12 May 2025
Last Bank Holiday weekend saw the start of services and events across Chelmsford Diocese to celebrate the 80th anniversary of VE Day. Celebrations continued throughout the week, with the anniversary being marked on 8th May 2025.
View photos of the celebrations below
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St Mary the Virgin, Matching
Andrew Barnard, who is a PCC member at St Mary's Matching spoke to the BBC ahead of a service held on Sunday in a Nissen Hut on the former US Airforce Base at Matching Green near Harlow.
The base was built for the US 391st Bombardment Group, and was home to 2,000 men between 1942 and 1945.
Andrew who is Chair of the commemoration committee at St Mary's told the BBC:
"It was just a rural, agricultural village – very typical for this part of East Anglia – and for a period of three years it was transformed."
"At one stage it had up to 2,000 men living there, at times in very adverse conditions, constructing the site and living in tents in freezing conditions, but the pressure was on to finish the project in advance of D-Day,"
"We think it is really important to remember the sacrifices that were made to allow us to live in a free and democratic society today."
The service was attended by 450 people including the Lord Lieutenant of Essex, the US Air Force Air attaché from the American Embassy, Chaplain and officers from RAF Lakenheath, branches of the royal British legion, cadets and Combined Cadet Force members plus the 1st Moreton and Fyfield Scouts.