THE Ross-on-Wye community pulled out all the stops to commemorates and celebrate the 80th Anniversary of Victory in Europe Day.

The day began with the raising of the commemorative flag outside the Market Hall watched by a crowd of around 100 people, followed by a two minutes silence and veteran Jimmy Conway laying a wreath.

In the evening Paul Deneen explained to the packed audience at St Mary’s Church that the local community had created a presentation telling the VE Day story.

Mr Deneen said that any news about the war was provided either by the radio, or via films at the local Roxy cinema or the Ross Gazette.

He added: “Everyone had their part to play during the war, life was tough, life would never be the same again. Once the war was over, life changed forever.

“But VE Day meant so much, for the majority of us, we really have no idea what it must have been like.”

The audience saw a combination of films, one of which was created by the students of John Kyrle High School. There was music and moments of recollection from people of different ages and backgrounds.

This included Roy Cooke’s memories 20 years after VE Day when his mother asked him what he remembered about the occasion. He told her that it was the first time he had tasted bananas. She replied: “That wasn’t banana, it was mashed swede with banana essence!”

The event concluded with the ceremonial handing over the Royal British Legion’s Flame of Remembrance from the older to the younger generation.

Then it was up to the Prospect where the Jazz Friday Big Band were performing while the Jive by the Wye danced to the music.

The evening concluded with the lighting of the ceremonial beacon by Edward Harley, the Lord Lieutenant of Herefordshire who said: “I’d like to quote from Winston Churchill who said that in of our long history, we’ve never seen a greater day than this.”