{"id":19550,"date":"2026-10-27T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=19550"},"modified":"2026-10-24T12:03:06","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T11:03:06","slug":"blockade-at-aldermaston-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=19550","title":{"rendered":"Blockade at Aldermaston – 2008"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Blockade at Aldermaston:<\/strong> On Monday 27th October 2008 I cycled with Linda from Reading to join the CND Blockade of the Atomic Weapons Establishment, which together with nearby Burghfield makes Britain’s nuclear bombs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It isn’t a huge distance to cycle – I think around 12 miles taking the same route as the 2004 Aldermaston march. It was good weather for cycling and there was only one really difficult hill on the way. At Aldermaston we cycled around the outer fence of the huge site – over 4 miles – and then I cycled a little to and fro to take pictures before cycling back to Reading, perhaps covering a little over 30 miles in all. A shortish and pleasant ride, though some was on dirt tracks and jumping on and off to take photos also made it more tiring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Demonstrators at the Tadley Gate<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The blockades had been an overnight event, with actions beginning in the early morning and we arrived far too late for them. They had closed the main road and several gates of the site for some hours, and around 30 people being arrested. Many of those taking part in them had already left for home by the time we arrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Entertaining the protesters and police at the main gate<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Linda had come to demonstrate with Christian CND and was hoping to join them for lunch at the North Gate and continue with them on a procession of witness around the large site, holding a liturgy at each of the 8 gates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their procession had started earlier than expected and they had left before we arrived there, so we continued on our bikes making our own circuit of the site. A long hill leads up from Aldermaston Village and we caught up with Christian CND at the Construction Gate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nipponzan Myohoji Japanese Buddhists – who had walked all the way from London to Aldermaston for the event<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With them were several Nipponzan Myohoji Japanese Buddhists who had walked all the way to Aldermaston from the Battersea Park Peace Pagoda. Linda joined the group and walked with them to hold short services at each of the remaining gates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dancing the ‘Shackle Shuffle’ to Seize the Day’s \u2018Club X-Ray’ which gives a new perspective on Guantanamo Bay<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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I cycled on to photograph at other places and on to the Main Gate. Here there was a Quaker silent vigil and I found “the mobile bicycle-powered Rinky-Dink sound system and musicians were entertaining a small crowd. Seize the Day’s great Guantanamo number \u2018Club X-Ray’ soon had everyone doing the ‘Shackle Shuffle’ to its Latin tinge<\/em>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I went with Rinky Dink back to the Tadley Gate where I met with Linda and the Christian CND ending their final liturgy of the long day of protest. Everyone was now packing up and leaving and we began our ride back to Reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Christian CND procession around the base ends with the sharing of the peace<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We started back the way we had come, but on reaching the Kennett and Avon Canal north of Burghfield decided to join National Cycle Route 4, a long distance cycle route from Greenwich in London to Fishguard in Wales. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fortunately we chose the right direction, but it did result in a rather lengthy detour on our way into Reading station as well as slowing our ride on the poorer surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Flickr<\/a> – Facebook<\/a> – My London Diary<\/a> – Hull Photos<\/a> – Lea Valley<\/a> – Paris<\/a>
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All photographs on this page are copyright \u00a9 Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blockade at Aldermaston: On Monday 27th October 2008 I cycled with Linda from Reading to join the CND Blockade of the Atomic Weapons Establishment, which together with nearby Burghfield makes Britain’s nuclear bombs. It isn’t a huge distance to cycle – I think around 12 miles taking the same route as the 2004 Aldermaston march. … Continue reading Blockade at Aldermaston – 2008<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[25989,1789,3892,19011,25995,6020,2158,25414,7567,5423,742,25996,578,25990,25999,6579,25997,155,25992,25994,25991,583,17880,83,5740,16,13296,17012,25993,2919,23437],"class_list":["post-19550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-own-work","category-political-issues","tag-2008-aldermaston","tag-aldermaston","tag-atomic-bombs","tag-atomic-weapons-establishment","tag-battersea-park-peace-pagoda","tag-bicycles","tag-bike-ride","tag-bike-powered","tag-bomb-factory","tag-buddhists","tag-christian-cnd","tag-club-x-ray","tag-cnd","tag-cnd-blockade-awer","tag-cycle-route-4","tag-guantanamo-bay","tag-kennett-and-avon-canal","tag-love","tag-make-trident-history","tag-nipponzan-myohoji","tag-nuclear-boms","tag-peace","tag-peace-protest","tag-peter-marshall","tag-power","tag-protest","tag-reading","tag-rinky-dink","tag-shackle-shuffle","tag-sound-system","tag-world-peace"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19550"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19552,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19550\/revisions\/19552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}