Latest news with #AlanMyatt
BBC News
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Gloucestershire in Pictures: Badminton and Cheltenham jazz
It's been a busy week in our county with plenty going on. On Thursday there were celebrations in multiple towns and cities to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day, with parades, parties and has also been the RHS Malvern Spring Festival and the Badminton Horse Trials and also the Cheltenham Jazz Festival. It's been a busy one! Flower fun: Growers and ticket holders from across Gloucestershire are heading to the RHS Malvern Spring Festival at the Three Counties Showground, joining more than 100,000 people who are expected to attend. Grandstand view: About 200,000 people were expected through the gates at the Badminton Horse Trials this week, with the annual event attracting equestrian fans from across the country and beyond. Packed out: From the big top to the smaller stages, the 2025 Cheltenham Jazz Festival brought thousands of music fans to the town. Cheers! The jazz festival, held in multiple venues with the big top at Montpellier Terrace, was blessed with some great weather for friends to meet up in. Little lambs: Head for a wander into the Gloucestershire countryside and you may well see some spring lambs, such as these ones photographed at Moreton-on-Marsh. Historic day: Across Gloucestershire there were events to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day, including (above) at the Thatch Inn in Quedgeley. Celebrations: Gloucester town crier Alan Myatt read the VE Day Proclamation as the 80th anniversary flags were raised. The SULA lightship in Gloucester also held a swing party, lit up their ship at 21.30 and people dressed up in 1940's attire. Homes needed: The Cotswolds Dogs & Cats Home says it needs donations as it faces a rush of cats needing homes. The shelter says it has already taken in 48 unwanted or abandoned cats since the start of 2025, an average of three a week. Mystic moss: Thank you to our weather watcher, Red Robin, for sending this gorgeous shot of Coleford, with the light giving the forest a magical look.
BBC News
19-03-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
West Country VE Day street parties 'encouraged' by councils
Eighty years after Victory in Europe Day - the end of World War Two in Europe, known as VE Day - people are being encouraged to celebrate the anniversary with street parties.A flypast, concert, and a Westminster Abbey service are some of the national events lined up over the four-day celebration, beginning on the 5 May bank holiday and continuing through to 8 authorities across the west of England are asking people to apply for any street closure permissions or licences as early as possible. The celebrations reflect the end of World War Two in Europe, as announced by then Prime Minister Winston Churchill over the radio airwaves at 15.00 BST on Tuesday, 8 May 1945. It came one day after Nazi Germany's surrender, nearly six years after the war had begun in are planning local events to mark 80 years since that day, with many authorities, including Gloucestershire County Council and Bath and North East Somerset Council (BANES), waiving the usual street party application fees.A spokesperson for the Gloucestershire authority said they would be celebrating VE Day with Town Crier Alan Myatt reading the official proclamation on the cross at midday and with the lighting of a beacon on Robinswood Hill at 21:30 Lightship - a moored former working ship in Gloucester Docks - will also be illuminated at 21:30 BST with the singing of the official hymn, I Vow to Thee My Castle, in Gloucestershire, is hosting an event showcasing the D-Day Darlings, who featured on ITV talent show Britain's Got Talent, with a Winston Churchill character wandering the grounds alongside World War Two re-enactments. BANES Council leader Kevin Guy said the historic occasion was a "great opportunity" for communities to come together to honour and pay tribute to the World War Two generation. He said in waiving road closure charges, the council hoped to encourage groups and communities to jointly commemorate and celebrate the occasion. North Somerset Council has asked people to put any street closure permission requests in leader Mike Bell said: "We've made it as easy as possible to apply for a road closure so people can host street parties."There are some safety and legal considerations that need to be in place [so] we're asking people to apply in good time so that we can carry out the necessary work behind the scenes." Chair of Somerset Council, councillor Mike Best, is working with Taunton Town Council and others, including the Royal British Legion, on a series of events to mark VE day.A spokesperson said there would be a flag-raising ceremony at County Hall, Taunton, at 09.20 BST and a wreath-placing ceremony at the War Memorial at Vivary Park, Taunton, at 17.30 BST.A civic service of celebration and thanksgiving is being held at The Minster in the evening, where there will be a ringing of the church bells in celebration of will also hear a reading of the proclamation, lighting of the lamplights of peace, and a reading of the VE Day tribute. Local schools will be invited to attend along with representatives from military organisations in Somerset. In Bristol, City Hall will be lit-up in red, white and blue for the duration of the four-day celebration, with union flags flying on College Green's flag poles.A city council spokesperson said they were encouraging residents' street parties to take place on the 5 May bank holiday, with the council relaxing its process for street parties in line with government advice."If you would like to hold a resident street party in Bristol on the 5 May then you have until Friday 4 April [to apply]," the spokesperson said. There will be a charge of £21 for larger street Aerospace Bristol museum is celebrating VE Day during the May bank holiday weekend with an event called Spirit of '45: A VE Day 80 will be offering World War Two tours that will include a visit to the newly opened air raid shelter, with their wartime Bolingbroke plane rolled out of the Conservation Workshop. And there will be World War Two spotlight talks, with other ideas still in the planning stage. A spokesperson for Visit West said ongoing walking tours around St Nicholas Market continued the theme, with air raid and shelter tours available. Wiltshire Council is offering guidance online in regard to VE Day celebrations, street closures, and permission or licences needed for events at various asked for anyone requesting a road closure to have already had applications in by 13 across the county include a VE Day flag-raising event at the Ludgershall Town Council war memorial and an afternoon tea party hosted by Tisbury Parish Wootton Bassett will be celebrating with live music, food vendors, army tents and Scarrotts fun across the region will join the nation in lighting the the beacon of peace at 21.30 last big celebration of VE Day took place on the 75th anniversary during the pandemic in 2020, with social distancing regulations in place. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said for this year, the four days of celebrations would mean "people across society will be able to hear our veterans' stories first hand, to reflect and remember".
