Latest News

Witney Twinning Meeting, 13th December 2022

Issues covered were as follows:

A trip in February to Le Touquet for the Wine Festival is planned. John will ask for further info from Kate and share this on our Facebook page.

The coronation, which will be a good opportunity to come over, as it is a bit more special. Here we can see if we can combine it with the Twinning anniversary that we didn't have in 2020 and add an extra day to have some activities to also celebrate that? We are awaiting more info from the Town, Liz will help us with that. We will try to combine it with the anniversary celebration and will plan this once we know when what events are taking place for the coronation.

The turning on of the Christmas lights in 2023. This year will be a bit short-notice, but we can for sure organise something early enough next year. John will be in touch with the organisers later in the year to see how we can involve the Twin Towns in this event.

We can continue to support the School Exchanges, as we have in past years. We might be working on this reactively, supporting where we can, but probably will not initiate any plans with schools for the moment.

Perhaps do something with a local football team and Fire Brigade. John will see through Bernie if the Fire Brigade in Unterhaching is doing anything and will then follow up with our station to see if they would be interested.

Renaming of the Le Touquet Airport to Queen Elisabeth II. Definitely an event we will want to be a part of. The Town Council will also await some further info and then we can make more plans.

Le Touquet is hosting the England Rugby Squad in Le Touquet in 2023 for about a month before and during the Paris world cup - there will probably be some open practices that rugby fans could attend. John believes Kate has already been in touch with the Rugby club, but when we know more, we can coordinate and connect the right people.

Le Touquet is hosting the European Beach rugby tour on the weekend of the 7th July. Kate met James Gillies, chairman of Witney RFC M&J this Monday and he is going to see if any members would be interested in coming over to participate

Visit for the town council to Le Touquest & vice versa. David will look into what information would be interesting to find out, particularly around infrastructure / transport and see who might be a relevant person to communicate with, but not as a formal event.

Le Touquet School Exchanges. We will see if there is any interest from the schools in France and react based on that.

Kate met with the new head teacher of our Collège (11 -15 year olds) and will check if there are any activities/exchange ideas possible.

Le Touquet have recently set up a Junior Town Council (10 to 15 year olds). This is probably not something we can do at the moment. There used to be a town initiative, but due to Covid, that was dissolved.

Hope this reflects what we discussed at the meeting.

Witney Twinning Anniversary, 3-6th April 2020 Postponed

With growing concerns over the Coronavirus and more and more cases arising across Europe the Twinning Association together with our Twin Towns have decided to postpone the anniversary held from the 3rd till 6th April in Witney, due to the advice to cancel all unnecessary travel.

We are hoping though to celebrate our anniversary after the summer somewhere between September and November, depending on circumstances.

The Gift of Time, 29th February 2020, Duncan Enright

Witney Mayor Duncan Enright invites you to join him to celebrate the extra evening at a charity event at the Corn Exchange Witney, please see here for more details.

WTA Committee Meeting, 29th January 2020, John Thornton

Please find attached the minutes of the 29th January 2020 Witney Twinning Association Committee Meeting.

Friendship through Remembrance in Music and Song

To support the Witney Twinning Association's upcoming big anniversary with Le Touquet and Unterhaching in April 2020, the Witney Town Band and the Voice Box Choir are performing a concert on the 10th November at the Corn Exchange.

Please book your tickets early through either Rapture or the Witney Visitor Centre, please click here for more details.

Witney Town Band – Unterhaching Visit, Jon Warwick

Fourteen members of Witney Town Band, plus 7 accompanying guests, were invited to Unterhaching to take part in their clebrations for 30 years of twinning with Witney. Unterhaching is twinned with several other European towns that include Bischofshofen in Austria, Le Vesinet in France, and Zywiec in Poland; delegations from these towns were also present.

Please click here for a full report of their visit.

Witney Twinning Association AGM, John Thornton

Please find attached the minutes from the 4th September 2019 Witney Twinning Association AGM.

Twinning Article in German Newspaper

Here is an article that recently featured in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung,a Bavarian regional newspaper with a strong readership.

