EVENTS were staged around the region this weekend to mark the 70th anniversary of VE Day.

A new war memorial was dedicated in Chester-le-Street, a beacon was lit next to the Tommy soldier statue in Seaham and bells rang out at Durham Cathedral and churches across the area.

As the Queen led the national commemoration, joining around 1,000 veterans and their families at a thanksgiving service at Westminster Abbey, Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury and former Bishop of Durham, said the veterans had ensured “victory over the greatest darkness of the 20th century”.

In Chester-le-Street Market Place, hundreds of people gathered on Sunday morning (May 10) to see the dedication of a long-awaited new cenotaph.

The red granite piece carries the names of more than 400 war dead and was unveiled last year followi?ng a two-year campaign, replacing a small obelisk near the parish church.

Bible readings and prayers were said and a silence was observed between The Last Post and The Reveille.

The Reverend David Tully, the rector of St Mary and St Cuthbert’s Church who led the ceremony, read the famous Kohima epitaph and Sue Snowdon, the Lord Lieutenant of County Durham, laid a wreath before being joined by other dignitaries for a march past by the armed services, cadets, Scouts, Guides, Boys Brigade and more.

On Saturday (May 9), the same eight bells that were rung at Durham Cathedral on May 8, 1945, to mark victory in Europe sounded again; and bells were also rung at St Nicholas’ Church in Durham Market Place and St Brandon’s Church in Brancepeth.

Christopher Crabtree, Bell Major of the Durham Cathedral Guild of Bell Ringers, said: “Ringing the bells of Durham Cathedral is always a privilege, but we feel especially honoured to be ringing the bells that our predecessors rang exactly 70 years ago to commemorate VE Day.”

Even staff at Janet Maitland Hair Excellence, in Gilesgate, got into the spirit, displaying flags and bunting, donning 1940s costumes and hairstyles and playing Glenn Miller music and the 1942 film Mrs Miniver in the salon.