About

Tori Yates

Community Heritage Venue Manager

I am very excited to be joining the team as Community Heritage Venue Manager. I’ve worked in hospitality for over 20 years and I’m looking forward to bringing this experience to Greenham Control Tower. I love the Tower with it’s fascinating history and I enjoy walking the common with my lovely spaniel Reggie. I can’t wait to get started, to meet everyone involved and for us to make the Tower as well known and popular as it deserves to be!”

Steve Jones

Director/Trustee

Steve has lived in the area for over 20 years and runs a high-level negotiation consultancy. He is also a local councillor. Having driven past the Control Tower for the last 10 years wondering why it was being allowed to just deteriorate, he became involved with the renovation project. He is also a Director of the West Berkshire Therapy Centre – which last year won the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.

Dave Thomas

Director/Trustee

Dave has lived in Newbury for 15 years and is a regular Common visitor with his family. He led Information and Technology practices at the Natural History Museum and the Natural Environment Research Council for many years. He previously enjoyed time in industry and now works on projects with both national and local museums/archives to help communities and citizens engage with their cultural heritage more easily. He thinks this can really help with trust and celebration in this connected (sometime over connected) digital world. He aslso has fundraising, commercial, exhibitions, collections systems and digital engagement experience too. Lover of travel, nature, making the most of life himself and with others, and generally being useful.

John Cage

Director/Trustee

Jon was a member of the Greenham Parish Council team that successfully completed the building renovation of the tower. He is a director of a local business and also a Newbury Town Councillor

Nigel Manely

Director/Trustee

I have lived in Thatcham for 20 years and like many people have very much enjoyed walking the common. It is an outstanding naturally beautiful site displaying different features and appeal as the seasons change. We have often enjoyed the Tower and the cafe with those wonderful cakes and as dog walkers have been made welcome. I was delighted to be asked to join the Board earlier this year. I will be retiring in the coming months having worked for 51 years in the insurance industry. Most of that time has been focused on corporate governance and compliance with regulatory controls. I am very much looking forward to making a contribution to the success of the Tower as an important local heritage site and ensuring the Tower is secure for future generations to enjoy as I have.

Julian Swift-Hook

Trustee & Director

I have lived in West Berkshire for the last 40 years, and for most of that time I have been a local councillor, on West Berkshire Council, Newbury Town Council, and Greenham Parish Council. I have also been Chair of Trustees at West Berkshire Mencap until recently, and I have run my own business. Eleven years ago, I started the process of Greenham Parish Council buying the Control Tower from West Berkshire Council and converting it into the Visitor Centre and Café that it is today. It is one of my two proudest achievements in the local community – the other one being the creation of Kennet Radio 106.7 FM, the local community radio station that covers Newbury and Thatcham. Five years ago, I stepped away from the Control Tower Visitor Centre project in order to focus on the on-air launch of Kennet Radio in 2018. I have returned to the Control Tower as a Trustee of the charity and Director of the trading company. It’s five years since the Control Tower opened its doors to the public for the first time. I hope that my experience in business, local government, and as a trustee of one of the largest local charities will help take the Control Tower forward for the next five years and beyond.

Dean Graham

Jeremy Willis

Ambassador

Jeremy has lived in Newbury since 1994 when he moved from just outside Lyme Regis after 18 years as Director of Music at Allhallows School. During that time he started the first IT department and was heavily involved with the HM Coastguards, running a search and rescue team with the pupils. In 1994 he was attracted into the family company, the Newbury Weekly News, as its first Circulation and Marketing manager and by 2019 had progressed through the roles of Deputy MD, MD and finally Chairman. A very active radio ‘ham’ Jeremy was Chairman of the Newbury and District Amateur Radio Society that now have a permanent radio station, GB4GCT, at the Tower. Once retired, Jeremy joined the team at the Tower as an Ambassador, using his experience of the community of Newbury to support the Trustees in the areas of fund raising and management.

