THE Twin Towns of Lymm and Meung-sur-Loire in France celebrated 50 years of friendship with a special golden anniversary which will be marked with “home and away legs”.
Seventy French visitors arrived in Lymm to mark the first contacts between the two towns, in 1967, when Lymm francophile and French-speaker Peter Dixon happened to meet a French air-force officer on secondment to U.S.A.F. Burtonwood, in the Spread Eagle pub.
After a few pints and lengthy conversation they decided to approach their respective Councils with a view to creating a formal link. The next year, 1968, the Lymm Urban District Council and Meung’s Conseil Municipal signed an official Twinning Charter, which will be marked by Lymm’s visit to the Loire Valley next May.
The French visitors stayed with host families in and around Lymm, many of whom have been good friends over the entire fifty years.
There will be a “Welcome Apéritif” at Lymm Hall and a Golden Anniversary Dinner on the last evening at the Statham Lodge Hotel, attended by over 120 adults and some 20 children. During the rest of their stay in Lymm the French visitors enjoyed hospitality and a variety of outings with their English hosts, doing their best to communicate in each other’s language and to avoid mentioning Brexit or the French Presidential Elections!
Twin Town Society Chairman Peter Birchall, then Head of Modern Languages at Lymm Grammar School, took the first group of students to Meung-sur-Loire in 1969, after which the school ran annual exchange visits with the College in Meung for some 25 years, until Lymm’s 11-18 High School outgrew the much smaller 11-16 French school. Many of the contacts forged through the schools’ exchanges are still going strong, and there was even one notable marriage between the daughter of the then Rector of St.Mary’s, Lymm, Rev. Burgess, and the son of the Meung pharmacist and County Councillor, Monsieur Destouches.
Many of the original members of the Twin Town Society are now in their eighties!
To mark the special anniversary John Bamforth, the Vice Chairman of Lymm Parish Council presented to the Deputy Mayor of Meung a decorative glasswork prepared by Helen Davies, the granddaughter of Sir Oswald Davies. Sir Oswald Davies was a member of Lymm Urban District Council at the time of formation of the Twinning. The present represented three generations of life in Lymm.
In return, Meung presented to Lymm a beautiful watercolour by a local artist. Gifts were also exchanged between Peter Birchall the Chairman of Lymm Twin Towns and his opposite number from Meung. Each family also received a 50th anniversary present.
Pictured from left to right, Peter Birchall (Chairman Twin Towns), John Bamforth (Vice Chairman Parish Council), Jean-Claude Vivet (Adjoint du Maire) and Michel Bret (President du Jumelage).
