The Home Guard had been disbanded in 1944 and the visiting troops, mostly Canadian, billeted at Foxhunt and Possingworth had vanished in June 1944 on their way to Normandy and the D-Day landings.
The minutes of the Waldron Women's Institute for April 1945 meeting record that "the President suggested a special Victory Effort to reach £10,000 (in National Savings) by December 1945....Miss Humble-Crofts proposed that the Institute be prepared to provide tea and games for the children of the village on VDay."
Eight years later, in the WI's scrapbook for 1953, prepared for the Coronation of the new Queen, the writer reported on those VE day celebrations in the village : "we organised a children's tea for the afternoon. But before this took place we had an impromptu procession through the Village led by Mr C Burgess, playing his clarinet, next the Women's Institute Percussion Band with drum, tambourines etc, everyone on the spot joined in and we marched from the Hall, round the Memorial and back to the Recreation field. In some odd way this gave immense relief to our feelings. After the children's tea there were sports and games for them and at seven o'clock we all went to Church for a Thanksgiving Service."
We frequently see the famous footage of London celebrating VE Day outside Buckingham Palace with the crowds calling for the King and Queen to come out on the balcony with Winston Churchill and thousands of people going wild with relief in the streets. As far as I know there's no footage of Waldron's celebrations as described but the relief was no doubt just as genuine.
Robin Hunnisett, then a Waldron teenager, recalls that on VE night, "there was a big "do" in the Station Hotel in Heathfield and I remember dancing on the table there. That was a fair night that was - I didn't get home 'til two days later" but "I was working and that had to go on just the same. Cows had to be milked exactly the same every day whatever it was, so you just carried on as normal."
And so it was in this rural village on 8 May 1945...
On 8 May 2025 our Church Bells in Waldron will be rung at 6.30 pm, as they will across the whole of the United Kingdom, as decreed by the Central Council of Bellringers in celebration of the eightieth anniversary of VE Day. The Union Flag will be flown from the Church Tower.
During the day of Thursday 8 May the Waldron Country Market will be open from 10.00 am till 12.30 pm at the Holy Cross Priory Village. I understand from organiser Graeme Mackenzie that some of the stallholders may dress appropriately and there will be a young singer performing favourite songs from the 1940s.
On Sunday 11 May at 11.00 am instead of normal morning service there will be special prayers to commemorate VE Day at the War Memorial in Waldron. Following that there will be a barbeque in The Star's garden to which everyone is welcome.
Returning to the coming weekend, the second Sunday of Easter 27 April, both services will be at St Bartholomew's. Holy Communion will be at 8.00 am and Lucy Murdoch will preside and preach. Parish Eucharist will be at 10.00 am and the Reverent Malcolm Elwiss will preside and preach. ENDS