THE city of Kleve in Germany is probably our most successful twinning partnership. We have been twinned with Kleve for 32 years now and our friendship with this city is continuing to thrive.
England’s association with Kleve goes back to medieval times when Henry VIII married Ann of Cleaves (as it was known in medieval times, later to become Kleve) and she became his fourth wife and queen.
Paul Kuesters pictured on Worcester's twin town bridge in April 1991
Evidence of our friendship with Kleve can be seen mainly on our riverside where Worcester’s riverside path is called Kleve Walk.
Derek Richards, deputy mayor, receiving a bronze statue of the black swan, symbol of Kleve, in April 1991
Since we were first twinned with Kleve, our members have enjoyed an annual one-week exchange visit.
One year we go to Kleve and the next year they come to us. We stay as guests in each other’s homes and we make strong friendships with our host families and we learn a lot about each other’s way of life and culture.
A Kleve brass band performed during a visit in October 1990
We have daily excursions to explore the attractions of the host country, but because of the recent Covid pandemic we have not been able to visit each other recently.
Worcester mayor, Cllr Jo Hodges, greets Kleve twinning chairman Paul Kuesters in June 1999
We do hope that these visits can resume again soon and our German friends will be able to visit us in 2022. As well as these annual exchanges, our friends from Kleve join us at our Victorian Christmas Fayre every year, but they will not be coming this year to sell their glühwein and stollen, again because of the pandemic.
There's no stopping this four-legged friend from joining in with the musical fun outside the Guildhall during the twinning visit in 1990
Worcester Twinning Association will have a stall at the Fayre however, and we will be selling glühwein there.
The Worcester Twinning Association has enriched the lives of all our members and we’re sure that the members of our twin towns associations
will be saying exactly the same thing.
We celebrate life with them and we cherish all the common threads in our lives and we value our differences.
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