Call to revive the spirit of Greenham Common

In August 1981, 36 people, mainly women, walked from Wales to RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire to protest against the storing of US cruise missiles in the UK.

- By Alexandra Topping

They were alarmed about the imminent threat the weapons posed for themselves and for their children, they later said.

In the wake of the UK government's announcement last week that it plans to significantly expand its nuclear arsenal by buying a squadron of American fighter jets capable of carrying US tactical warheads, key figures at Greenham hope a new generation of campaigners will take up the baton.

Ann Pettitt, now 78, devised the original idea for a march that led to the formation of the camp. At its height, more than 70,000 women were there. It was, as Pettitt said, "actually successful" in managing to hugely raise awareness of the presence of US nuclear warheads in the UK - the last of which left RAF Lakenheath in 2008. The camp went on after the Greenham Common missiles had gone in 1991 and the base was closed in 1992. The remaining campaigners left Greenham Common after exactly 19 years.