Celebrations hit county streets to mark victory

STREET parties to mark the 80 anniversary of VE Day are much in evidence this week.

- Robin BROOKS

They commemorate VE (Victory in Europe) Day, which was celebrated on May 8, 1945 when six years of war against Nazi Germany came to a close. War time rationing, however, didn’t.

Pages of the Citizen and Echo were filled with pictures of the street parties that took place in local towns and villages. People begged or borrowed trestle tables and table cloths, pooled their ration coupons to make cakes and sandwiches, then wheeled a piano out into the street to celebrate and look forward to better times ahead.

Food rationing, first introduced in January 1940, meant that the weekly allocation for an adult was four ounces (100g) of bacon, or ham, two ounces (50g) of butter, two ounces of cheese, four ounces each of margarine and lard, three pints of milk, half a pound (225g) of sugar, two ounces of tea and one egg.