Politics

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Security and danger
Vron Ware
,
Antonia Lucia Dawes
,
Mitra Pariyar
, and
Alice Cree

The Covid-19 pandemic provided an opportunity to find out whether inhabitants of towns and villages on or near the training area felt protected as a result of living so close to soldiers, who were categorised as key workers. Previously, the attempted poisoning of the Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia Skripal drew global attention to the military laboratory at Porton Down, situated just outside Salisbury where the attack took place. The fact that this facility was associated with experiments in military ‘secret science’ dating back to the post-1945 era did little to reassure local residents that they might be safer living so close to the scene of the crime. While the housing of vulnerable asylum seekers in disused military bases is not unprecedented in post-1945 UK history, today the decrepit state of the buildings and their isolated locations raise questions about basic human rights. Once again, the fact that so many refugees are themselves casualties of war waged elsewhere – often in conflicts in which the UK armed forces are or have been involved – is integral to the wider military geographies that this book explores.

in England’s military heartland
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Vron Ware
,
Antonia Lucia Dawes
,
Mitra Pariyar
, and
Alice Cree

This chapter focuses on Tidworth itself, beginning at Station Road which is the commercial heart of the garrison. It identifies the places where people mix socially and reports on a range of conversations with residents. Approaching the project of military–civilian integration as a political initiative, it investigates certain places that bring people together, and observes how particular groups or communities interact. The topic of loneliness in rural places is addressed. We meet more individuals whose experiences speak to these questions, including an elderly retired Gurkha and a Ghanaian pastor married to a soldier.

in England’s military heartland
Preparing for war on Salisbury Plain

This book provides a glimpse of life lived next to and within the perimeter of a British Army ‘super garrison’ located in Wiltshire in south-west England. Comprising the largest training area in the country, Salisbury Plain offers a unique opportunity to investigate the impact of this military base on rural communities living close to the wire. Situated within the precious ecology of mostly ‘unimproved’ chalk grassland, in an area known for its rich prehistoric remains, this is an environment that bears the scars of more than a century of modern warfare. While the names of road and buildings in the camps and garrisons offer lessons in imperial military history, the new housing estates perched on the edge of open country point to the vast infrastructure of service family life required to maintain the modern army. In addition to the social, cultural, economic and political aspects of life in an area dominated by military training needs, the book examines different facets of nature conservation, farming and other ecological questions that emanate from the army’s historic occupation of the Plain. The relationship between this Wiltshire ‘super garrison’ and the zones of contemporary conflict elsewhere in the world accounts for the secrecy and inaccessibility that pervades this militarised landscape. By drawing attention to this particular place, this book interrogates the costs and consequences for society as a whole of maintaining a professional military workforce.

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Hidden in plain sight
Vron Ware
,
Antonia Lucia Dawes
,
Mitra Pariyar
, and
Alice Cree

The book begins with a visual introduction to the main road that skirts the southern edge of the Salisbury Plain training area. Vehicles pass close to Stonehenge, which acts as a decoy detracting attention from the sights and sounds of the army nearby. Some of the key concepts are introduced, alerting readers to the idea that, in a place like this, it is rarely possible to draw a line between what is military and what is not. As it begins to outline the aims and scope of the book, the introduction explains some of the methods used to carry out the research as well as the obstacles that were inevitably placed in its path. Summaries of each chapter are provided, indicating how the overall narrative develops from a descriptive account of the landscape to an engaged interaction with local residents. The final section reflects on the militarisation of the English countryside, beginning with reference to the use of dilapidated defence estate to house asylum seekers. It then looks back at the anti-nuclear movement of the Cold War era, in particular the women’s peace camp at Greenham Common in Berkshire. Noting that the concepts of wartime and peacetime have become anachronistic, the introduction ends by urging readers to pay attention to the costs and consequences for society as a whole of maintaining a professional military workforce equipped and trained to use weapons of mutual destruction as a mode of solving political conflict.

in England’s military heartland
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Vron Ware
,
Antonia Lucia Dawes
,
Mitra Pariyar
, and
Alice Cree

How would you know this is a historic military training area? How and when did this happen? How did the Ministry of Defence, and associated bodies, manage to justify occupying so much land, including forcibly deserted villages, over such a long period? This chapter offers a tour of the western side of the training area, noting the different structures that represent earlier phases of conflict. It then touches on questions of public access and environmental politics, offering a critique of ‘camouwash’ or military ‘greenwash’ that claims the army is preserving the distinct ecology of the plain rather than damaging it. It also shows how Britain’s imperial military heritage is manifest in the built environment of Salisbury Plain, tucked away and rarely noticed. The chapter situates the book within a genre of eco-political, decolonial place-writing, attentive to the country’s record of colonial violence while showing connections with its current network of military bases around the world.

