Melksham anniversary rings out (From This Is Wiltshire)

Melksham anniversary rings out

4:00pm Saturday 13th March 2010 in

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Former chairmen of the Melksham Twinning Association met for a photshoot at the town hall on Saturday to officially mark its 30th year.

The town has been twinned with Avon in France, near Paris, for 30 years and celebrations will include members of the twinning association visiting Avon in April, while in October Melksham residents will welcome a contingent from Avon Carole Mitchell, of the association, said: “Most of the people I managed to contact were former chairmen as well as the town crier, who also came along and our association president, the mayor Richard Wiltshire.

“Sheila Wilkinson was also there representing her late husband John Wilkinson, who was a chairman of the association between about 1985 and 1986.”

Although she contacted many former chairmen for the event, Mrs Mitchell was unable to track down any members of the family of former chairman Wally West, who has since died.

However, she had been in touch by letter with Canon John Townsend, one of the founders of the twinning association.

She said: “He was not able to come along on Saturday and he lives in Dorset now, but he said if his health was up to it he would be involved later in the year with twinning celebrations.

The public, meanwhile, have picked Forest & Sandridge Primary School as the winner of an art competition, based on Friendship, to publicise the association’s 30th year.

The school’s design was picked from a host of paintings and pictures drawn by schoolchildren across the town, which were put on display in the Arthouse Café in February.

The image will be turned into posters and used to publicise twinning events, as well as being taken to Avon in April.

Picture caption: Past chairmen of the Melksham & District Twinning Association with town crier Peter Dauncey are, from left, Vivienne Watson, Stuart Beese, Mary Ann Pickett, David Tompkins, Ursula Coleman, mayor Richard Wiltshire, Poppy Cooke, Alex Phelps, Sheila Wilkinson and Mary Woolford