Andy Kempe

Ambassador

I moved to the quiet market town of Newbury in sedate and leafy West Berkshire in 1982 – just as the first cruise missiles began to arrive and Greenham Common started to appear regularly on the evening news. Driving along Burys Bank Road was a very different experience then to what it is now! I retired from my post as Professor of Drama Education at the University of Reading in 2016 and soon became involved in ‘Greenham: One Hundred Years of War and Peace’, an amazing community theatre project that was staged on the common and involved over 200 local people. This led to my association with the control tower where I have served as a guide and developed our outreach and education profile. This has involved offering talks, tours and workshops to local history societies, the Women’s Institute and other groups including of course local schools and youth groups. I have also presented three plays at the tower: ‘The Brylcreem Boys’ with students from Park House School, ‘Bloody Wimmin’ as a part of the commemoration of the arrival of the Peace Women, and most recently ‘Half-light’ which drew on research into Newbury’s WW2 history to tell the story of one local family’s experience of VE Day. The common has an amazing history and I continue to enjoy telling people about it.

Ceinwen Lally

Ambassador

Ceinwen has lived in Newbury since 1991 and has volunteered with several local organisations including the town’s community orchards and Newbury Apple Day. During her career she has worked in marketing and business development, both in large multinational companies and small local food businesses. As an ambassador she likes engaging with visitors face to face when she is serving in the Café, as well as reaching out to work with other local community groups. She enjoys the opportunity her role at the Tower provides to help build the future for this historic Newbury landmark .

Michaela Sandru

Cafe Supervisor

Moved to Newbury during 2014 from Bucharest in Romania, as a result of a career move in the telecom sector. When I arrived I was extremely impressed by the warm and friendly welcome I received from the local community. This has been very important to me especially as my husband was unable to join me until the following year. In 2018 we discovered the Greenham Tower visitor centre and café, and we both felt it was a lovely project to be involved with so we volunteered, and I have been working in the Café at weekends since then. I thoroughly enjoy being at the Tower and meeting all the people who visit. It’s my way of giving something back to the community I now belong to. I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone thinking of doing the same.

Sharon Rose Grace

Cafe Supervisor

Has been working for Greenham tower since April 2021, I’ve previously had experience working in primary schools and colleges, more recently worked in a private care home before covid. I am a mum of 2 grown up children and nana to my precious granddaughter. I enjoy the outdoors very much, so I walk and enjoy gardening on my balcony! With lots of plant pots. I love reading and music. I am a committed Christian. This all helps me in my everyday life including my role at the cafe, which I enjoy so much. It is a place where everyone from all walks of life come to volunteer or be served a cup of tea and can experience acceptance and feel a valued as a person! And that’s why I love the cafe ~ it’s a happy place!

Peter Evans

Exhibitions & Outreach

Peter grew up in Newbury in the 1950s, living about one mile from the end of the runway. This was the time of cold war tensions and the B-47 Stratojets, with the noise and vibration from these 6-jet heavy bombers flying day and night. Peter left Newbury in the mid-1960s to study civil engineering and followed a career working on projects in the UK and overseas. Interest in Greenham was maintained with visits to the Air Tattoo and following the progress of the refurbishment. On retirement Peter assisted with the preparations for the opening of the Tower. He is a guide and leads the exhibition and outreach group, which includes arranging tours and classic car meetings.

Pam Hart

Volunteer Coordinator

Pam has lived in Newbury for 30 years and has worked as a volunteer since the Tower opened in 2018. She started as a guide and then joined the Exhibition and Outreach group. Her roll is now that of Volunteer Coordinator. This involves; – actively seeking new recruits, ensuring that they get off to a good start by pairing them with other experienced volunteers to learn the ropes, providing the opportunity for development according to their interests, communicating to volunteers any operational changes in the tower and trying to ensure there are sufficient volunteers on duty. She also volunteers at West Berkshire Museum and has a keen interest in archaeology.