“WORCESTERSHIRE received the news of the end of the war in Europe with thankfulness and rejoicing. In towns and villages and even remote hamlets people hastened to decorate their houses with flags and bunting.” That was how Berrow’s Worcester Journal reported the celebrations for VE Day on Tuesday, May 8, 1945. It was the date when the Allies officially accepted the unconditional surrender of German forces – Victory in Europe and, following six years of hardship, it was inevitable the news would be greeted with great celebrations. In Worcester, shops closed and people of all ages flocked to the city centre to create human chains and dance in the street. At the Cross, RAF men kept up a non-stop tattoo on an ARP sandbox, while fairy lights and a bonfire lit up Diglis and steamers took revellers up and down the river on Victory trips. Throughout the war, church bells had been silent, banned from ringing except to signal a German invasion to the Home Guard, but on VE day they rang all day. Record congregations were seen at services at the cathedral and at the Angel Street Congregational Church and thousands gathered at the cathedral to see it lit up with floodlights. The Guildhall was also illuminated with red, white and blue lights and neon lights in the city centre shone for the first time since the war started. Among the revellers that day were John and Wendy Cornes, of Honeywood Road, St John’s, who at that time were aged just eight and seven respectively. Mr Cornes said: “There were four or five of us who were living in Hawthorn Road. We all strolled down into town and there were people absolutely everywhere. As kids we couldn’t take it all in. “It was a wonderful day.” The noise of the day is the one memory that sticks in Mr Cornes’s mind. He said: “It was the noisiest day I can ever remember. We went up by Tunnel Hill. We were walking down to Lowesmoor and the noise from the trains – all the hooters were going. “All the factories used to have horns and they were all going, sounding their horns. “Everybody was in a joyous mood, that’s what I always remember. All the churches were ringing their bells and the cathedral. “I think there were a few aircraft about. Everybody was dancing in the streets, it was unbelievable.” “When we got to the city, we stood on the steps of St Nicholas church. The noise was tremendous. Everybody was arm in arm and singing Tipperary and Sing As We Go. They looked as if they were getting the arms of people they’d never seen in their lives.” Mrs Cornes, who then lived with her family in York Place, off Brittania Square, said: “I remember walking along to the Gaumont cinema past Shire Hall (now Worcester crown court). There was hundreds and hundreds of people. The atmosphere was fantastic.” “I can remember walking from York Place and seeing all these crowds of people walking all across the road in front of Shire Hall. I was holding my little brother’s hand. “There was thousands of people around and they were just so pleased. They were arm in arm up the High Street. They were singing in the streets. People were sounding their car horns. “We were so excited because we were little and mum and dad said we could stay up late.” Although VE day was exciting Mr Cornes said he remembered that not everyone was able to join in with the celebrations. Mr Cornes said: “The woman across the road from us, Mrs Morris, her husband was killed in action. She wasn’t outside when we went out celebrating.” He also remembered the dangers of the war days but said, as children, he and his friends did not always take them seriously. He said: “One day, we were all on our way up Holly Mount Road. They dropped a bomb on the top of Shrub Hill station. There were five or six of us lads and we saw these fighter aircraft coming towards us and we all dived underneath the hedge. “They opened up and frightened the life out of us. There was a corrugated iron fence about six foot high. The rounds went through the fence eight inches apart. There were two burn holes through my brother’s scarf which lay on the path. We should have been in the shelters but like kids do we were walking up the road. We thought the air wardens were a lot of fools at the time.” At that time, Mr Cornes’s father was away in the Royal Engineers and the family suffered with Mr Cornes’s mother collapsing from malnutrition and spending three days in hospital. However, when his father came home, he would not talk about his experiences. Mr Cornes said: “He won the oak leaf but we never knew what for. Mother was over the moon when he walked through the door. “He suddenly appeared at the door and mother broke down. We kids stood there because we were rather young when he went so we had forgotten what he looked like.”