Fordingbridge has celebrated 40 years of twinning with Vimoutiers in Normandy on Friday, July 1. 

Some 40 visitors from the town, including 20 members of Fordingbridge Rotary Club, visited Vimoutiers, where an updated Charter of Friendship was signed by the respective mayors of each town.

The Mayor of Fordingbridge, Cllr Anna Wilson, alongside Fordingbridge Twinning committee chair, Alison Ayling, and the Mayor of Vimoutiers, Guy Romain are shown at the signing of the charter.

Celebrations began with a video conference between Burgate School in Fordingbridge and the College Hée-Fergant in Vimoutiers, where environmental concerns and actions were discussed and interesting ideas to manage food waste and recycling were exchanged.

A large collection of milk bottle tops was presented by Fordingbridge Greener Living to add to the weight of bottle tops collected in Vimoutiers for a charity which recycles them into equipment for people in need.

The visitors were treated to excursions to a local cider and calvados producer and to a Camembert cheese factory with the celebrations culminating in an anniversary party where there was a delicious meal and dancing to live music by the well-known French rock band ‘Willy and the Conquerors’.

The evening was rounded off with the lighting of candles on a Union Jack shaped birthday cake.