HEBDEN BRIDGE TWINNING SOCIETY
President David Parry 01422 845632Secretary Jane Jackson 01422 846 081
Hebden Bridge Twinning Society exists to promote and develop social, cultural, educational, recreational, economic and municipal links between the area and local communities in other countries. The Hebden Bridge European Group has been active since the early 1970's and developed many positive links with our twinned communities in that time. In 1995, the group became the Hebden Bridge and District International Group, a change which recognised the wider international links that are developing. In 2013 the name was again changed to Hebden Bridge Twinning Society to more clearly reflect the purpose.
Hebden Royd has been twinned with St Pol-Sur-Ternoise in northern France since 1979 and, since 1995, with Warstein in Germany. The Twinning Society plays a central role in developing and maintaining these twinning links and is also actively involved in the wider twin links throughout Calderdale.
The Society meets regularly for both business and social purposes and aims to encourage as wide a membership as possible from the local communities. Business meetings are held, newsletters are produced to keep members informed of a range of issues and events, and social functions are organised on a regular basis. The Society organises exchanges with twin towns and seeks to promote and facilitate the initiation and development of international links by other local groups.
The Society is non-profit making and finances its activities principally from membership fees. Special events are supported by fund raising activities and, where possible, by grants. The Society is independent from, but enjoys the support of, the Hebden Royd Town Council.
St Pol is in northern France, in the rolling wooded countryside of Flanders. It is north of Amiens, between Montreuil and Arras and just over an hour from the channel ports of Calais and Boulogne. Sharing some similarities with Hebden Bridge, it too is the centre of a community of small villages and hamlets in the surrounding area.
Farming is the principal commercial activity in the region, although tourism also features so there are hotels and camp sites and, of course, restaurants. The town has an historic past and whilst it was heavily bombed in 1944 (and subsequently rebuilt) there are still a few well preserved public buildings worth seeing. There are British cemeteries in St Pol and it is from here that the Unknown Soldier began the journey to his resting place in Westminster Abbey in 1920.
Activities such as cycling, mountain biking, archery, angling, and clay pigeon shooting are all available locally. There are places of interest in the area, there is a motor racing circuit and the coast is not far away. The battlefields of Azincourt (Agincourt), and, from the First World War, the Somme, are in easy reach. There are good train links to Paris from St Pol and nearby Arras.
Warstein is in the north of the Sauerland, a land of hills, lakes and forests, which gives way to the North German plain. The industrial area of the Ruhr is about an hour’s drive away to the west. Stadt Warstein lies in the administrative area of Soest which is about half way between Dortmund and Kassel.
Warstein itself lies in a valley and has a number of small villages in the hills and valleys around it, in this respect it is not dissimilar to Hebden Bridge. With about 30 000 inhabitants, it is, however, a larger town and, with over half its area wooded, forestry is important. Also in the area are electrical, steel and plastics industries together with limestone quarries and perhaps the best known, the huge brewery where Warsteiner beer is made.
Due to its location, though, it is not only an industrial town, but also a popular holiday area offering, among other things, watersports, walking and, in winter, cross country skiing. There is plenty of accommodation and camping available. Other places of interest includecaves that have stalactites, a wildlife park and nearby is the Moehnesee and the Moehne Dam.
St Pol and Warstein became twin towns in 1965 and celebrated their 50th anniversary in the year 2014.
19/9/08 updated 6/6/14