History of town twinning

When you enter many towns and cities in Great Britain today you are greeted by a sign: “Welcome to …., twinned with …..”. These signs represent a history of international co-operation and friendship, some at an official level, many as informal links between groups of people of all ages and backgrounds. Twinning became popular in Great Britain after the Second World War, with the aim that building links and exchanges between individual towns and cities would bring reconciliation and prosperity after years of conflict.

Perhaps the most famous link is between Coventry and Dresden, which both suffered catastrophic damage from aerial bombing. Other links stem from goodwill missions to help with particular post-war projects or simply from a curiosity about overseas places, as travel became easier. Many British towns and cities now also have twinning links around the world, with the idea of “twinned towns” being joined by “sister cities”.

The history of French twin towns

Jumelage, as it’s known in French, dates back over a century and has its roots in Keighley in West Yorkshire. Soldiers from the Yorkshire town inspired the twin partnership as a gesture of solidarity after the devastation suffered in Poix-du-Nord during the First World War. The two towns sealed their relationship in 1920 and Keighley citizens funded the construction of Keighley Hall in their French twin.

But twinning arrangements between towns began in earnest after the Second World War, particularly between France, Germany and the UK. The Europe-wide desire for reconciliation led to the forging of bonds between municipalities and local authorities, and as a result, twinning was officially born.

Did you know? Over 4,000 communes in France are twinned with a locality abroad, establishing links to local communities. Germany has the highest number of French sister towns (2,322 in 2018), followed by the UK (1,890) and Italy (986).

The twinning process 

Over a century after the Keighley-Poix-du-Nord jumelage, the twinning movement has become a worldwide phenomenon. In Europe, the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) is the main instigator of towns twinning.

The CEMR suggests that twinning be a process of finding a partner town with similar characteristics. Population size is a common denominator as are location, economic activities and historic links. Cultural similarities also make a popular basis for twin towns.

Educational twinnings

Many of the strongest links between British and European towns and cities are because of active exchange programmes between schools. This section expands our examination of twinned towns and sister cites to other European countries, as well as Germany. For example, Strasbourg in France offers its students special grants in order to study in one of its five dedicated twin towns, which includes Leicester. In 2019, Coventry celebrated its 60th anniversary of twinning with the city of Dresden in Germany. To mark this occasion 30 pupils from Coventry visited Dresden.

Industrial heritage towns

A shared industrial past underpins the links between some towns and cities, for example, Saint-Nazaire in France was chosen to be twinned with Sunderland on the basis of a common maritime and shipbuilding heritage. Similarly, Swindon’s twinning association draws parallels between its industrial and commercial past and that of its twin town, Salzgitter in Germany. The importance of their textile trade is a common interest between Preston and Nimes in France.

Clearly much has changed in terms of industrial structure since the height of these towns and cities’ industrial power and even since they have been twinned. 

And Paris? 

Despite the long list of French twin towns and sister cities, some of which have triplets or sextuplets worldwide, the City of Light has only one sister city: Rome. The two capitals became officially twinned in 1956 and have remained faithful to each other ever since.

Not for nothing is their motto, “Only Paris is worthy of Rome and only Rome is worthy of Paris”.

However, Paris also has some unofficial and surprising twins. They include the minute village of Whitwell in the tiny county of Rutland in the Midlands. The initiative came from Whitwell’s 41 residents who approached the Parisian mayor (Jacques Chirac at the time) in 1980 with a twinning proposal.

Their first two missives received no reply but the third stated that Whitwell could consider implicit consent if no official reply was forthcoming. No letter arrived and over 40 years later, the sign greeting visitors to the Rutland village says, “Welcome to Whitwell – twinned with Paris”.