Shown here is the front of the service sheet for a United Thanksgiving Service, which was held at the Senior School (now Wymondham High Academy) eighty years ago on Sunday 13 May 1945, five days after VE Day.

Victory in Europe was met with joy and relief, the first hymn in the service being "Now thank we all our God". On Wednesday 9 May, a thanksgiving service, organised by the Free Church Council, had been held at the Congregational (now United Reform) Church, with another one having been held at the Abbey the previous day.

There was a public and school holiday on Tuesday 8 May (VE Day) and 9 May, with the town gaily decorated and the Market Place floodlit after dark, while children's teas were organised and many bonfires lit. On the evening of VE Day, a large crowd attended a grand dance at the Anglo-American Club in Town Green, pictured here, which was previously a cinema and is now the Sports Bar. With the war in Europe at an end and American service personnel returning to the States, the Club closed in February 1946. During VE Day, the once popular Mary Elizabeth Tearooms, situated in a building on Market Street on the site of which now stands Savers, collected £4 for the town's Victory Fund, which then stood at £500.

The war in Europe was over, but it wasn't until 15 August that VJ Day arrived, signalling the end of the hostilities in the Far East.