Friends at the anniversary of the 'invasion' of RAF Molesworth. Photo: Steve Whiting / QPSW.
Molesworth ‘invasion’ remembered
Friends marked the thirtieth anniversary of the 'invasion' of RAF Molesworth
Friends marked the thirtieth anniversary of the ‘invasion’ of RAF Molesworth with an all-faith service at the entrance to the Cambridgeshire base.
Seven Quakers from Leicester, Stevenage and London joined with others from Peterborough, March and St Neots on 7 February.
Thirty years ago the same Friends had campaigned to stop construction of the base and to return the land to peaceful use. Molesworth was due to become the second base for US cruise missiles, following the construction of a nuclear missile base at Greenham Common in Berkshire.
The protests came to an end on 5 February 1985, when 3,000 police and troops arrived to evict some 200 peace campers, and then defence secretary Michael Heseltine arrived by helicopter to announce that the largest ever military operation on mainline Britain had been a ‘success’.
In addition to remembering the ‘invasion’, the group celebrated the recent announcement that RAF Molesworth is to close, along with two other American-used bases, RAF Alconbury and RAF Mildenhall.
