applicable now as they ever were

A United States Air Force C5A Galaxy cargo plane lands at RAF Greenham Common carrying U.S. Tomahawk cruise missiles, the missiles will be stored at the U.K. airbase now being used by the United...

People are retracing the steps taken by protesters on August 26, 1981.

Wikipedia article about Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp

Reporting from the Women’s Peace Camp at Greenham Common in 1983, or Tiananmen Square in 1989, interviewing strike leaders during the 1979 Winter of Discontent or discussing artificial intelligence with a professor of robotics ... Since it first went on air in October 1957, BBC Radio 4's Today has covered major developments in revolution and protest, politics, war, culture, social change, and science and technology. This volume presents Today discussions of 60 topics, introduced by the presenters.

We look back at the huge protest at the military site

Other lives: Communist who spent 17 years in the anti-nuclear protest at RAF Greenham Common

In 1982, Julie Bindel joined 30,000 women ‘embracing the base’ in protest over nuclear arms. Here she recounts the pivotal role the protest played in their lives

It was a protest that changed history. On 12 December 1982, some 30,000 women marched arm in arm onto Greenham Common in Berkshire, aligning themselves along the entire length of the nine-mile long fence that surrounded the Royal Air Force station. Standing against a backdrop of ribbons in the shape of peace signs threaded through…

A new book celebrates the late Observer photographer’s powerful reportage work

Despite the military presence, the women managed to cut through the perimeter fence at Greenham Common and enter the base in protest about the nuclear weapons stored there

True equality will only have been achieved when women are punished as harshly as men for their misdemeanours, says Lisa Jardine.

November will see the 30th anniversary of the first cruise missiles to arrive at Greenham Common airbase.

The Hawkhurst branch line was a classic example of a rural railway which belonged to a different time - it was opened in 1893 - but was never really viable and closed in 1961. It was single track, only 11 miles long and linked Hawkhurst with its neighbouring Kent villages of Cranbrook, Goudhurst, Horsmonden and Paddock Wood, where there was a mainline connection. The ticket here is dated July 4th 1907, and one can't help speculating on the cause for that particular journey from Hawkhurst to Goudhurst. Was it work or pleasure? One reason for the light traffic on the line, apart from its very rural nature, was that the stations were inconveniently placed. Hawkhurst station, for example, was over a mile from the centre of the village and technically not in Hawkhurst at all. At hop and fruit picking time the line was busier, but by the 1950s competition from road transport was rising fast. Annual operating losses nationally in the early 1960s necessitated a pruning of the rail system, hence the Hawkhurst closure in 1961. When Richard Beeching, chairman of British Railways, produced his report The Reshaping of British Railways two years later it recommended the closure of a further 6,000 miles of primarily rural lines. The postcard image below shows the station in use in March 1961, shortly before it closed. I had hoped here to include a further acquisition in the form of an enamel nameplate from one of the Hawkhurst station benches. But it has just been sold at auction for £2,700! These days railwayana occupies a price zone all of its own. I have a personal connection with Hawkhurst station because my grandparents lived nearby and whilst on a visit I remember exploring the station one day with my cousin. It must have been not long after the closure so I would have been 10 or 11 and my cousin 16 or so. The place was completely deserted and abandoned. My cousin had a bright red quite large transistor radio which he carried with him (that was the cool thing to do then). He set it down whilst we poked round the signal box and the adjacent water tower. I have a vivid childhood memory of him pulling a handle which was followed after a pause by an ominous rumbling noise up above, and then water cascaded down through a great rubber trunk, used for filling the steam engine tenders, and drowned the precious radio. We left quickly afterwards. (The abandoned signal box and water tower - Photo by Nick Catford) The station site is now home to some light industrial units, including a firm that makes garden furniture, and only really the signal box survives. Rural railways left their mark on the landscape and on the folklore of the twentieth century countryside.

My aim was to talk to the men constructing the silos for the American cruise missiles stationed there, to help them understand the seriousness of what they were doing

Thirty years ago, Helen John was the first full-time member of the Greenham Common peace camp. Now 73, she's still hard at it, trying to stop drones operating from a UK air base