VE Day 80: Host of activities, from the solemn to the celebratory, planned in Sawbridgeworth

A host of activities is planned in Sawbridgeworth to commemorate the 80th anniversary of VE Day – including wreath-laying, a parade, fish and chips, church bell-ringing and a bagpiper.

Sawbridgeworth Local History Society will be holding a free five-day exhibition at the town council offices in Sayesbury Manor from Tuesday May 6 to Saturday May 10, and at 9am on Thursday May 8 – the day of the anniversary – VE Day flags will be raised across the town.

On that day, mayor Cllr Reece Smith will join others to lay wreaths at RAF Sawbridgeworth in Trimms Green at 9.45am. Wreaths will also be laid at the war memorial at Great St Mary’s Church at midday, followed by moments of reflection and prayers.

A bagpiper will join in a national event where pipers will play music on the highest peaks of the four countries of the United Kingdom: Ben Nevis (Scotland), Mount Snowdon (Wales), Scafell Pike (England) and Slieve Donard (Northern Ireland).

The Hailey Centre at Sayesbury Manor will be putting on a special lunch – fish and chips or afternoon tea can be purchased. The mayor and his invited guests will enjoy the food and have the opportunity to view the history society exhibition.

At 6.30pm, the bell-ringers of Great St Mary’s will join a national celebration of Ringing Out in Celebration of Peace.

The 309 (Sawbridgeworth) squadron of the air cadets will parade up Bell Street for an evening event to be held in Bell Street car park featuring live entertainment, games and food.

At 9pm the mayor will read a VE Day proclamation and at 9.30pm there will be a beacon lighting and mass singing of I Vow to Thee, My Country, the patriotic hymn created in 1921 when a poem by Sir Cecil Spring Rice was set to music by Gustav Holst. The music, originally a wordless melody, was later named by Holst as “Thaxted”, the Uttlesford town where he lived, taken from the “Jupiter” movement of his 1917 suite The Planets.

Nationally there will be a four-day celebration of the 80th anniversary of VE Day, from bank holiday Monday May 5 to Thursday May 8, with residents encouraged to emulate their counterparts from 1945 and hold street parties.

VE Day marked the end of the six-year Second World War in Europe on May 8, 1945.