VE Day Celebrations, UK national holidays, and so on (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Wednesday, October 02, 2013, 15:48 (4071 days ago) @ downunder

Hi DownUnder,
pls see the email I sent you re the celebrations at Bream.

On a more general note, this may help.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/events/ve_day

Also hidden away in this old BBC site are the personal WW2 recollections of several people of Chepstow, including the VE Day Dance at the Village Hall. I need to revisit this site, no doubt it has other local stories worth reading:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/44/a4065644.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/43/a4094543.shtml
These are all Gloucestershire memories of WW2:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/categories/c1131/

Also see this film clip, not quite the woody Forest but gives an indicator of events in Stroud just across the Severn.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt2f4UZLGGY

Searching the Old Newspaper archive sites will give more detail of local events.
eg I wonder if a bonfire was lit on top of May Hill, perhaps to conclude the Longhope area celebrations, this being one of the ancient "beacon" sites. Indeed further searching shows the Gloucester Journal of 12th May 1945
"VE-BONFIRES IN DEAN FOREST The Forest of Dean marked the victory announcement with a score of bonfires on the higher hills. Some of the fires could seen from the ..."
Also in that issue "thousands attended Thanksgiving Service at Gloucester park"
I'm not currently a subscriber so cannot download anymore detail at present, but there was also a full photo-spread of "VE Day events" in the next issue Saturday 19th May 1945, altho I suspect it covers events within or close to Gloster city rather than the distant Forest.
http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/search/results/1900-01-01/1949-12-31?basicsear...

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Re school term dates in general, this is this year's Glostershire calendar. Exact dates will vary slightly from year to year but the approximate times of year are still relevant. School holiday periods vary around the UK, for exammple the Forest schools seem to start their holiday the week before those here in Greater London, I've no idea why. Occasionally Governments suggest extending the Christmas holiday while shortening the long week summer break, to save school heating bills etc, but this hasn't happened yet.
http://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=51251&p=0

They are based around the traditional religious festivals which go back hundreds of years and have more recently led to the national "Bank" holidays, more here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Bank_Holiday#List_of_current_holidays_in_the_Britis...
Occasionally special/significant events may lead to additional national "bank" holidays being granted, such as VE Day, or more recently Royal Weddings and so forth.

Nice to see you back Slowhands, hope you had an enjoyable break :)