Clapham
Twinwoods Airfield

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This wartime airfield just three miles from Bedford will always be linked with Glenn Miller. Glenn Miller and his orchestra were based in Bedford and as Twinwoods Airfield was the nearest airfield to Bedford, Miller and his orchestra used Twinwoods to fly to their concerts around the country.

The airfield some 330 acres in extent was requisitioned early in the war by the Air Ministry, although a few years earlier the site had been seriously considered as a possible location for a civil aerodrome for nearby Bedford. By mid 1941 the RAF was using the airfield as an operational training unit.

On August 27th 1944 Glenn Miller performed a special outdoor concert to thank those who worked there. It was the only outdoor concert the Band performed on a British base. Later that year, on the 15th December 1944 Glenn Miller boarded a single engine Noresman at Twinwoods to fly to France although the weather was very poor. The plane after take off was never seen again. Twinwoods Airfield was closed down in June 1945.

Sources

• Newspaper Cuttings Collection, Local Studies Library, Bedford Central Library.
• BARKER, R.  Twin Woods Farm and Glenn Miller.  In The Bedfordshire Magazine Vol.13 pp.194-196 1972.
• SMITH, Graham.  Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire Airfields in The Second World War.

Twinwoods Airfield, Clapham by Bedfordshire Libraries, 2011

Page last updated: 23rd Janaury 2014