Abbey Gardens Bury St Edmunds Suffolk

Another Seven mile run in the centre of Bury St Edmunds Suffolk.

7 miles in 1 hour 4 seconds. Total for week 37 miles and 102 miles for June.

I am beginning to build up my mileage though I need to enter some races so that I have a target. I am happy just to run but having a race in mind helps give more of a focus to your training.

I again visited parts of the Abbey Gardens and this memorial to the 94th Bombardment Group can be found in one of the gardens near to the Park keepers hut. There are many links between England and the United States of America and this is one from modern times.

From 1943 to 1945 the 94th Heavy Bombardment Group was based at Rougham Airfield. Rougham is about 2 miles from Bury St Edmunds.

Over 300 operational missions took place in the 2 years with 8000 plus sorties and a bomb tonnage of more than 18,000 tons being dropped. 153 aircraft were listed missing in action. The B17 Flying Fortress and the B26 Marauder would have been a common site over the skies of Suffolk during this time as they were used by the 94th Bombardment Group.

Acton - Sudbury Airfield USAF 486th Bomb Group Suffolk

5pm 6 miles in 48 mins 17 seconds

Week to date mileage 6

Month to date mileage 35

Average weekly rate 30.3

Average Monthly rate 132

Year to Date 1100

Life time 9120

For tonights run I decided to return to the village of Acton in Suffolk. Acton is close to the Waldingfields and Sudbury. I parked close to Babergh Hall and soon picked up on an off road pathway.

I soon realised that I was running on a disused airfield which seemed very popular with dog walkers. If you look at the ordanance survey map 196 you will see a large airfield with a very straight pathway through the centre of the airfield.

The Sudbury airfield was a second world airfield for Class A heavy bombers which had 3 runways. It only opened in 1944 towards the very end of the 2nd world war and is now largely covered in vegetation or been dug up in sections so as to plant crops. Piles of concrete sit in dumps. At this airfield the 486th bomb group USAF was based. There are still some hangers to be seen. A link with some history of this airfield is to be found here.

According to this site "46 missions were flown in the B24. In July 1944 the Group converted to the B-17G Flying Fortresses and flew another 142 missions. Overall, thirty three B24's and B17's were lost in action."


It certainly gets you thinking when you are out on a run about the many lives lost and to my mind there is a special atmosphere here at the Sudbury Airfield.

I ran an out and back course which took me to the edge of Sudbury though looking at the map another time I see it is possible to do a circular route.