Annual membership of the Twinning Association is just £3, or £5 for a family. If you are interested in joining us, then please contact our secretary. We have regular events throughout the year, here in Bisley parish, as well as our annual exchange with the French.
The French were here for Ascension Day this year - for a full description of events, see French visit 2008.
We were in Plessala for Bastille Day in 2007 - for a full description of events, see below.
The French were with us from Friday 25 August to Monday 28 August 2006 - for a full description of events, see below.
We were in Plessala for the weekend starting 19th August 2005 - see below for a report on our visit.
The Twinning Association was founded in 1992 in response to an approach from the Association de Jumelage of the commune of Plessala in Brittany.
Plessala is a commune with 1,824 inhabitants (on 10th March 2000 according to the mayor's secretary) and an area of a little under 13,000 acres. It consists of the main village (the bourg) where most of the Plessalians live together with a number of other much smaller settlements with evocative names such as Saint-Udy, la ville-Orio (said to be the site of a Roman villa) and la Hautière. The pleasant rolling countryside rises to a height of 1,100 feet at Bel-Air at the north end of the commune, 6 km (about 4 miles) from the village. It is nicely placed 70 km (45 miles or so) from St. Malo and is convenient for visiting Brittany's beautiful north coast - and some of the many beauty spots inland.
Our parish and their commune have been exchanging visits once or twice a year since 1993 and two things stand out: the warmth and generosity of the hospitality of our French hosts and the unimportance of the language difference. They are really nice people. We like them and get on well with them: they seem to like us. Both sides enjoy their visits. On the coach returning from our first visit to them in 1993 everybody was saying "How on earth can we repay such hospitality?" Yet I am told that as they left Thomas Keble school later the same year they were all saying the same thing.
Over the years many friendships have developed between people and families here and over there. All the twinners have friends in Plessala; people with whom we are well acquainted even though they live in a small community in a foreign country and speak a different language.
Twinning is good fun. It is also very important because it shows that people get on together in spite of governments, prejudices and preconceptions (on both sides). Language really doesn't matter. Goodwill is the only requirement. Do join. Everyone who does enjoys it. So will you.
French visit 2008
Thursday 1 - Saturday 3 May
Bisley-with-Lypiatt Twinning Association has once again enjoyed a wonderful few days with our Breton 'twins'. Eastcombe Scout and Guide Hut proved an excellent venue for the welcoming breakfast, and later the sun shone on us at the Ascension Day service and well-dressing in Bisley. We owe thanks to everyone at All Saints' Church and Bisley CE Primary School for the friendly hospitality.
This year individual hosts organized outings for individual guests, but we all came together again at Oakridge Village Hall for a communal supper and a bit of a knees-up. Mike Davies produced an excellent barn dance band and was an inspired bilingual caller...so perhaps it was the endless food and drink that caused the riotous scenes on the dance floor, and not his instructions.
Roger Budgeon at the end of his exhausting week of open days very kindly did yet another guided tour of his remarkable new building at Holbrook Garage and Green Shop, and our French guests were fascinated, knowledgeable, and grateful for the information that Roger provided.
The Butchers Arms at Oakridge Lynch not only tolerated having the French coach in the car park there for the whole visit, but also had a good lunch ready for all 60 of us on Saturday. Those who had any energy left went for an afternoon stroll, and those who had none gave the pub a little extra custom. The visitors left at 4pm with the now-usual emotional farewells, with everyone on both sides looking forward to the next time. The Association is grateful to all who helped make this visit a success. Now we can get back to perpetuating the old joke about our real purpose being to twin Oakridge, Eastcombe and Bisley – the next round of activities will begin in June, we hope. As always, new members will be welcome to join us. The secretary's telephone number is 01453 882703.
Visit to Plessala 2007
A grand total of 39 members went by coach from Eastcombe, Oakridge, Bournes Green, France Lynch and Bisley to Plessala in Brittany on Thursday, 12 July. The overnight crossing from Portsmouth to St. Malo was calm and comfortable. A couple of hours were spent exploring the old town before continuing on to Ploubalay where we had a fine lunch of Breton pancakes at a restaurant in a converted water tower. The pancakes were delicious and the view of the surrounding countryside was breathtaking. The obligatory pit stop was made at a Plancoet supermarket in order to satisfy the British desire for fine French wines. We met our hosts at 5 o’clock in Plessala, speeches of friendship were made, gifts were exchanged and there was barely time to change before we all sped off to the firemen's celebratory supper of bacon hock and chips (for 500-600) followed by dancing and general merriment.
