Celebrations may have been very different than planned, but across the region people were determined to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in their own way.
People may have marked the anniversary in their own homes – but in some places they were able to find a way of sharing community spirit while maintaining social distancing.
One of those places was Brunswick Road in Ipswich where residents picnicked in their front gardens at the same time. Liz Forsdike who had helped arranged the event said it did help the community spirit – and no one broke the rules.
“We’re lucky that we have quite large front gardens here so we all sat out in front of our homes and many of them were decorated with bunting. It was good to see people enjoying themselves and lifted the area.”
There were more front garden celebrations in Cemetery Road where Becky Garland said: “This road has a great sense of community, so we do lots of things where we all come out on our doorsteps and celebrate different things together.
“Today, we feel like it is really important to celebrate VE Day as for once we have an understanding of what the freedom must have felt like when the war ended, and hopefully we will get that same sense of freedom when lockdown ends.”
At Norwich Road in Ipswich sister and brother Jaycee and Ryland O’Halloran created flags for their home using skills they had found at the 11th Ipswich Scout group.
And in Thorpeness a model of a Spitfire created to mark the life of the founder of the Old Flying Machine Company Ray Hanna was painted with a new call sign linking the VE Day with the current crisis by showing the letters NHS.
Another street in Ipswich where residents held picnics at the same time on their front gardens was Vincent Close from where Carrie Basford sent us pictures of the celebrations.
There were also celebrations at Ransome Close in Sproughton.
Tracy Booth and seven of her neighbours sat out on their drives to enjoy a drink during the evening.
She said: “Its been lovely. We’ve all been sat out for over two hours.
“We’ve had some drinks and some food and music and enjoyed the sun. It’s a lovely way to celebrate during these times.”
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