There was partying in the streets just over 80 years ago as Britain breathed a sigh of relief.

Victory in Europe had been achieved, and communities came together to bask in the overglow with sandwiches and squash in the street.

Over the last fortnight the Herald has spoken to numerous people who remember the festivities of May 8, 1945. So for this week’s Peeps, we’re going to share a few of their memories 80 years on from the milestone…

“I remember VE Day because I had to write an essay about what we did to celebrate,” said Michael Hayter, who was a 12-year-old pupil at West Street Boys School in Farnham at the time.

“The day after (Churchill’s announcement) there was a public holiday for everyone except for policemen and railway workers. I lived on Tor Road, at the top of Crondall Lane, and we had a street party on our road.

“One of the things I remember most from the day is the food: we had slightly stale buns and some very weak and watery squash.

“The party itself wasn’t much to shout about, if I’m honest, as there were a couple of dozen people. I wouldn’t say people went mad because some had lost relatives, but on the other hand it was all over and hopefully it will never happen again.”

He added: “The day after the party was quite memorable as everyone was lighting bonfires and putting stuffed figures of Hitler on the top of them.

“And it was also a good thing the party took place when it did as a Hawker Typhoon crashed on the Byworth estate the next day,” said the 92-year-old, who now lives in Frensham. “They had only just started building it, so just think what could have happened.”

Alan Shelley only has the photo to prove he was part of a street party in suburban London. Barely a year old and fresh-faced, the toddler had returned to the family home in New Malden after being evacuated to Berkshire.

The picture of the party in Fir Grove was shown off at the recent VE Day 80 party in Binsted, but it also masked an all-too-common tragedy of the war’s latter days.

He said: “We move to a little village near Eton and during the time we were relocated the Germans bombed our road.

“We are only in the picture because a few months earlier we had been relocated. Not long after we moved a V2 bomb demolished the house next door.

“I obviously don’t remember the party as I was much too young, but I can imagine the relief on that street.”

Speaking to a crowd next to Newman Collard memorial garden, the thoughts of Liss Parish Council chairman Keith Budden turned to his father on the village’s VE Day 80 commemorations.

“Like most people who went through the war, my dad George rarely spoke to me about it, about what he had seen or experienced.

“But I did remember asking him once about VE Day. I asked him where he was when VE Day happened, and what it meant to him.

“He said he was just crossing into Austria from Italy and he heard on the radio that peace had been declared but it was confusing because he was with some Yugoslav troops who got all their information from the Russians.

“And the Russians didn’t declare their VE Day until tomorrow (May 9). So they didn’t actually believe us that the war had finished.

“At that point he became the most scared he had been in all the six years, because he thought, if the Russians and Yugoslavs don’t know the war has finished, what if we come across a group of German soldiers who also don’t know the war has finished?

“So while we rightly celebrate it now, back then it was still a dangerous time for a lot of troops.”