Swindon residents recreate 1945 VE Day street party photo

BBC News

06-05-2025

Residents recreate 1945 VE Day street party photo
9 minutes ago
Share
Save
Share
Save
A photograph of a VE Day street party snapped eight decades ago has been recreated on the same spot by local residents.
On 8 May 1945, Britain rejoiced when Germany surrendered, bringing to an end the war in Europe.
To celebrate, street parties were held up and down the country including on Florence Street in Gorse hill, Swindon.
To mark the 80th anniversary of victory in Europe, Florence Street's current residents got together to recreate a photo taken on the street on the day in 1945.
Victory in Europe (VE) Day on 8 May 1945 saw Britain and its Allies formally accept Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender.
The following day at 15:00 BST, Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced over the radio that the war in Europe had come to an end, sparking spontaneous celebrations across the country.
On Florence Street in Swindon, people celebrated the end of almost six years of conflict with a street party.
Dave Sawyer, who lived with his family in a "two up, two down" said he could not spot himself in the 1945 photograph but he was "only three at the time".
"Things were very tight from 1945 until the early 50s. Everything was on ration," he said.
"If you had a pound you couldn't spend it in the sweet shop, just three penny-worth of sweets and that was your lot."
"We went through so many hardships but it brought the community closer together."
To mark the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe, Florence Street's current residents got together to recreate a photo taken on the street on the day in 1945.
Don Keene was just eight-years-old when he was snapped at another local VE day street party.
"We didn't have any bunting because textiles were rationed," he said.
"[But there] would have been jam sandwiches, margarine - no butter that was too scarce, fish paste and meat paste sandwiches and red jelly and blancmange."
He said there were very few men at the street parties because "all our dads were away and they didn't all come back".
Ruth Butler, from the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, said photographs of the country's VE Day celebrations do show "mostly women" partying.
"It's a national holiday, two days of public holiday were announced but not everyone who was in uniform would have been given the day off," she said.
"So requests for leave for VE day were not always granted. So not everybody is out partying."
Allow Facebook content? Meta's cookie policy privacy policy 'accept and continue'.
This article contains content provided by Facebook . We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to readandbefore accepting. To view this content choose
Accept and continue
Christine Telling, who has lived on Florence Street for more than 35 years, said "it's a really nice little street".
"It's very interesting to see, going back all those years ago, what it was like," she said.
"Actually the street hasn't hardly changed at all but it's just nice to see the people - it's really interesting."
Follow BBC Wiltshire on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630.