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The Living Legacy of the Greenham Women: “Let’s not forget that they triumphed”

Great News!

The Heritage Lottery Fund have awarded Scary Little Girls, in partnership with The Heroine Collective, a grant to bring a hugely important piece of feminist heritage into public access.

We’re embarking on an 18 month project to interview The Greenham Women who formed the Greenham Common Peace Camp between 1981 and 2000. The Peace Camp was established to protest nuclear weapons being placed at RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire.

Were you a Greenham Woman? Do you have any stories about Greenham? Do you have friends, colleagues, family members who were at Greenham?

We want to hear from you!

You can get in touch via email – hello (at) theheroinecollective.com and you can also join the conversation using the hashtag #HLFGreenham.

More info…

Women from all over the world braved every weather and indignity to live together in order to protest peacefully and creatively about the threat to humankind from the nuclear arms race. In a time before the internet and mobile phones, the women and their supporters managed to organise thousands for actions like “Embrace the Base” in 1982, in which 30,000 women held hands around the edges of the common.

Though it was the largest demonstration in modern history, we have relatively little information about life on camp. For the first time, we’ll be looking at the truths behind the tabloids, the anecdotal details, the political strategies, and we’ll be bringing the heritage right into the hands of the public.

While the camp was based in Berkshire, the women came from all over the world to attend. We’ll be collating these women’s oral testimonies through detailed interviews, taking photographs, and making video documentation for a specially designed website.

Additionally, we’ll be touring the country with a pop-up exhibition aiming to help spread the word about the heritage. The research will have a permanent home at The Women’s Library in London, and also at Kresen Kernow, Cornwall’s new archive centre.

We’re working with 10 volunteers on the project. The volunteers will be trained in a variety of skills, and have the chance not only to meet the women themselves, but to contribute to a project which brings previously side-lined history into the spotlight, making it available for generations of people to come.

We do hope you can offer us support with spreading the word about what’s happening in your part of the country, and helping attract attention to the importance of the project!

The project is supported by The Heritage Lottery Fund South West, The University of The West of England in Bristol, Cornwall Council, Falmouth University, The Women’s Library at The London School of Economics, The East End Women’s Museum, Goldsmiths University of London, The Hypatia Trust, The Feminist Library, the UK Parliament Vote 100 Project and Dreadnought South West.

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