Twinning Association

WELCOME TO FILTON TWINNING ASSOCIATION

Filton is twinned with two European towns – St Vallier-sur-Rhône, in the Drôme district of France, just south of Lyon, and Witzenhausen in the Hessen district in the very centre of Germany.

Town twinning has existed for centuries but many links were set up after the Second World War in 1947, with the intention to  

• foster friendship and understanding among different cultures as an act of peace and reconciliation,
• form strategic international business links
• encourage trade and tourism.

WHY THESE TOWNS?

Our twinning started in 1970’s when the Mayor of St Vallier “Mr Witzen” visited the German town Witzenhausen that shared his name and those two towns became twinned. Not long after this two companies; Sarma in St Vallier and BAC in Filton, collaborated on the Concorde project and Filton joined to form a tripartite twinning linking the three towns.

HOW TWINNING WORKS

For the past 45 years there have been visits and exchanges between people from Filton, St Vallier and Witzenhausen. With the many exchanges from schools and interest groups, friendships have grown between the communities. Nowadays, for a week once a year, members of the Filton Twinning Association meet and live together in each other’s homes on a 3-year cycle, with Witzenhausen, then St Vallier and then Filton hosting.

ANYONE WITH AN INTEREST IN FILTON CAN JOIN

If you live or work in Filton, or just have an interest in the area you are most welcome to join us. You will be able to take part in twinning trips with the opportunity to see and experience every day life as lived by our European neighbours.

Please contact us to find out more.

Look out for details of local events and twinning trips on our Facebook page