The “twinning stone” at the junction of Preston Road and Bergen Avenue was erected in 1970 when the roads on the Sutton Fields estate in South Abingdon were named after the towns with which Abingdon was either twinned with or has a friendship link. Visitors from the twin towns are often take to see this stone and shown “their road “.

The stone had become illegible because of weathering. The twin towns society ADTTS approached the Town Council to see if they would arrange to get it cleaned but the reply was that no money was available.

ADTTS decided to have a go at cleaning it and the pictures show the Vice Chair of ADTTS Peter Dodd cleaning the stone last Friday.

In September, a delegation from the Argentan Twinning Society came to Abingdon and unveiled a plaque in the the Abbey Meadow for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Later in the day they were also welcomed by the Mayor.

Translation: En septembre, une délégation du Cercle jumelage d’Argentan vient a Abingdon et dévoiler une plaque dans la prairie de l’abbaye.

In December, at the appropriate time of the year, the accompanying flowering apple tree, presented by the French delegation, was planted by the Secretary and Vice President of ADTTS (Abingdon and District Twin Towns Society)

Translation: En Décembre, au bon moment, le pommier d’Argentan, a été planté par les représentants des ADTTS (Abingdon et District Twin Towns Société.)

This story was covered in September by Ouest-France, a national / regional newspaper, under the headline “Argentan. Le Cercle jumelage royalement reçu à Abingdon.”

The warm weather is still here and so it was good to go to a summer evening concert at St Nicolas Church, Abingdon.

Abingdon Community Orchestra performed during the first half. They were established two years ago by the Abingdon Music Centre as a way of getting people of all ages and abilities to play music. Donations were welcomed towards the Music Centre.

They were followed by a choir from twin town Sint-Niklaas in Belgium. Earlier this week they performed at Oxford’s Cathedral at Christ Church, and then did a workshop at Larkmead School in Abingdon.

In the audience at St Nics were 18 people from our twin towns over on an English learning visit. The Mayor was also there to watch the performances and received from Dieter, the conductor of the choir, some of their CDs.

Abingdon is twinned with some interesting places on the continent. Sint-Niklaas is just one. Their choir were excellent.

There was Opera in Abingdon tonight to celebrate forty years of Abingdon being twinned with Lucca – a beautiful Tuscan City. Silvana Froli came all the way from Lucca to perform.

Michael Matthews was the Mayor of Abingdon at the first ever Abingdon-Lucca twinning ceremony – forty years ago. He is still very involved with the twinning society in 2012.

At his initial meeting with the Mayor of Lucca forty years ago he was asked whether Abingdon had an Opera House.

This evening the Amey Theatre, at Abingdon School, served as The Abingdon Opera House.