Meeting places
Greenham Common is about 3 km southeast of the centre of Newbury. It's a large area, about 451 hectares, and extends over 5 km from east to west. It's not feasible to walk (especially carrying tools) from the workshop to all the places we might be working, so we usually meet as near the actual work site as we can get by car. Occasionally, if parking on site is very limited, we meet at the workshop to car-share from there.
We send an e-mail out a few days before each task, to let everybody know the meeting place. All the usual ones have some parking. Some of them are accessed via unmade gravel tracks which serve neighbouring properties. Unless we're meeting at the workshop (see below), the e-mail includes a map and directions.
The Rangers' workshop, "Estovers"
Grid ref: SU 500 652
Postcode: RG19 8BZ
The main visitors' car park for Greenham Common is next to the old airfield control tower, off a roundabout (grid ref SU 499 652) on Bury's Bank Road. If you're coming from the west this is a few hundred metres past the Golf Club entrance, or coming from the east it's a few hundred metres beyond the second cattle grid.
Coming from that roundabout onto the common, the track straight ahead leads into the car park. Don't take this, but instead go sharp left on a gravel track towards two metal-clad warehouse-style buildings. Pass the near one, on your right, and head for a gateway into the compound around the further one. This is the workshop. There's parking on the grass both inside and outside that gate.
Management compartments
The site is divided into 18 management compartments and 44 subcompartments as defined in the first management plan produced in 2000. These are areas containing one habitat type (or a small number of habitats), or are areas visually defined by surrounding boundaries and features, therefore forming a convenient basis for dividing the plan into manageably-sized sections.
Some of the defining boundaries were old airbase features (e.g. roads, runways, taxiways, dispersal areas) which are now much less prominent or even invisible on the ground. Some are, however, still shown on the detailed compartment prescription maps.
Compartments overview sketch