It was an article about how Brexit will shape the twinning partnership and how we feel the change will affect us.

I was able to tell them that any negative changes will only bring us closer together as out relationship with Unterhaching and Le Touquet is based on friendship.

I will translate it soon, when I have more time.

John Thornton

Dinner and musical entertainment at Cafe Rouge, 19 June, Eleonore Bruyere

There will be a dinner and musical entertainment at Cafe Rouge, Witney, on Tuesday June 19th, from 7pm as part of the 1er Rallye du Jumelage, members welcome.

1er Rallye du Jumelage, 18-21 June, Eleonore Bruyere

The Witney Twinning Association is participating in organising a car rally with a French motor club for vintage cars to travel from Le Touquet to Witney, for more details see 1er Rallye du Jumelage.

Unterhaching Visit 8-11 June, John Thornton

Our Twin Town of Unterhaching is celebrating the anniversary of their long-standing relationship with their French Twin Town Le Vesinet this year. They are organising some festivities from the 8-11 June 2018 and have invited 2 members plus the mayor with partner to attend this event, therefore would like to send the invitation out to everyone to see who would be interested in visiting Unterhaching near Munich.

Our Twin-friends are always very hospitable and entertaining, a great opportunity to see Munich if you haven't yet had a chance to visit.

Please let me know by the 16th March 2018 if you would like to go.

It is a self-funding trip, but the Unterhaching Association is organising some meals including the anniversary dinner and will find you a host family for the nights in Germany.

I will be happy to help with finding the best flights and transfers should you wish to have some assistance.

Please let me.know if you have any questions.

WTA Committee Meeting, John Thornton

Please find attached the minutes from the 13th February Witney Twinning Association Committee Meeting.

Newsletter, Jenny Smith

Please find the WTA newsletter that Jenny has produced here. A big thank you to all of you who have contributed articles along with Jenny who did a great job putting it together.

WTA Committee Meeting, John Thornton

Please find attached the minutes from our recent Witney Twinning Association Committee Meeting. I have also attached the Agenda for 2017/18 to remind us what event we have coming up and where we might want to have a presence.

Subscriptions, John Thornton

Dear Twinning Association Members and friends,

Another year has passed and once again the time has come for the renewal of your membership for which the fees for the year remain at £10 per member or £14 for a family membership.

Yours sincerely,

John Thornton, Acting Treasurer

Payments can be made directly through your bank to:

The Witney and District Twinning Association

Sort Code 40-47-07

Account number 01044478

Witney Twinning Association AGM, John Thornton

The Witney Twinning Association would like to invite you to attend the Annual General Meeting (AGM) on the 31st July 2017 at 7pm at the Witney Town Hall.

Documents from this meeting include the Chairman's report, a report from the Le Touquet rep, a report from the Unterhaching rep and the minutes of the meeting.

Twinning Committee Meeting, John Thornton

A committee meeting has been arranged for Tuesday 27th June 2017 to take place in the Council Chamber of the Witney Town Hall at 7-00pm. This meeting is to update us on the current situation and to pencil in and plan our future events.

Minutes of the meeting are available here.

Unterhaching Visit, Mike Breakell & John Thornton

I would simply say that we were met be Bernie at the airport which was wonderful and taken to our hosts in Unterhaching. The Lindners (Annagret and Mannfred) are wonderful hosts and I have stayed with them before, some years ago, and Annagret and her boys have stayed with us in Finstock too, some years ago.

Essentially the official part of the visit was on Saturday 6th May when we visited the Rathaus and met many members of the Unterhaching twinning group as well as visitors from their twin towns in Austria, Poland, and Belgium. This included unveiling of a plaque and exhibition by Thomas to celebrate the Unterhaching partnerships. That afternoon we had a guided tour of Munich led by Peter and that evening had a more formal dinner and celebration of twinning involving short presentations. I am very grateful to John Thornton for his verbal contribution (in fluent German of course) on our behalf at this important celebration.

On Sunday 7th May it rained all day but we made the most of it by being taken by Peter and Bernie to visit some of the wonderful art galleries of Munich before Bernie returned us to the airport for the journey home.