Acton

Introduction

Acton is a large village with a good deal of modern housing, close to Sudbury. It was recorded in Domesday as "Aketune". The name means "village by the oaks".

There are records of the Crown since at least 1800, though records show an inn holder in the village as far back as 1650.

Most of the housing sits in an area roughly between the High Street and Vicarage Lane, with the pub in the north-west of the village by the road to Long Melford.

One notorious resident was Catherine Forster who, in 1847, became the last woman to be hanged at Bury St Edmunds. She was convicted of poisoning her husband by putting arsenic in his dumplings and might have got away with it, but she made the mistake of feeding the left-overs to her chickens, which also died.

RAF Sudbury was located between Acton, Chilton and Great Waldingfield and was built from August 1942. In April 1944 the USAF 486th Bomb Group with their B24 aircraft arrived. In July they converted to B17 aircraft and by April 1945 had subsequently completed over 8000 sorties or 188 missions for the loss of 33 aircraft through enemy action and 24 due to accidents. Flying ceased in May 1945.

Gallery

Acknowledgements

Some details from "Suffolk Airfields in WW2" by Graham Smith.