"Molesworth photograph" [NMLH.1994.62.4.26]

Catalogue Number
NMLH.1994.62.4.26

Object Name
Photograph

Place
RAF Molesworth

Events
Molesworth Peace Camp

Date
1985

Description
Black and white photograph of cars and vans parked in a carpark in a rural area of fields with a few buildings in the distance. A handwritten caption on the back reads "3/2/85 Molesworth - 'Transits against the Bomb' Various Peace Groups' wheels parked beside the old firing range scrapyard and hangars beyond".


RAF Molesworth in Cambridgeshire was one of three sites chosen to deploy 64 US Cruise missiles during the Cold War. In 1980, various peace campaigners started building a protest camp on the land, called 'Peace Corner'. In 1985, over 100 people were living there until the camp was evicted by police in April that year. Despite this, the campaign continued with various protestors camping in or around the site. Nuclear missiles were removed from the RAF Molesworth base in 1987 when the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, and the camp officially disbanded in 1990, just before the end of the Cold War.

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