Glenn Miller

ANNIVERSARIES AT BEDFORD

THE PEOPLE OF BEDFORD remember American bandleader Glenn Miller as one of their own. He and other entertainers, including Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, flew from Bedford’s Twinwood Airfield on their World War II tours. On 15th December 1944, Miller took off from Twinwood to fly to Paris and was never seen again. On 9th February, Bedford celebrates the 100th anniversary of Miller’s birth with a Hangar Dance Party at Twinwood, where live swing music and 1940s nostalgia will bring back the Glenn Miller era. Twinwood Airfield is home to the Glenn Miller Museum and hosts an annual Glenn Miller festival. This year’s festival, 28th-29th August, will feature the Glenn Miller UK Orchestra and the Syd Lawrence Orchestra. Bedford History and Heritage Week, 4th-12th September, will also focus on the bandleader, with Glenn Miller talks, films, and exhibitions. “A Celebration of the Life and Music of Glenn Miller” on 12th December will mark the 60th anniversary of the entertainer’s disappearance.

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In a painting at the Glenn Miller Museum, the bandleader departs the Twinwood Airfield on his doomed flight to Paris in a Noorduyn Norseman aircraft on 15th December 1944.[/caption]

The museum is open weekends and public holidays. Twinwood Airfield and Arena is located at Clapham Village, just north of Bedford on the A6. Bedford is 52 miles north of London. Web: www.bedford.gov.uk; www.twinwoodevents.com. Tel: Bedford, 01234 267422; Twinwood, 01234 350413.

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INCOGNITO TEA TASTERS from the Tea Council have sipped their way across Britain to find the place that serves the very best “cuppa.” Their pick: Margaret’s Tea Room at Chestnut Farmhouse, Baconsthorpe, near Sheringham on the Norfolk Coast. Others earning high marks include the Pavilion Tea Rooms in Royal Parade, Eastbourne, East Sussex; the Norwich Tea and Coffee Shop in Orford Place, Norwich; The Tea Room, 158 Cannongate, on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile; and Betty’s Café Tea Rooms in York and Harrogate. (Betty’s in York was also a favourite of BRlTISH HERITAGE readers in the 2002 Travellers’Choice Awards—see all the nominees and winners on the Travel page at BritishHeritage.com.)

The Tea Council’s published findings, Best Tea Places, can be purchased in British bookshops for £9.99 or ordered online: www.tea.co.uk.