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You are here: Home / History / VE Day 75 in Chandler’s Ford – Memories of the Original VE Day

VE Day 75 in Chandler’s Ford – Memories of the Original VE Day

May 9, 2020 By Mike Sedgwick 1 Comment

Lakewood Road decided to have a socially separated street party yesterday for VE75. I replied to the invitation and said I was at an original VE day party. Several people expressed an interest in the comments so I thought Chandler’s Ford Today might like to see them. As it turns out, I am not the only one who attended an original party.

Lest We Forget - image by Jill Mayes
Lest We Forget – image by Jill Mayes

VE celebrations in progress on Lakewood Road, Hiltingbury
VE celebrations in progress on Lakewood Road, Hiltingbury

An original VE day party

Am I the only one in Lakewood Road who attended an original VE day party? I was seven years old or, as I would surely have reminded people, seven and three quarters. When Mother picked up the newspaper that day, I was having breakfast. She opened it, yelled for joy, and ran out into the street declaring ‘The war is over.’

Roman candles and Catherine wheels

That evening I was taken to a bomb site about a mile away from our house in Sheffield. We children were given currant buns to eat – wow, and a fizzy drink. Normally the best we could expect was some bread and margarine or dripping if we were lucky. There was a huge bonfire, taller than the adults. Someone put a figure of Hitler on it. The most vivid memory was of fireworks which I had never seen before. I learned about rockets, Roman candles, Catherine wheels, sparklers and bangers. Roman candles were my favourite.

Old School British Fireworks image by Epic Fireworks, via Flickr. Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
Old School British Fireworks image by Epic Fireworks, via Flickr. Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

There was bunting strung everywhere made of any scraps of material that could be found. Houses, walls and shops had ‘V’ painted on them in whitewash. The morse code …- for V was daubed on doors. I did not know at the time about Beethoven’s 5th symphony but I had heard the call sign on the radio preceding the coded messages going out to the resistance workers. Whitewash signs reading ‘Welcome home, Jim’ or Fred or Sam were beginning to appear. A little insensitive if your neighbour no longer had a loved one to welcome home.

Bunting by children in Chandler's Ford - image by Jill Mayes
Bunting by children in Chandler’s Ford – also thanking key workers – image by Jill Mayes

The overall mood was one of relief

It was a brief and joyful interval but the overall mood was one of relief and thanks that it was all over at last. Our parents had been through 2 world wars and fortunately, we had not lost a close family member.

Father served in WWI but in WWII he was a haulage contractor and a member of Dad’s Army which was known as the Home Guard. They practised throwing grenades using clods of earth. I was excited to go with father on his lorries loaded with the ‘tallboy’ bombs from Sheffield to the ordnance factory where they were filled. I wasn’t allowed in the ordnance factory but stayed with the guards at the gate who always gave me something to eat.

Churchill - knitted by Jill Mayes
Churchill – knitted by Jill Mayes

There was no thought of the 75th anniversary but here we are and it will be an interesting party. Mother’s immediate post-war aim was to get me educated so that I would not have to go down the pit like most boys in our district. Orgreave Colliery was nearby and my contemporary, Arthur Scargill, who I never met, could tell you all about that.

Neighbourhood Watch Organisers enjoying a street picnic
Neighbourhood Watch Organisers enjoying a street picnic

Great party on Lakewood Road

We had a great party yesterday, sitting outside our gates on the pavement. There was an abundance of bunting and we all dressed in red, white and blue. I learned that I was not the only one old enough to remember. Someone told how he remembered seeing Portsmouth ablaze from a raid in 1942. Another spent a lot of his time in a Morrison Shelter. Robbie Sprague was there too but he cannot remember it as he was only 1 year old.

Julie Balint, organiser of Lakewood Road VE street party
Julie Balint, organiser of Lakewood Road VE street party

Morrison shelter

Another resident Peter wrote the following story –

Mike, No, you are not the only one in Lakewood Road that remembers VE Day. At six years old we had a street party with bonfires in the road, not gardens, with singing and parties where I threw my teddy bear onto the bonfire, having just thrown-up on it (the teddy, not the bonfire)!

A photograph of a Morrison shelter in a room setting, showing how such a shelter could be used as a table during the day and as a bed at night. © IWM (D 2053)
A photograph of a Morrison shelter in a room setting, showing how such a shelter could be used as a table during the day and as a bed at night. © IWM (D 2053)

I came out of my parents’ Morrison shelter (Father fought and was wounded in WW1 and was in Dad’s Army) awaiting the demolition of the concrete built shelters in the road so that everybody could use.
However, we stayed at home in the Morrison shelter with our neighbours.

Thank GOD! We have survived and to those young lives that fought and died for us to be what we have today.

I cannot thank them myself, but I do remember them with gratitude.

Bunting in Chandler's Ford. Image by Jill Mayes.
Bunting in Chandler’s Ford. Image by Jill Mayes.

A tribute to the human spirit

I am pleased that lock-down muted the celebrations. I feared that it may become too jingoistic and nationalistic. It is a tribute to the human spirit that, when these 75-year-old memories are activated they bring a wave of emotions with them. People do not forget.

There must be other readers of Chandler’s Ford Today who have memories of the original day. Tell us your story.

British flag - image by Jill Mayes
British flag – image by Jill Mayes

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Tags: celebrations, Chandler’s Ford community, family, good neighbours, Hiltingbury, history, interview, local interest, memory, news, storytelling, war memorial, World War One, World War Two

About Mike Sedgwick

Retired, almost. Lived in Chandler's Ford for 20 years. Like sitting in the garden with a beer on sunny days. Also reading, writing and flying a glider. Interested in promoting science.

I work hard as a Grandfather and have a part time job in Kandy, Sri Lanka for the winter months. Married to a beautiful woman and between us we have two beautiful daughters and 3 handsome sons.

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Comments

  1. David Lamb says

    May 9, 2020 at 1:55 pm

    I remember the first VE Day party. Ours was held in a field near the colliery. Our mums had collected food, mostly tins, from the nearby tip where the US Airforce regularly dumped their surplus. At the time I never realised that one day I would be involved in the US military. I have memories of the war, of my mum holding me to the window watching the bombing of Liverpool and the fires, and of our windows broken when a couple of bombs landed on the nearby brickworks.

    Our VE Day party went on for ever and a couple of my uncles, who played in the colliery band, played tunes for the mums to dance. There were few men around and the women danced with each other. My dad was overseas and was destined for the war with Japan.

    Stirring and yet optimistic times. Perhaps there are similarities with today’s celebrations. Although I despair at fears of a rise of nationalism and jingoism. Don’t our opinion leaders know the difference between jingoism, nationalism and patriotism?

    Yet it does seem ironic for a nation under virtual house arrest to be celebrating freedom whilst debating how long one might be permitted to sit on a park bench, and using Facebook to snitch on non conformers breaching the lockdown requirements.

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