Greenham Ghost Train : Greenham Girls Gin Distillery
University of Reading || Year 3 Summer Term
Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp was a series of protest camps established to protest the storage of nuclear weapons at RAF Greenham Common. The camp began in September 1981 after a Welsh group, Women for Life on Earth, arrived at Greenham to protest the decision of the British government to allow cruise missiles to be stored there. After realising that the march alone was not going to get them the attention that they needed to have the missiles removed, women began to stay at Greenham to continue their protest. The camps were active for 19 years and my manifesto is to unearth the camps that were once there and celebrate the women’s actions. The protestors consisted of nine smaller camps at various gates around the base. Camps were named after the colours of the rainbow, as a way of contrasting against the green shades of the base. I will celebrate this in my forest strategy and plant trees representing the colours of each camp to permanently place these camps in the grains of Greenham Common.
Wide Scale Strategy
During the journey from Cardiff to Greenham, the core group all wore scarves especially designed for the march, showing the figure of a woman in purple and white, and the peace symbol in green – suffragette colours. I wanted to symbolise this journey in my wider scale map and represent the colours worn. My proposed wide scale strategy is to plant juniper trees along the path that the women walked to get to Greenham. As well as the juniper tree representing the purple, white and green colours of the suffragettes, the juniper tree is also in decline in the UK with the species a priority under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. Planting a mass number of juniper trees will increase the species population and sustain it.
Site Strategy
History is integrated in our landscapes and the story of Greenham Common Peace Camps will grow through the different colour trees and plants proposed to be a permanent feature of Greenham Common. As well as this, the old runway site will be excavated, and a body of water will run through it as an emblem of peace and how the women helped in shut down RAF Greenham Common and restore it to its natural state. This will also represent this quote said by a Peace Camp Protestor “You are a spring & we will become a river that will flow to become an ocean of women's energy. We women come together around Greenham cruise missile base to show that the continued arms escalation is not the way”. The proposed routes break down the original border of the runway and are replaced with more freeform paths to disrupt the previous order of RAF Greenham Common and propose a new peaceful, natural form. These paths will also extend to the existing commemorative and historic site south east of the runway. The memorial placed in the old yellow camp consists of seven standing stones encircling a 'Flame' sculpture representing a campfire. Next to this there is a stone and steel spiral sculpture, engraved with the words "You can't kill the Spirit” and a memorial to activist Helen Wyn Thomas who was killed near the site. The building will also disrupt the manmade order of the site with it sitting front right and centre to the original runway making a stance that order has been restored and nature is now taking its course.
The Building
The building is designed to be a celebration of what the women did to protest and not a woe. I have proposed a gin distillery on the site and a lab that will experiment in sustaining the plants planted on site and used in the distillery. The distillery will also use the juniper planted along the wide scale strategy, making it self-sustaining an economical. The building is designed as a sensory experience, the cladding is made from eucalyptus wood which you will be able to smell instantly as you emerge from the colourful landscapes. Inside the building holds a secret garden which contains plants from the forest that the botanist can experiment on and give to the distillery. The visitors will get to experience this space and immerse themselves in the different scents of the plants and dwell. The upper floor of the building will include a gin school where the visitors will get to experience the botanicals sensually and make their own gin varieties. They will also get to experience the botanicals growing in the greenhouse bar and smell the fragrances produced by the plants.
