Photographs show VE Day celebrations in Grantham street in 1945
Photographs sent to us by a former Grantham resident show Grantham families celebrating the end of the war in Europe in 1945.
John Marshall was just short of his fifth birthday when VE Day was celebrated on May 8, 1945. John says he remembers the celebrations that day in Walton Gardens, Grantham, where people celebrated outside near the air raid shelters in front of the houses.
But John says there was also a lot of relief the war was over because people often had to take cover in the air raid shelters as enemy aircraft regularly dropped their bombs in an effort to destroy the nearby BMARC arms factory off Springfield Road.
John, who now lives in Bourne, said: “Those shelters were in constant use. One of the pictures was taken from no. 10 Walton Gardens. I am in that picture somewhere. I remember the air raid sirens constantly going off and people running for the shelters.
“I remember running across to the shelters. People would rush out of the house and they would drag you there.
“That as the only time I remember being really scared.
“The kids would sleep on the floor in the shelters. The adults would have the bunks which were made of primitive hessian over wood.
“We used to sing songs a lot while we heard the bombs dropping because they were after Marco’s.
“My dad was in the Home Guard at the time.”
John’s photos show adults sat at a long table for the street party and also a wider view of the residents all stood around the tables in front of the air raid shelters.
He added: “Despite the war, those were very, very happy days. I remember playing out a lot, but everybody had a sense of relief that the war was over.
“A lot of people did not talk about the war afterwards. I worked with people who came back from the war and they never mentioned it.”
John left Walton gardens when he was 23 and would later live in Denton Avenue and the village of Muston before moving to Bourne where he has lived for 15 years. He worked in sales.