Monday 20th June 2011

Last week, His Worship The Mayor, Peter Barr had just returned from a trip to Darmstadt as we spoke with him.

The visit is an annual one by Chesterfield's Mayor, as part of the twinning celebrations between our two towns. The Mayor told us they were invited by the Lord Mayor of the German town and, during the few days there took part in many ceremonies.


The Mayor and Mayoress meet pen-friend Wolfgang (centre) during their visit to Darmstadt. Picture courtesy of the Mayor.

The main one is an 8km walk around a forest - The Grenzgang - during which all visiting Mayors (as Darmstadt is twinned with as many as 15 towns there are quite a few!) will see and stop at various stalls from all the twinned towns which will contain samples of their local foods, drinks and culture.

His Worship recounted that he, "Enjoyed the walk and experience immensely despite the 30 degree heat though, after sampling all the twinned town's beers he had returned and declared to The Mayoress that he had found it difficult to stay on the path!!"

Other events included the Lord Mayor's Party, a church service, during which all visiting Mayor's give a reading in their own language. There was also chance for a tour of the town that both the Mayor and Mayoress could not speak highly of; they spoke of it as a "Calm, lovely place".

A personal highlight of the visit was a meeting with an old friend of The Mayoress, albeit one she had never met. 50 years ago Mayoress Jean Barr had begun writing to Wolfgang as part of a pen friend scheme and takes up the story from the Mayor's Parlour.

"We wrote regularly and to this day exchange Christmas cards but have never met. I wrote to him and told him that we were coming over and that if he had five minutes it would be lovely to meet. By chance he knew the twinning organiser and was able to come to the Orangery to meet us.

"It was fantastic to see him" (picture above, courtesy of the Mayor). The Mayor was thrilled too, "Jean was nervous beforehand, but they really clicked, he knew Jean straight away. We later went for a meal with him and had a really enjoyable afternoon. Hopefully we'll meet again."

On return it was, by chance, Darmstadt week here in Chesterfield and 40 students from the town were here and though the Mayor had an engagement, the Mayoress gave them a tour of the parlour and the Council Chambers.

Shortly after the couple attended a twinning dinner at the Quadrant of Chesterfield College which the couple said was particularly nice as, given their recent visit, they were able to talk about the town and were up to date.

A sad engagement came on Friday as they attended the funeral of the former Mayor Nicky Qazi who had sadly passed away after an illness. His Worship paid tribute to him as a "Local statesman, everyone liked him - he was very well respected."

On Saturday the couple had attended the Central Methodist Church where they had attended an Handel evening and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Sunday saw an appearance at Hasland Carnival which sadly was a washout. The Mayor expressed his disappointment at the weather saying that "Even the Carnival Queens were soaked through and cold. I was conscious that we hadn't seen everyone as some had gone early due to the conditions. That was disappointing for the children who asked to see us.

"We have asked the organiser to invite everyone to the Mayor's Parlour. The weather was disappointing for everyone who had put in the work."

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