Wantage, Grove and District Twinning Association
The aim of Wantage Twinning is to foster and extend relationships. The Association works in close collaboration with its equivalents in Mably and Seesen, to increase contact with individuals, groups and organisations in Wantage and Grove.
Twinning associations around the world have arisen to foster friendship and understanding between the peoples of towns from different countries. The principal activity of Town Twinning is the organising of visits to Seesen and Mably, and hosting people from Seesen or Mably. The groups visit on an alternate biennial basis. The Groups also assist individuals and families to make direct contact with people from our twin towns, and host students from Seesen and Mably who come to Wantage for work experience.
Students and specialist groups, such as football clubs, musical and dance groups, visit each other. Anyone living, working or meeting in Wantage, Grove or surrounding villages can take part.
Wantage, Grove & District Twinning Association is funded by Members’ Subscriptions, £10 per person per annum.
The Twinning Groups holds fund raising social events including a joint annual dinner and an annual barbecue. They also run fund-raising stalls at local events, such as the Town Dickensian Evening. In the past, we have had grants from:
- Wantage Town Council
- Grove Parish Council
- Vale of White Horse District Council
- European Commission
Seesen
Seesen is in Lower Saxony, about 50 miles from Hanover, to the north-west of the Harz mountains, and is surrounded by wooded hills and rolling farmland. 23,000 people live in the town itself and the neighbouring villages, which are part of the administrative district of Seesen. It has a bustling town centre with many half-timbered houses and former farm buildings. With the decline of agriculture, the economy is now based primarily on the manufacture of cans for the food industry, on tourism and on the service sector.
If you would like more information, contact Derek Verdin by calling 01235 764750 or emailing [email protected].
Mably
Mably, population 8000, is in the Rhone-Alpes region, an area of outstanding natural beauty, adjacent to the city of Roanne in the department of Loire-Forez, and about 50 miles from Lyon. It is rural area specialising in dairy farming and some industry. The immediate region has small mountain ranges, the Loire Gorge with its 30km lake, broad valley pastures and vineyards: the local wine is Roannaise, and the well-known Beaujolais region is just nearby. Mably enjoys summers that are warm, dry and very sunny.
Mably is the newest town to be twinned with Wantage and the only town twinned with Grove. The ceremonies took place in 1991 with officials from the three towns signing the charter, a copy of which can be seen in the Civic Hall in Wantage.
If you would like more information, by calling Simon Weston 01235 765620 or emailing [email protected].
