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Town Twinning  -  is it still relevant?

It  started after the after the second world war,  in an effort to repair damaged relationships in Europe, to explore different cultures and build friendships. A town in the UK found a similar town in a European country and started the ‘twinning’ process.

At the entrances to our town are the ‘Welcome to Biggleswade’ signs with the message underneath ‘twinned with Erlensee in Germany’.

Biggleswade started its twinning journey rather later than most, when after a lot of hard work by a few local stalwarts a Charter was signed on 30th April 2000 between Biggleswade, and Erlensee. This Charter marked the official twinning union of these two towns.

There is an ‘Erlensee Way’ on the new Kings Reach development and in Erlensee a ‘Biggleswade Strasse’.Visitors from Erlensee come to Biggleswade and visitors from Biggleswade go to Erlensee. They mostly stay with hosts in each town and are given a very warm welcome with lots of activities and celebrations. Last year, we welcomed 12 people from Erlensee and enjoyed a coach trip to Bury St Edmunds as well as a Barn Dance, to name just a few of the activities available over the weekend.

Many lasting friendships have been made through Biggleswade Twinning and even a marriage.

One of the many benefits of the twinning through the years has been the work experience students that have come to Biggleswade to work in a variety of businesses in the town.  You may have had your coffee served in Surfin Café by a student from our twin town or met one in the flower shop, at the hairdressers, the library or the solicitors. Unfortunately this has now stopped because of other pressures on school students but it ran for 10 years and we still meet former students who remember their time in Biggleswade very fondly, particularly their hosts and work places.

Erlensee is 46 km from Frankfurt and its nearest larger town is Hanau.  It is of similar size to Biggleswade with common features such as housing developments, retails outlets  and local industry

So…  is Twinning still as important as it was after the war? With Brexit looming perhaps it is even more important.  We travel far more widely than we did but do we really get to know the people of the country that we travel to?

If you would like to find out more

call Alan on 01767 310163

or email