During the Second World War Cockfield Hall was requisitioned by the government and occupied by an American tank maintenance unit.
A searchlight detachment used a field near the railway crossing on the Leiston road.
Rooms behind Yoxholme (now Craig House) were used by the Americans and as a First Aid Post. In addition the Home Guard met there.
The Hollies and Blythburgh House (now Mains Restaurant) were requisitioned to accommodate British soldiers.
Americans from RAF Leiston and from Cockfield as well as British troops were billeted in pubs. Dances and socials were held in the Village Hall.
On 5th May 1941 Cockfield was hit by a stick of three bombs from a Luftwaffe air raid. One bomb demolished some Tudor outbuildings, another destroyed the 40-room Victorian wing.
Homes were provided by villagers for children evacuated from London.
There was food rationing in the village as elsewhere but game and rabbits were plentiful and villagers could keep chickens and ducks. Vegetables were gornw.
The Yoxford Boys – this was the unofficial name given to the US 8th Air Force, stationed RAF Leiston, though Lord Haw-Haw said ‘stationed in Yoxford’.
V E Day, 8th May 1945 saw a grand party in the Village Hall. East Anglian regiments had been heavily committed to the early stages of the war with Japan.
Copyright Yoxford History Group. January 2019