The Borough of Worthing - twinned with:
France - Le Pays des Olonnes: Chateau d'Olonne, Olonne Sur Mer, Les Sables d'Olonne
Germany - Elztal Region: Elzach, Gutach, Simonswald, Waldkirch
Worthing's first town twinning took place in 1997, when the Borough formed a link with four small towns in the Elztal Region, situated in the Black Forest in southern Germany.
Later in the same year, we established a link with the Pays des Olonnes on the west coast of France, where again our twinning partnership is with a network of smaller communities. This was formalised on 17th October 1998.
Since then, under the patronage and presidency of The Worshipful the Mayor of Worthing, the members of the WTA have worked with friends in both areas, encouraging cultural and social visits. We have a regular programme of meetings of the WTA in Worthing and endeavour to raise the profile of twinning at events through the Worthing area.
We are always happy to welcome new members to the Worthing Twinning Association. You can help with and take part in events that strengthen our friendships with our twinning partners, and promote the work of the Twinning Association. Members of the WTA visit France and Germany frequently, and friends from the Pays des Olonnes and Elztal Region come over regularly as well.
So if you want to contribute by hosting visitors, getting involved in promoting the WTA, or even joining the committee, email pambennett8@btinternet.co.uk
You can download the membership form by clicking below, then save, then open
wta_membership_form_2018_page_1.doc
wta_membership_form_2018_page_2.doc
You can download the membership renewal form by clicking below
wta_2017_membership_renewal_letter.doc
wta_renewal_2018.doc
France - Le Pays des Olonnes: Chateau d'Olonne, Olonne Sur Mer, Les Sables d'Olonne
Germany - Elztal Region: Elzach, Gutach, Simonswald, Waldkirch
Worthing's first town twinning took place in 1997, when the Borough formed a link with four small towns in the Elztal Region, situated in the Black Forest in southern Germany.
Later in the same year, we established a link with the Pays des Olonnes on the west coast of France, where again our twinning partnership is with a network of smaller communities. This was formalised on 17th October 1998.
Since then, under the patronage and presidency of The Worshipful the Mayor of Worthing, the members of the WTA have worked with friends in both areas, encouraging cultural and social visits. We have a regular programme of meetings of the WTA in Worthing and endeavour to raise the profile of twinning at events through the Worthing area.
We are always happy to welcome new members to the Worthing Twinning Association. You can help with and take part in events that strengthen our friendships with our twinning partners, and promote the work of the Twinning Association. Members of the WTA visit France and Germany frequently, and friends from the Pays des Olonnes and Elztal Region come over regularly as well.
So if you want to contribute by hosting visitors, getting involved in promoting the WTA, or even joining the committee, email pambennett8@btinternet.co.uk
You can download the membership form by clicking below, then save, then open
wta_membership_form_2018_page_1.doc
wta_membership_form_2018_page_2.doc
You can download the membership renewal form by clicking below
wta_2017_membership_renewal_letter.doc
wta_renewal_2018.doc
The following is a piece by Brigitte Pierce explaining the history of how the twinning came about which you might be interested in reading
HOW WORTHING TWINNING ASSOCIATION CAME TO BE
Germany
“When I was teaching at Northbrook’s Adult Education Dept., the class where Jo and Frank Hutchinson were I had one or two people who kept on pestering me to take them to Germany. One day my sister who lived in North Germany sent me a newspaper cutting describing a visit to Hamburg by a group of Brighton Adult Education Students. I thought there’s a chance to get those people off my back. I rang the Brighton tutor and asked her if she was prepared to include a few students from Worthing next time she went to Germany. Alas, she replied that it was a one off visit and no more were planned.
A few weeks later she rang me back and said that one of her students had visited a business partner in the Black Forest and they thought it would be good if their respective classes established exchange visits with each other. She was not interested in getting involved and asked if that might be something for me to take on. So our first purely educational visit to the Elztal took place in 1985.
