MARCHING through the streets of Winsford in a torchlight procession as everyone celebrated the end of the war is a vivid memory of a local historian.

Alan Ravenscroft. who chronicled the town's fallen heroes in a book The Winsford Returns, was a 10-year-old schoolboy when VE Day was declared.

"The town celebrated with a torchlight procession," said Alan, 85. "We walked from the Flashes into the town centre with sticks that we had tied rope to and set on fire. St Chad's bells rung on the night, it was the only church in town that had a peal

of bells. There were street parties afterwards. I went to one on Victoria Terrace and we had jellies. There was a party atmosphere."

Alan remembers the end of the war being declared.

"On VE Day May 8, 1945 our headmaster Mr Woodall at assembly told us that we had triumphed because God was on our side, " he said and pupils were given the day off school and going to a bonfire and celebration.

Afterwards pupils were treated to entertainment instead of lessons.

"We were taken to the palace cinema to see all the best pictures and cartoons and we had ice cream," he said.

Alan started school the day after war was declared in 1939.

"Our first lesson was how to wear gas masks and we had regular practices going down into the air raid shelter. We had evacuees from Liverpool, Manchester and the Channel Islands. We had a special class fitted out with camp beds for children to sleep on until they were allocated a home to go to."

Alan remembers a famous American professional boxer coming to Barton Stadium which was being used a sports field for an American army camp based at Wharton Station.

"Among the soldiers was Sergeant Joe Louis, the world heavyweight boxing champion," said Alan. "Police Sergeant Nixon rounded up all the youngsters on Over Rec and took us to meet the great man and great he was but said nothing."

Two well known actors were also in town as child evacuees.

Alan said: ""Johnny Briggs who played Mike Baldwin in Coronation Street stayed with Mr and Mrs Buckley in Rilshaw Lane and Anne Rogers stayed with a family in Woodford Lane until she went to drama school and played My Fair Lady on the West End stage and then starred in The Boyfriend.

"Johnny used to come to our school for woodwork lessons. He had a cockney accent but soon got into Winsford ways and found out what a jam butty was."

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Throughout the war both picture houses stayed open and church youth groups flourished.

"When the war finally ended on August 18, 1945 the town had a terrible housing shortage," said Alan. "Returned servicemen were living in sheds along the river from William Street and in houseboats on the River Weaver."

Alan marched with the scouts when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth came to Winsford for a victory parade in 1946.

"I can remember standing in the market place with ropes keeping the crowd back."

Alan, a former army vehicle mechanic who served as a reservist for 23 years, was awarded the prestigious Global Sir James Gildea award for his dedication to the Cheshire branch of SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity, formerly known as the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association.

The unsung hero helped hundreds of veterans with complex problems as a SSAFA case worker for more than 27 years.

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