Cold War Anglia: the culture and landscape of the Cold War in East Anglia

The Cold War is often presented by writers, historians and film/documentary makers as a secret conflict, when specialists on both sides waged a struggle largely invisible to the general population - a war of nuclear strategy, secret agents, 'high-tech' bombers, and clever civil servants. Much historical research has reflected this view, concentrating on high level policy-making and military strategy, or national movements for and against the conflict. Little attention has been focussed on the Cold War in Britain at a community level: on its effect on the region, the village, the town. Yet, the front line of this 'secret' war lay in the heart of Britain's communities, both rural - where nuclear weapons sites, listening stations, airbases and laboratories sprang up next to small villages and at the end of leafy lanes - and urban, where the rapidly expanding armaments industry drove the development of new towns. In consequence, villages and small towns across the nation faced the prospect of devastation at the hands of Soviet nuclear and conventional weapons that was unprecedented, even between 1939-45.

Furthermore, these hitherto largely secluded communities had to deal with the arrival of the organs of the modern state in close proximity to them, as government reached into areas of the country that had, in many ways, been overlooked previously. The construction of state facilities across the country created a network of outposts of the central state that over-rode local government and introduced a whole new type of government in the regions.

Cold War Anglia intends to examine the Cold War from a regional and community perspective by encouraging local communities to research and record the histories of the Cold War in the region. East Anglia is unusual in the UK because it contains the full range of Cold War sites, including nuclear weapons stores, nuclear missile launch sites, military airbases, radar stations, intelligence stations, ground-to-air missile sites, nuclear and conventional research laboratories, as well as new towns built around high-technology defence industries. This makes it especially suitable for this work, but many of these locations are under threat and their preservation is a pressing issue.

Historians of landscape and the Cold War from the University of East Anglia, along with our partner organisations, would support research into the history of these locations undertaken by community research groups with training sessions in local history research techniques, landscape research and oral history. This training will assist these local partners to undertake valuable historical research on this hitherto neglected topic. They will be able to record the stories of those who worked inside Cold War bases and also those who lived outside them, in the farms, villages and towns nearby. In addition, this training will help community partners to undertake fieldwork where they can record the current condition of this Cold War landscape, which is under considerable pressure and lacks significant historic protection.

Our community partners would upload the results of their research directly onto the project website, which would be designed and maintained by the University in consultation with these partners. This website will also provide a platform for computer-generated reconstructions of these locations, which will be part of a wider programme of dissemination of the project team's findings.

The project's findings will be made available on the website and advertised by the University and our institutional partners. We plan to create visitor centres at some locations, along with a programme of walks, which will be 'self-guided' by means of documents downloaded from the website or by interactive applications available via the internet. Additionally, the research team will produce at least two articles, and a book that will present the project's outcome in a more traditional manner.

Cold War Anglia will benefit a wide range of users and has the potential to make a significant contribution to the formulation of public policy in East Anglia. The former sites of the Cold War are widespread across the region and their preservation, as well as the current and future use of the land on which they stood and treatment of the natural habitats they have, largely unintentionally, created, are significant questions for public and private economic policy.

Some former Cold War sites are now in private hands, while others are in public ownership. Some have been redeveloped and others have fallen into disrepair. The nature and use of some sites, such as the former RAF Coltishall, are in transition and major decisions about their future must be taken. The project would also be of direct benefit to those involved in the management, economic redevelopment and conservation of such sites within East Anglia. These bodies include the County Councils and the local District Councils within the study area, which will be able to use the data collected in the management of these sites and local planning. Furthermore, the project will allow communities to become more aware of their local history and thus inform their decision-making in relation to the future of these sites: for example should they be preserved or redeveloped, or are both options possible? As public consultations take place on these matters our work will empower local groups in their dealings with public and private institutions about the future of their communities. For example, by helping our partners make a significant contribution to the planning and creation of a Visitor Centre at RAF Barnham and a Heritage Trail at RAF Coltishall, about which we are already in discussion.

The data produced will be made available on the Norfolk Historic Environment Record (NHER). The NHER provides information on the historic environment of the county to researchers, academics, and members of the public and to commercial clients including developers and archaeological units.

The project would be of direct use to national organisations, such as English Heritage and the National Trust, and would inform their policy strategy in relation to the Cold War landscape. Public sector organisations, such as County Councils, and charities, such as the Norwich Regeneration Trust (HEART) would also benefit from the proposed project. All of these organisations could use the data and research from the project in formulating local and national policy relating to Cold War sites, examining issues of public access and in managing the historic environment, economic redevelopment and environmental protection. These locations are also an important part of British cultural and political heritage, and the project will bring together raw data and historical research to produce a rounded view of the Cold War in this region, which will in turn allow us to reconsider the wider historical context of the Cold War in general. The essence of our work is that it will empower local identity. By helping local communities gain a new appreciation of their role in the third great conflict of the twentieth century those communities will gain a fresh insight into the legacy of that conflict as it affects them today. For example, it will provide a different interpretation of how their local democracy has changed since 1945, and the role in that process of change of the demands of central government for war-fighting capacity. Similarly, it will reveal the manner in which their local landscapes have been changed by twentieth century militarisation. This knowledge will, hopefully, give them greater ability to shape local and national policies that relate to their lives. The project will, furthermore, cause national researchers and organisations to reconsider the importance of the local in what is often seen as a subject constituted only by matters of strategy, superpower conflict and international rivalry.