News for 2007
Château-Gontier celebrates its millenium
The Mayor of Frome, Councillor Blanche Farley led a small delegation to the twin town of Château-Gontier for the celebration of its Millennium on the weekend of 14th and 15th May. With her were Christine Potter and Elizabeth Wakefield, the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Frome Twinning Association and their husbands. There was also a delegation from Frome's other twin town Murrhardt in Germany led by the Mayor Gerhardt Strobel.
The formal programme began on the Saturday morning when the Twinning Association Committees met to discuss the possibility of extending the twinning to a Polish town and the details of several were put forward. The proposal is to narrow this down to three when the committees meet again in Frome later in the year and visit the suggested towns in Poland in September.
In the afternoon the market area by the bandstand was filled with stalls representing each of the European Union Countries as Europe Day was also being recognised, and an Irish group gave a concert that was much appreciated by the local people. Following this, local leaders and the Mayors of the three towns made speeches in recognition of the town Millennium and the European Union. Each was then presented with an orange T-shirt and white cap to the mark the weekend's festivities. Blanche Farley raised a special cheer when she took off her much-admired hat to replace it with the cap along with the other officials who had also donned their T-shirts. A dinner in the evening for the town again had an Irish theme.
All the delegates and their partners met again the following day for a lunch. At the end presentations to commemorate the occasion were made to Philippe Henry, the Mayor of Château-Gontier. Frome gave a plate made especially by the Enigma Pottery and a picture by a local artist of the distinctive Murrhardt Church twin towers was the German offering. Christine Potter then thanked the people of Château-Gontier for their welcome and splendid hospitality and looked forward to meeting again when the Annual Tripartite Meeting will be held in Frome at the start of the Frome Festival. About seventy visitors are expected for the first weekend of the Festival and it is hoped to renew old friendships and make new ones as was experienced at this thoroughly enjoyable weekend.
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