I was joined on today’s show by David Clark, the publicity officer for the Friends of Chauvigny, Billericay Town Twinning Association. No mere mortal is David, however, who apart from his town twinning activities has also served time in the Intelligence Corps and was also closely involved in the UK’s independent nuclear deterrent. Hopefully we’ll be able to persuade him to come back on another occasion to throw some light on that shadowy world!
But today the spotlight was most definitely on town twinning. David explained that after Europe had been left devastated by two world wars, the last ending with the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan, there was a feeling that another war in Europe could end in similar fashion. In an effort to foster personal developments across the continent therefore, the concept of town twinning was born. The link up between Billericay and Chauvigny was the brainchild of a young French teacher, Elise Paret, who had been enchanted by Billericay during time she had spent here. An earlier attempt to twin Chauvigny with Daventry had failed due to the somewhat impersonal way in which Daventry had approached the issue.
At first problems arose due to the language barrier but this obstacle was quickly overcome. Chauvigny was and is a very interesting place. During the war it was in the occupied zone of the country, but right on the border with Vichy France. Just before D-Day the RAF dropped a huge amount of ammunition and other military supplies. Whilst the actual material was collected and put to effective use by the resistance fighters, the containers in which this material had been delivered were hidden by the local farmer on whose land the material had landed, only to be forgotten about until recently re-discovered a few years ago! This material is now on display in a resistance exhibition.
Anyone interested can join up for an annual fee of £5, but this is no “free lunch” so if travelling to Chauvigny to stay with local families, must pay for the trip themselves and in turn be willing to act as hosts to guests from Chauvigny and take them around to see the sights here.
You can listen again to what David had to say here: -[audio:https://www.phoenixfm.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/David-Clark.mp3|titles=David Clark]
In the second hour of today’s programme, Frances Clamp dropped by to tell us all about Billericay in Roman and Saxon times and once again you can hear what she had to say on this subject right here: – [audio:https://www.phoenixfm.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Bygones-12th-June.mp3|titles=Bygones 12th June]
Well that’s another week gone by. See you again next Saturday at 12 when I’ll be talking to author extraordinaire, Patrick Forsyth and in the absence of Frances Clamp I’ll be doing my best to pass on research that Frances carried out on De Rougemont Manor.
Have a good week til then,
Scott