page_title: Alpheton
section_title: Two World Wars
hierarchical_section_title: Alpheton / History / Two World Wars
caption_attribution_description: English: Former airfield buildings at Clapstile Farm. The older buildings formed part of the Mess at the wartime Lavenham Airfield. http://www.lavenham.co.uk/airfield.
context_page_description: Alpheton is a village and civil parish in the Babergh district of Suffolk, England. Located on the A134 road about six miles north of Sudbury, in 2005 it had a population of 260, reducing to 256 at the 2011 Census. According to Eilert Ekwall the meaning of the village name is the homestead of Aelfled.
context_section_description: Many of the young men of the village fought in The First World War and the names of those who died are inscribed on a marble tablet in the Church. In 1936 the School in the Glebe closed and all the Alpheton pupils had to go to Shimpling. The school building initially became the Village Hall and then a private house when the new hall was built.
  In 1939, the Land Girls of the Women's Land Army appeared in Alpheton. They came to help with the work in the fields and they were billeted in homes around the village. The Old Rectory alone had 30 living in all the rooms, which were converted to make dormitories and a sitting room. Other newcomers were the evacuees from the East End of London.
  In 1941 construction of the Alpheton/Lavenham Airfield began on the land belonging to Lavenham Lodge Farm. Many Irish workers moved in to work for the construction giant Laings and were accommodated in the Old School. Work on the airfield was completed by 1943 and operational aircraft arrived in 1944. They were B24H and B24J Liberator bombers of 487th Bombardment Group, part of 8th Airforce of the United States. They were later reinforced by B17 Flying Fortresses who remained for a year until the end of the war.
caption: Former airfield buildings at Clapstile Farm
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 300D DIGITAL", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "1980:01:01 00:00:05", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "188", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1105", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6545", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/160", "EXIF FNumber": "9", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "1980:01:01 00:00:05", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "1980:01:01 00:00:05", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "239925/32768", "EXIF ApertureValue": "1623/256", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "4", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "27", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "640", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "427", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "3072", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "2048", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "940", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "768000/223", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "409600/119", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}