In 1993 I replied to an article in a local magazine, written by a newly founded Twinning Committee, inviting people to write and suggest places Worthing could twin with. I told them we had been having exchanges with the Elztal for eight years and the Black Forest was a very beautiful part of Germany, so why not establish twinning links with them? They invited me to their next meeting and before the evening was out I found myself a member of that committee.
They met and talked a few more times but before long they had faded away one by one and I found myself literally holding the baby. So I co-opted the committee members of my Anglo-German Friendship Club on to form the new Twinning Committee (they were Roger and myself, Jo and Frank Hutchinson, Paul and Judy Webster and Val and Mike Bolt – who are still there) and we asked Jo to be the chairman as I already had my AGF club to run.
France
When the then Mayor, Herbie Golds, went on his official first visit to Waldkirch prior to twinning, we gave Jo a lift down and visited Richebourg in Flanders en route which had so many connections with Worthing going back to WW1. As far as I know we were the first to go back there in many years and we also visited the war cemetery there where so many Sussex lads are buried. We were warmly welcomed but had to agree this was not suitable for twinning with Worthing as it is only a small village. We were still looking for a place in France to twin with, when luck would have it that a lady contacted Roger and me with a request from Olonne sur Mer to twin with them. Roger and I were the first Worthing people to visit the place at the invitation of the then chairman of their twinning association. We liked the area, they came back and liked Worthing and that was that. “
Twinning documents were signed and exchanged with the towns of the Elztal on 3rd May 1997 and the Twinning Charter with Le Pays des Olonnes was finally signed at Worthing Town Hall on 17th October 1998.
HOW WORTHING TWINNING ASSOCIATION CAME TO BE
Germany
“When I was teaching at Northbrook’s Adult Education Dept., the class where Jo and Frank Hutchinson were I had one or two people who kept on pestering me to take them to Germany. One day my sister who lived in North Germany sent me a newspaper cutting describing a visit to Hamburg by a group of Brighton Adult Education Students. I thought there’s a chance to get those people off my back. I rang the Brighton tutor and asked her if she was prepared to include a few students from Worthing next time she went to Germany. Alas, she replied that it was a one off visit and no more were planned.
A few weeks later she rang me back and said that one of her students had visited a business partner in the Black Forest and they thought it would be good if their respective classes established exchange visits with each other. She was not interested in getting involved and asked if that might be something for me to take on. So our first purely educational visit to the Elztal took place in 1985.
In 1993 I replied to an article in a local magazine, written by a newly founded Twinning Committee, inviting people to write and suggest places Worthing could twin with. I told them we had been having exchanges with the Elztal for eight years and the Black Forest was a very beautiful part of Germany, so why not establish twinning links with them? They invited me to their next meeting and before the evening was out I found myself a member of that committee.
They met and talked a few more times but before long they had faded away one by one and I found myself literally holding the baby. So I co-opted the committee members of my Anglo-German Friendship Club on to form the new Twinning Committee (they were Roger and myself, Jo and Frank Hutchinson, Paul and Judy Webster and Val and Mike Bolt – who are still there) and we asked Jo to be the chairman as I already had my AGF club to run.
France
When the then Mayor, Herbie Golds, went on his official first visit to Waldkirch prior to twinning, we gave Jo a lift down and visited Richebourg in Flanders en route which had so many connections with Worthing going back to WW1. As far as I know we were the first to go back there in many years and we also visited the war cemetery there where so many Sussex lads are buried. We were warmly welcomed but had to agree this was not suitable for twinning with Worthing as it is only a small village. We were still looking for a place in France to twin with, when luck would have it that a lady contacted Roger and me with a request from Olonne sur Mer to twin with them. Roger and I were the first Worthing people to visit the place at the invitation of the then chairman of their twinning association. We liked the area, they came back and liked Worthing and that was that. “
Twinning documents were signed and exchanged with the towns of the Elztal on 3rd May 1997 and the Twinning Charter with Le Pays des Olonnes was finally signed at Worthing Town Hall on 17th October 1998.