in England’s military heartland
Abstract only
Vron Ware
,
Antonia Lucia Dawes
,
Mitra Pariyar
, and
Alice Cree

This chapter asks if it is possible to assess the economic benefits brought by the army presence, and how this might be estimated. It looks at various recent developments – a business enterprise centre, for example – and at the amount invested in defence and security in the wider South West region. The chapter is framed by the support given to military spouses to start their own businesses, seeing this as partly an outcome of the military covenant campaign from the 2007 period onwards. The consequent politicisation of military service led to wide-ranging promises to support soldiers and their families, but, in the meantime, it had become clear that the gender dynamics of the military way of life are not conducive to long-term careers in the service. The chapter ends by asking about the effect of military discounts on the local economy, asking if this actually detracts from efforts to integrate or at least to bring benefits to a region.

in England’s military heartland
Vron Ware
,
Antonia Lucia Dawes
,
Mitra Pariyar
, and
Alice Cree

This chapter picks up the thread that retention of trained soldiers is as important as replenishing younger recruits. The military refer to recruitment as ‘inflow’ while veterans (a term that signifies anyone who leaves after starting their contract, no matter how short their service) are classed as ‘outflow’. Beginning and ending with scenes from Armed Forces Day, celebrated in two different Wiltshire towns in 2018 and 2019, the argument is that this pipeline – again a term used in military circles – is empirically more successful in areas near significant bases. The chapter looks first at the issue of army recruitment in local schools, asking how young people and their families might feel about this. This includes a short critique of army advertising campaigns. It then turns to the ‘outflow’ – the category of veteran – taking several examples to explore different aspects. This leads inevitably to a discussion of PTSD and military charities. The chapter ends with a moment in a Quaker Meeting House which offers a space to reflect on the alternatives to the forms of war preparation provided by the local Armed Forces Day celebration.

in England’s military heartland
Abstract only
Vron Ware
,
Antonia Lucia Dawes
,
Mitra Pariyar
, and
Alice Cree

This chapter explains in more detail the geography of camps in relation to adjacent towns and villages, showing how the military institution has spread out into the surrounding area. Its focus is on the present, however, with examples of some of the impact of the expansion in terms of both housing and local businesses. We hear from individuals who live and work there, whether connected to the army or not. The force of the chapter is that the army takes up a great deal more space than it claims and yet it is routinely left out of debates about rural housing, infrastructure, planning, road safety and other regional issues, as though it is an entirely separate entity.

in England’s military heartland
Vron Ware
,
Antonia Lucia Dawes
,
Mitra Pariyar
, and
Alice Cree

The development of a ‘super garrison’ on Salisbury Plain was part of a series of reforms and restructuring that was intended to improve the quality of army family life. One of these was the Armed Forces Community Covenant, introduced in 2011. This chapter explores the impact of these policy changes at a local level, drawing on a detailed conversation with the CEO of Aspire Defence, the company contracted to manage the redevelopment of the garrison over 35 years. Noting how the military way of doing things is often at odds with established practice, we investigate the quality of new housing, the operation of a new NHS–military health centre and the challenges for educational staff of accommodating fluctuating numbers of service children.

in England’s military heartland
Abstract only
Vron Ware
,
Antonia Lucia Dawes
,
Mitra Pariyar
, and
Alice Cree

This chapter looks at memorials to war violence found in rural places. It begins with the Remembrance service in November 2018 moving to a wreath-laying ceremony at a new memorial in Tidworth. Noting the significance of the centenary of the First World War on Salisbury Plain, the chapter notes local concern over the minimal recognition of Gurkha and Commonwealth troops in twentieth-century wars. This is followed by a description of military cemeteries on the Plain. The focus then moves to those who have survived more recent wars, and who became the object of public attention through charities likes Help for Heroes. Here it returns to Tedworth House, a mansion purchased by the War Department in 1897, which was taken over by Help for Heroes in 2011 and transformed into a showcase rehabilitation centre for wounded soldiers. Today it is run by the Ministry of Defence, awaiting a decision on its future, having been reclassified (and downgraded) as a Personal Recovery Centre with no connection to Help for Heroes. The chapter notes its significance in the longer history of veterans’ rehabilitation, with reference to a local recovery centre founded after the First World War, now dedicated to a disability employment unit. It ends by returning to the theme of war heritage being written into the landscape, both in the built environment and on the surface of the ground itself.

in England’s military heartland