VE Day, a week ago today, was celebrated in grand style across Redditch, Alcester and Studley and villages in between as the country stood in silence at 11am and toasted the Queen at 3pm.
The day saw bunting bedecking homes, hedges and gardens, Union Jacks flying and people coming out to enjoy a bit of sunshine and conversation – at a suitably socially distanced distance – with their neighbours.
At Plymouth Court in Headless Cross, a development of extra care housing for elderly people consisting of 52 bungalows and a communal building, there was a blast of wartime music and communal sing-songs.
They know how to have a party in Jubilee Avenue and they surely enjoyed themselves as they did across town, where for instance in Winyates Green residents got the garden furniture out for an impromptu ‘Row, row, row your boat’.
In Alcester the town was true red, white and blue complete with VE Day flag.
There was a serious side too for the anniversary marked the ending of the Second World War in Europe and in the Garden of Remembrance in Plymouth Road, Jeff Farnes, chairman of the local branch of the Royal British Legion, laid a wreath and saluted the war dead at the cenotaph.
Similar ceremonies happened across the area, in Studley and in Alcester where the war memorial remembers the names of 73 residents who lost their lives in the war.
