The History of the Deal/Saint-Omer Twinning Society The link was first established in 1973 when a French teacher living in Saint - Omer decided to start an exchange of friends with his father's town of origin - Deal.
The History of 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. In 2019, Coventry celebrated its 60th anniversary of the devestation and to mark this occasion 30 pupils from Coventry visited Dresden.. 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”. A shared sense of history can be the root of many original twinnings. In 2017, Reading celebrated 70 years of its association with Düsseldorf, Germany. The twin was established when the Royal Berkshire Regiment, based in Düsseldorf, wrote to the Mayor of Reading asking for help for the people of the German city just after the Second World War. Twinned with Duisburg, Germany, in 1950, Portsmouth City Council suggested the twinning as an act of reconciliation, so that the post-war reconstruction would see not only buildings, but also relations between the two nations rebuilt. Twinned since 1948, St. Helens, as a leading manufacturer of glass, was able to support the rebuilding of Stuttgart, Germany, parts of which had been destroyed or damaged by bombing during the conflict. Many of the strongest links between British and European towns and cities are because of active exchange programmes between schools. Strasbourg in France offers its students special grants in order to study in one of its five dedicated twin towns, which includes Leicester. Towns and cities are sometimes associated by the presence of a major university. Oxford and Cambridge are twinned with other famous university cities including Szeged (Hungary), Heidelberg (Germany) and Grenoble (France). 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.