VE Day: Woman amazed by bright lights after years of wartime blackouts

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A woman has recalled her amazement at witnessing bright lights on VE Day after six years of wartime blackouts.

Iris Newbold, from Nottingham, was 16 in 1945 and had forgotten what it was like to see shop windows lit up and streetlights switched on.

Crowds gathered in the city's Market Square when the end of World War Two in Europe was announced.

"It was unbelievable," said Ms Newbold, now 90. "It was absolutely packed."

"I think the whole of Nottingham was there. A lot of them were singing and dancing.

"People were climbing up the lampposts. Everyone was very happy."

Ms Newbold added it had been "amazing" to see "all the lights in the shop windows".

"I had never seen all the windows lit," she said.

Ms Newbold was a keen footballer at the time and worked at Raleigh Bikes.

On the night of VE Day, she travelled into the city centre with her parents.

She remembers several fireworks going off in the square, with one of them burning through her clothes.

"My mum never forgave me because of course clothes were still rationed then," she said.

"Then we missed the last bus home."

The family ended up staying with nearby relatives.

"Where we slept I don't know," she said. "Most likely on the couch but it didn't matter because the war was over, that was it."

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