Bell Ringing for the 80th Anniversary of VE Day

Thursday 8^th May 2025 was the 80^th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day (VE Day). Hitler had already committed suicide and the German forces surrendered on 7^th May 1945 after nearly six years of war. This led to peace in Europe and many people took to the streets to erect British flags and light bonfires. Winston Churchill declared 8^th May 1945 a national holiday. Many hosted street parties and a crowd of 100,000 people gathered outside Buckingham Palace and The Mall.

During the war, bell ringing was banned from June 1940, with bells only to be rung in the event of a German invasion. Churchill did however authorise ringing after the El Alamein victory in 1942 and it was allowed on Christmas Day that year. The ban was lifted in 1943 and there were enough bell ringers to ring on VE Day 1945.This tradition has continued over the years with all major milestones celebrated with the ringing of bells. The 80^th anniversary, however, was the last major milestone where a number of WW2 veterans were still alive to share their memories. This gave significant importance to the occasion and at St Andrew’s we joined other ringers around the country to ring the bells on 8^th May 2025 at 6.30pm.

The photograph shows the bell ringers that took part in the national event.

The occasion was also marked with a quarter peal on 8^th May and a full three-hour peal on 9^th May, both shown below:

Hornchurch, Essex

St Andrew

Thursday, 8 May 2025

1260 Plain Bob Doubles

1 James P Riley

2 Dennis Ellisdon

3 Alwyn Brock

4 John M Church

5 Clive J Stephenson (C)

6 Mark E Lendon

Rung to mark the 80th Anniversary of VE Day, clearly remembered by Dennis Ellisdon who was a young boy at the time.

Essex Association

Hornchurch, Essex

St Andrew

Friday, 9 May 2025 in 3h 10 (18–0–0 in E♭)

5040 Plain Bob Royal

Composed by David Heighton

1 Jon Waters

2 Helen J Carter

3 William J Stungo

4 Elle G Buttery

5 Roderic K Bickerton

6 M Louise Booth

7 Andrew P Barham

8 Hugo L Tracey

9 Lucas J Owen

10 Clive J Stephenson (C)

Rung to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of VE Day.

First Royal – 4.

First Royal in the method and 35th peal – 8.