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Eventually, our troops secured victory in Europe, and although still a boy I remember vividly the street parties around Darwen. We lived near the fire station, and my father borrowed lots of trestle tables to hold the food and drinks. Although the war still went on in the Far East, there was a real sense of celebration, and a hope that it would all be over soon.

School had been cancelled to celebrate VE day, and the canteen on Duckworth Street which prepared all the vegetables for the local school dinners had lots of veggies prepared, but nothing to do with them. Word soon spread that these precious veg might go to waste, and so it wasn't long before people began to go round with anything they could use to carry home some of the bounty. Plates, dishes, even buckets - all were used to bring back plenty of food! We were determined that the veg wouldn't go in the pig swill - everything else seemed to end up in there, including all the leftovers form regular school dinners. The leavings were scraped into big bins, and the local farmers would come for these once or twice a week to feed their pigs. In hot weather, you couldn't play anywhere near the bins as the smell would make you feel sick!!

I recall all of the school children in Darwen being assembled on the site of the local market, and being addressed by the Mayor about the end of the war in Europe. We were all given commemorative certificates, with the important dates of the war on one side and a message from the King on the other.

We must have been a very lucky bunch, as we had an older lady in our area - quite well off, for the time - and as a treat, she paid for all the local children to go to the local cinema - the "Albert Hall", as we called it - and to have an ice-crean as we watched the picture. That was the best ice-cream I have ever had!

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