Air Raid Shelter Warden's Helment Gas Mask Evacuee Register Meat Rations Book Wartime Recipes Book Chicken Swill Masher Dance Tickets VE Day Celebrations
When the war finally came to an end the celebrations in Stroud were ecstatic. Sweets were given to children; there was dancing in the streets, beer flowed freely and a public holiday declared.  For many people, that day marked the dawning of a realisation that life could change back into something normal.

 

TRANSCRIPT
Yeh, we went to Stroud to the front of the Sub Rooms and down Russell St [yes] and that's where I saw the beer running down into the drains where everybody was having so much beer. [Laughter] It was quite, it was quite nice
MARGARET CHAPMAN

Click to play Click here to listen to the above transcript
(122k - Windows Media Player Required)

TRANSCRIPT
I must have been at work and [eh] we decided, my friend and I, what we were going to do the following day when the celebrations started.  And we started by going off to the Prince Albert in Rodborough, having a few drinks and then going down into town.  And we joined in the dancing at the top of Rowcroft by George Holloway's statue and the [the, t, t] thing that [eh] stays in my mind is the fact that the musicians, a trio of musicians, were standing on the roof of [the] what is now the dentist's.  And Stan Nichols who was [an] a Special Policeman, and quite a large man, was up there playing his [eh] double bass.
G ARTHUR

Click to play Click here to listen to the above transcript
(321k - Windows Media Player Required)


TRANSCRIPT
...But the biggest impact of the whole thing was, [ehm] for years and years and years on the corner of George Street and Bedford Street, was the cafe, Tucks.  But it was always a cafe of some sort of description until, like a lot of other places in Stroud now, it's an estate agent [agent].  But here is the thing: that establishment on the corner had electric lights on in the window.  That might sound nothing to a lot of people.  I had never seen a light at night like that. And as I talk to you I can see it now
WILLIAM PHILLIPS

Click to play

Click here to listen to the above transcript
(228k - Windows Media Player Required)

From January 2016, this website is managed by Stroud Local History Society

VE Celebrations by kind permission of Peckhams (copyright)