The Ongar Town Festival last month was a wonderful day, marking as it did 80 years since the end of the war in Europe.
I am not old enough to know what Ongar was like when the war in Europe ended, but if the Ongar Town Festival this year was anything to go by, the people of Ongar knew how to raise the flags, fly the bunting and celebrate the return to peaceful life in 1945.
In a way Ongar was on the frontline during the war. The nearby airfields provided bases for the Battle of Britain and for D-Day and so helped lay the foundations for Victory in Europe. Budworth Hall was requisitioned for the army. St James’s church in Marden Ash was hit by a V2. The memorial at the surgery remembers just how many local people gave their lives for our freedom.
Eighty years ago, Ongar families were slowly getting back to the new normal. Rationing continued, and not all those in the Armed Forces were yet home, but evacuees could return, and the repair of buildings, hearts and lives could begin.
Thanks to all those involved in make the Ongar Town Festival so pertinent and such a success this year, and for taking the time to mark 80 years since the end of that war in Europe so well.
