WWII: Familiar faces at VE Day party

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A street party picture in Bygones brought back childhood memories for Kenneth Hill, for he clearly remembers the good time he had as a teenager at the VE Day celebration held in Hillcrest Road, Chaddesden, in 1945.

This was a VE Day party in Hillcrest Road, Chaddesden, in 1945

Kenneth (76), who now lives elsewhere in Chaddesden, is the smart young man in the centre of the back row of the picture which was sent in by former Derbeian Josephine Kitchen.

She wasn’t sure why the party was held but recognised her great-grandmother Elizabeth Naylor, who is third from the right.

Said Kenneth: “I was 15 and lived at number 46 Hillcrest Road for 25 years, apart from two years’ National Service. I knew most of the people who lived there but can’t remember all of their names. The party was held outside Mrs Partridge’s house at number 38.”

Though most people were hard up in the war years, he said it didn’t stop them sharing what they had so that everyone could celebrate the end of the war.

“I remember the ladies in the street brought out their furniture and table linen and, despite rationing, they got together to provide lots of food. We had a wonderful time and played games.”

Kenneth believes that, despite the lack of money and the poverty of many, people were happier in those days and life was better.

“We had more fun and were freer. We could run in the streets and play hide and seek outside until nine at night, unlike today’s children.”

During the war years, he recalls that people in Hillcrest Road had Andersen shelters in their gardens but rarely used them when the air raid warning sounded.

“The council or the government or whoever was responsible had dug them into red mud and they were often filled with water. They covered them with concrete but that only made them worse. People didn’t like going in them and most of the time they would just stay in their homes until the all-clear sounded.”

Kenneth’s parents, Alfred and Edith Hill, had bought their three-bedroom detached bungalow in Hillcrest Road in 1931 for £360. His father worked at the Co-op and was well-known locally for playing the euphonium with Derby Derwent Silver Prize Band. Kenneth would sell programmes for a penny for their concerts in the local parks.

He worked as a pattern maker at several leading Derby companies and, though the family musical talent passed him by, he is delighted it has been inherited by his young grandson, George Keirton, who plays the euphonium in an Ilkeston band.

Among the people he recognises on the picture are Jeffery Jennings, Cynthia Jennings, Michael Adams, John Orme, Pamela Johnson, Pat Wilkes, Bernice Mepham, Barbara Orme and Derek Wilkes, whose father Harry Wilkes was goalkeeper for Derby County in the 1920s and 30s.

The Wilkes family kept a fish and chip shop on the corner of the street and the Jennings had a shop next door to them.

Kenneth says he and his wife also recalled the Newtons, who lived at number 12, and their daughters, Hilda who married Bert Toone, and Dorothy who was married and lived in North Street, Derby.

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