At mid-day on Saturday, 14 July, we joined in a march by the firemen to the local war memorial, a speech by the Mayor, the presentation of medals and the playing of the Marseillaise, followed by Rule Britannia. We then all adjourned for a 'Vin d'Honneur' in the village hall, followed by a picnic lunch (inside, as it was wet). Later that evening the villagers gathered by the lake to enjoy the 'Biere Anglaise' - a barrel of Budding from Stroud Brewery - followed by a most impressive firework display organised by - yes, that's right - the firemen.
Sunday started with a medieval banquet in an old manor house at lunchtime, followed by a visit to a medieval castle. Sunday evening was spent with our hosts, and at 7.30 Monday morning we were back on the bus to Blighty.
Following a sunlit channel crossing we arrived back in Eastcombe to be greeted by the first of that week's now infamous heavy rain.
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Stroud Brewery beer arrives in Plessala |
Bisley Visit 2006
Since the twinning arrangement was launched in 1993 there has been a regular annual and sometimes bi-annual exchange of visits with Plessala in Brittany. This year 2006 it was their turn to come to us and 32 visitors arrived on Friday evening 25 August. Among them we were particularly pleased to see seven teenagers, all of whom were visiting us for the first time. They will be our progress into the future.
As usual we tried to cram as much as possible into their too-short visit. After welcome drinks, snacks and speeches on their arrival at Eastcombe village hall our guests left for the homes of their hosts, some of whom they had known since the very beginning of the association, some of whom they were meeting for the first time. One teenaged young lady in particular who had insisted that she did not want to stay in the same house as her grandparents (as they do) was looking rather doubtful about staying alone among strangers.
Saturday morning was time for acclimatization and recovery from the journey though some made it down to Stroud Farmers' Market. On Saturday afternoon most of the twinners went to Bisley flower show and fête and in the evening hosts grouped together to entertain their guests to dinner and to prove that at least in Bisley-with-Lypiatt not all the widely held views about British cuisine are true!
In the past we have organized a coach excursion for all participants to a local place of interest. This year we left it to individual hosts or groups to organize separate outings. These varied from shopping trips to the local towns to outings to Alton Towers and Bourton-on-the-Water. All of them seemed to go well and to be appreciated. The high point however was on Sunday evening when the Bisley flower show committee very kindly allowed us to hold a party in their marquee. Many members and friends joined us who were not themselves hosting this year and a wonderful time was had by all. Also the fact that we had not spent the cash which would have paid for the coach excursion allowed us to make a contribution to the flower show funds. One very gratifying memory is of the sight of the teenager mentioned above who had looked rather apprehensive on arrival on Friday evening leaving the 'do' walking between her hosts laughing and chatting animatedly with them; thoroughly enjoying herself. She had met them for the first time on Friday evening and it was her first ever visit to the UK.
But all good things come to an end and this came on Bank Holiday Monday. We all had an excellent lunch together at the Butcher's Arms at Oakridge Lynch followed by a group walk through Strawberry Banks and down to the Frome on a glorious afternoon after which our guests climbed into their coach for the ride home via Portsmouth and the ferry to Saint Malo.
It had been a fun weekend and we now look forward to our visit to Plessala next Summer. Of such building blocks is international understanding made.
Plessala Visit 2005
A group of 32 people went with Bisley-with-Lypiatt Twinning Association to our twin town, Plessala in Brittany, leaving Eastcombe at 8pm on 18 August and arriving back at 1am on 23 August.
Various snags on the journeys mean it is best to draw a veil over them: the emphasis should be on the fact that as ever we were royally treated by our Breton hosts. On Saturday we visited a pottery in Quimper, and then we went on to a lavish seafood lunch in Audierne (in a restaurant that our hosts described as the last pub before America). There was chance to paddle in the Baie des Trepasses, so named for all the shipwrecked corpses that washed ashore there... lovely... and then it was back to Plessala for a boozy feast of cold meats, followed by grilled sardines at midnight (we are not the only people who don't light the barbecue in time).
On Sunday the Hunters' Feast meant that we again enjoyed a lunch for 600 people in the sports hall, with sausages and belly pork and beef boiled with vegetables in great cauldrons in the car park! Needless to say kir and cider and wine flowed freely for the three days of our visit, and sleep was in short supply. Eating and drinking for England is very exhausting but we left covered in glory - and if anyone thinks they could bear this sort of excess then do join the Twinning Association in time for the return match next year when the gastronomic joys of Gloucestershire will be proudly displayed, along with a few of our other treasures.