Collated by Betty Childs

Betty remembers VE Day being celebrated by a bonfire being lit at Broadfields Farm and then going on to a dance in The Old School Room during which a radio was played and everyone listened to a broadcast by either Winston Churchill or King George VI.

In spite of peace in Europe, there were some people who felt unable to celebrate at that time because the war in the far east still continued or because members of their family or friends had been killed or injured in the war or were still missing.  One young mother who did field work to supplement their income said "It may be VE Day, but there is still work to be done" and took her children to Fentons Farm to pull out wild oats from the crops.

Whilst there is still some uncertainty about a dance being held that night, one person remembers wearing a pale blue dress trimmed with red, white and blue bows.  This was the occasion when Charlie Young took some members of the Youth Club down to The Swan for their first drink in a public house.  Lily Jarvis remembers organising with the Mothers Union a tea party for the children in the Old School Room.  Games were played and jam and paste sandwiches were part of the tea.

Betty Humphries had only been married a few months.  Her husband was mine-sweeping off the Dutch coast and she went with her husband's parents to a pub in Braintree.

There does seem to have been a spontaneous reaction in the village - memories of singing and dancing arm in arm down The Street to the Cherry Tree (now The Welsh Princess), singing and dancing on the village green, maybe a bonfire on the village green, too.

The Brand family were landlords of the Cherry Tree at that time, Jean Lewis recalls her father hanging out bunting and the Union Jack.  After they had closed the pub at 10pm they went over the road to Alf Willis's house where he brought out a large bottle of pickled onions and they ate them with bread and a very little cheese from the food ration.

The day before VJ Day, The Cherry Tree received a delivery from the Dunmow Brewery (during wartime public houses were only able to open two days a week and closed at 10pm).  Canadian soldiers were stationed at Lakes Farm at this time and of course, there were always the Americans from the Saling Airfield to join in the celebrations.

The Co-op food store in Braintree was open in the morning so that people could draw some of their food rations for parties.  Then in the evening the young assistants went to a dance in the Market Square in Braintree.

Meanwhile a Welcome Home Fund was being organised in Rayne.  Audrey Edwards was a member of the committee, together with P.C. Peters, Sonny Chapman, Gladys Blyth, Wal Turner and Charles Brown.  There were various money-raising activities and Audrey Edwards remembers collecting from door to door so that each person who had served in the armed forces during the war could receive a sum of money on their return to the village.