Piece of recent history from when Warwick and Verden first 'twinned' is presented to town Mayor

Mervyn Kimberley (right) presenting the Verden Dom picture to the Mayor of Warwick, Cllr Oliver Jacques and current chair of the Warwick Twinning association, past Mayor of Warwick, Mandy Littlejohn. Photo by Gill Fletcher

The Mayor of Warwick was recently presented piece of recent history from the founding of the twinning between Warwick and Verden in Germany.

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Back in the early 1990s Mervyn Kimberley, one of the founding members of Warwick’s Twinning Association and chair of the Association at that time, completed a three-year negotiation to “twin” Warwick with the town of Verden in Germany.

Some of the documents and postcards and newspaper cuttings from Verden collated by Mervyn. Photo by Gill Fletcher

As part of the twinning ceremony, which took place in the Great Hall at Warwick Castle, Mervyn was presented with a picture of Verden Dom (cathedral) and the surrounding countryside.

The presentation was made by Bärbel Holzworth-Kühn, when they were both chairmen of their respective twinning associations.

Mervyn also notified Her Majesty, the Queen about the twinning and received a response from Buckingham Palace passing on the Queen’s very best wishes for the future and expressing her pleasure on reading this news.

In the years that followed and to provide the Verden Twinning Association with information about what was was happening in Warwick, Mervyn wrote “Letters from Warwick” akin to Alastair Cooke’s Letters from America.

The Verden Dom picture. Photo by Gill Fletcher

Unknown to Mervyn at the time, these were translated and published in the local Verden newspaper.

Many of these documents, with contemporary postcards, examples of the newspaper cuttings from Verden and the original letters from Warwick, plus, of course, the important letter from Buckingham Palace, have all been collated by Mervyn.

At the end of March, Mervyn made a formal presentation of the Verden Dom picture to the Mayor of Warwick, Cllr Oliver Jacques, and current chair of the Warwick Twinning Association, past Mayor of Warwick, Mandy Littlejohn.

The Mayor of Warwick said he was was extremely pleased to receive the gift, which will hang in the Mayor’s Parlour at the Court House in Warwick.

He added that the documents provided an important insight into our social history at the time.

Mandy Littlejohn assured Mervyn the documents will be very much enjoyed by members of the current Twinning Association.

They will be featured at the Town’s Annual Meeting on April 22 and at the Twinning Association AGM in July, prior to being passed over to the Warwickshire County Record Office.