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Exhibitions
- 'Adventurers and Pirates' - Hetton Coal Company, 1820
- Looking back at Consett Steel Works
- Celebrating Gala Day 2020
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County Durham remembers VE Day 1945
- 'We have come through' - Remembering VE Day 1945
- 9th Battalion DLI: From D-Day to Berlin
- 9th Battalion DLI: VE Day
- 9th Battalion DLI: In Berlin, June - September 1945
- Berlin Victory Parade, 7 September 1945
- Victory Parade at Belsen, 8 May 1945
- The Northern Echo, Victory edition, 9 May 1945
- VE Day and Durham Schools
- 2nd Battalion DLI: Burma 1945
- 2nd Battalion DLI: Rangoon Victory Parade, 15 June 1945
- VE Day and the Durham Miners' Association
- County Durham celebrates VE Day
- Haswell Victory Celebrations, 1945
- Soldier: Victory Souvenir edition, 8 May 1945
- Parade: European Victory edition, 26 May 1945
- VE Day not forgotten by one Spennymoor family
- County Durham celebrates VJ Day
- Victory Day, 8 June 1946
Haswell Victory Celebrations, 1945
Part of an online exhibition from Durham County Record Office commemorating the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe on 8 May 1945

After the impromptu bonfires and street parties celebrating VE Day, some towns and villages in County Durham wanted to do more.
In Haswell, a public meeting, chaired by Councillor Jack Dormand (later MP for Easington) met on 11 June 1945 to discuss arrangements for a series of summer celebrations.
Financed with grants totalling £78 from Easington Rural District Council and Haswell Parish Council, the 'VE Celebrations Committee' bought prizes for Haswell County School's 'Victory Field Day'; provided special teas with cakes for children and 'Aged Persons'; and organised a dance for 'Young Persons' with the 'Albany Dance Band'.
Poster from minute book, Haswell Parish Council, VE Celebrations Committee, 11 June - 8 October 1945 (CP/Has 118).
Programme, Haswell County Secondary Modern School's Victory Field Day, 23 July 1945 (CP/Has 119).
Another 'VE' committee, with £113 in grants to spend, organised similar events in South Hetton. There the local Co-op provided £34 of cakes and refreshments for the special teas. The 'Fencehouses Syncopators Band' provided the music and 150 'Aged Persons' were each given two shillings (20p).
Back to 'We have come through' - remembering VE Day 1945 exhibition homepage.