Twinning Charter Signed… just the start to our towns’ great connections

Last night saw a historic event for Henley when the Twinning Charter between Henley and Bled, Slovenia was signed at a special meeting of the Town Council by our Mayor, Councillor Liz Hodgkin and the Mayor of Bled, Mr Janez Fajfar.

Around 90 specially invited guests were there to witness this at the Town Hall which included members of Henley’s community groups, businesses and rowing clubs.

After the Charter was signed the Mayors exchanged gifts. Mayor Liz Hodgkin presented the Mayor of Bled with a photograph of the visiting party which was taken on Sunday at Leander together with a framed print of ‘Regatta at Henley’ by the French post-impressionist Raoul Dufy from 1933. The original can be seen in the Rowing Gallery at the River and Rowing Museum.  The Mayor of Bled, Janez Fajfar presented our Mayor with a specially engraved glass plate from Bled.

Mayor Liz Hodgkin said, “There are many similarities between the two towns, not just rowing, we both have business schools, it hosts an international music festival and is a tourist town like Henley. This is just the beginning of this great connection and I am looking forward to our visit to Bled in September when we will be taking two junior rowing crews of eight to row there.”

Before the special meeting was officially closed the national anthems were played from both countries.

Earlier in the day the party from Bled visited the River & Rowing Museum as they are interested in opening a museum there in the future. Afterwards they visited Henley College and Gillotts School before having a traditional afternoon tea at Hotel du Vin.