Horsham Twinning Association offer European fayre at Christmas market

On Sunday November 30, the Twinning Association offered French and German traditional fayre at the the Horsham Christmas Market promoting the partnership with their twin towns Lage in Germany and St.-Maixent-l’Ecole in France.
By The Newsroom
Published 20th Dec 2014, 17:14 BST
The Chairman of the HDC Brian O'Connell together with the Chairman of the Horsham Twinning Association Oliver Farley SUS-141112-171424001The Chairman of the HDC Brian O'Connell together with the Chairman of the Horsham Twinning Association Oliver Farley SUS-141112-171424001
The Chairman of the HDC Brian O'Connell together with the Chairman of the Horsham Twinning Association Oliver Farley SUS-141112-171424001

Chairman Oliver Farley here seen with Cllr Brian O’Connell, Chairman of Horsham District Council and President of the Twinning Association, explains:“ We would like the Horsham community to become more aware of the links with our European neighbours.

“In the last 25 years we have exchanged visits with both towns involving not only private individuals but also Horsham clubs, schools, organisations and groups.

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“Twinning is all about getting an insight into the culture of a country through developing and fostering good relationships. Just to give you an example: next year we are hosting groups from France and from Germany, involving sporting and school connections. Of course our members return the visits the year after.

“ We will be hosted by our partner towns with a full programme both educational and entertaining. Our partner towns have extremely nice people, very hospitable and embarrasingly generous. It does help if you speak ‘foreign’, but it is a great opportunity to dust off your school language skills.

Additional to that, we run an annual French and German language competition for all of the secondary schools in the area which is most successful.

“This year we had for the first time Spanish entries and we are thinking about involving schools in Italy to exchange with our Horsham students.”

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The President of the Association Cllr. O’Connell has been most supportive of the Association’s endeavours. The prize giving for the schools’ essay competition was hosted in the Council chamber itself, and, despite a bewilderingly busy schedule, Cllr. O’Connell has even attended committee meetings to encourage our busy members in their efforts.

As shown in our picture, a warm, sunny Sunday morning found a good crowd in the Carfax enjoying the numerous stalls and many indulged in the Christmas offerings, typical of our European partners. Both our President and our Chairman showed admirable restraint, and refrained from indulging in the juicy cake on display.

If you can be tempted to join our Twinning aims ,then contact our membership secretary, Janet Saunders at [email protected]

Report and picture contributed by Gaby Lothian, Horsham Twinning Association.

Related topics:GermanyFrance