25 years of Friendship

Over the recent Spring Bank Holiday weekend, a party from North Hykeham's German twin town of Denzlingen paid a visit here to celebrate 25 years of the two communities being linked.  Almost 60 people travelled over including the Burgermeister, Markus Hollemann and his wife, for whom it was a first experience of this area, and over a five-day period, they were shown various local attractions as well as having the opportunity to experience Lincolnshire hospitality.

In addition to the main party who arrived on Friday 24th May, a 12-strong all-female choir from the Denzlingen area, called “Vocanell”, together with their leader flew over 24 hours later and played a large part in the weekend's festivities as the culmination of what was their own 10th anniversary concert tour.  The main party were welcomed on Friday evening at the Town Council Offices by new Town Mayor, Cllr. Matthew Fields, before spending the remainder of the evening with local families.  Saturday morning saw a visit to the Lincolnshire Vintage Vehicle Museum on Whisby Road, followed by a journey to Lincoln Cathedral in a former Lincolnshire Road Car bus.  After free time in the heart of historic Lincoln, the party returned to North Hykeham where a band concert by the Foss Dyke Band had been arranged by the Town Council on The Green.  The evening was spent in The Lincoln Green public house where the main group were joined by the “Vocanell Choir” who entertained during the half-time interval of the all-German Champion's League Cup Final.      Whilst most of us had to be content with watching the game on the pub's TV,  Burgermeister Hollemann, a native of Munich and an ardent Bayern Munich supporter had actually managed to get tickets to the game at Wembley Stadium and so had travelled down with former Town Mayor, Ross Little to enjoy the atmosphere and ultimately the result he hoped for!  Although most of Sunday was a free day, in the evening, the visitors and their hosts assembled on the grassed area opposite All Saint's Church, where they were shown the new metal arches erected as part of an “art project”.  The arches will be “officially” opened later this year, but in the meantime, the Mayor explained the significance of the decorations on the arches which represent North Hykeham's past, present and future.  Gifts between the two Town Councils were then exchanged, and this was followed by a service inside All Saint's Church itself.  Candles were lit in memory of all those who had been involved in our twinning over the previous 25 years and who had passed away in both our towns as well as to remember family members who were no longer with us.  This was an especially poignant and emotional experience for the “Vocanell” choir members as one of them had suffered a bereavement two days before they left Germany and as if this was not bad enough, another choir member had just received a message to say her father had died earlier that day!  The choir took a large part in the musical content of the service and Twinning Association Chairman, John Lingard related some of the milestones in our twinning experiences on behalf of two former leading lights of our partnership, Ted Singerton of North Hykeham and Anne Schindelbeck of Denzlingen.

On Bank Holiday Monday, the main party travelled to Burghley House at Stamford for a tour of the property before returning to North Hykeham where a celebration dinner was held in the evening at The Bentley Hotel with dancing to a ceilidh band plus more songs from the choir.  Tuesday saw a visit to Nottingham where our German friends were taken underground into the cave system and also to the Galleries Of Justice.  On their return from Nottingham, Herr and Frau Volkert, two vets from Denzlingen were shown around the Park View Animal Hospital near The Green by North Hykeham vet Joanne Patrick and were able to exchange experiences from their respective practices. 

Our guests departed early on Wednesday morning for their journey back to Germany.  Next July will see the German part of our “two-legged” Silver Jubilee over in Denzlingen, which we will share with the 40th Anniversary of their twinning with the French town of St. Cyr Sur Mer near Marseilles, the 20th Anniversary of their twinning with the Italian hilltop town of Citta Della Pieve, as well as renewing friendships with people from the Polish community of Konstancin-Jeziorna near Warsaw, which twinned with Denzlingen in 2011, making the first weekend of the month “Europafest” weekend! 

If you are interested in our twinning activities with Denzlingen or its other European partner communities, please don't hesitate to contact the Chairman, John Lingard on Lincoln 882014.  We normally organise group visits every other year to Germany and have regular contacts with Denzlingen's other twin towns too.

TWINNING TIMELINE:-

1974 – Denzlingen becomes twinned with the French seaside town of St. Cyr Sur Mer.
1987 - Initial exploratory visits between North Hykeham and Denzlingen.
1988 - Twinning Charter signed in Denzlingen.  We become Denzlingen's second
            twin town
1989 - Charter countersigned in North Hykeham
1993 -  Denzlingen twins with the Italian town of Citta Della Pieve
1995 - North Hykeham and Denzlingen awarded the Council Of Europe's Gold             
            Medal for efforts in twinning
2011 -  Denzlingen twins with the Polish town of Konstancin-Jeziorna

N.B. North Hykeham and Denzlingen are very well matched.  Denzlingen is a small commuter town with light industry and agricultural interests, situated between the Cathedral City of Freiburg and the market town of Emmendingen which is in fact the twin town of Newark!
25 years of Friendship