Denton Town Twinning

04/09/2026

Berlin has had quite a few lives. The Brandenburg Gate has somehow been standing there for most of them. 🇩🇪

Built between 1788 and 1791, it was commissioned by King Frederick William II of Prussia as a grand entrance to Berlin. Then history started happening to it.

🇫🇷 In 1806, Napoleon marched into Berlin after defeating Prussia and had the Quadriga on top taken down and shipped off to Paris as a trophy. The Prussians brought it back after his defeat. Naturally.

✈️ The huge avenue stretching west from the Gate has an even stranger story. In the final days of the Second World War, as the Red Army fought its way into Berlin, part of it was cleared and used as an emergency runway. Aircraft were landing and taking off along what is now Straße des 17. Juni, right through the middle of the city.

🧱 Then came the Berlin Wall. From 1961, the Brandenburg Gate stood just inside East Berlin’s border zone, with the Wall immediately to its west. For nearly three decades, Berlin’s most famous gateway was a gate that hardly anyone could actually walk through.

Ronald Reagan gave his famous “Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” speech nearby in 1987.

And when the Wall finally fell in November 1989, thousands gathered here. The Gate itself formally reopened on 22 December 1989, with more than 100,000 people there as West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl walked through to meet East German Prime Minister Hans Modrow.

Less than a year later, Germany was reunited.

So in one photograph you’ve got Prussian kings, Napoleon, the Second World War, the Berlin Wall and German reunification.

Berlin does rather show off when it comes to history.

🍺🇩🇪 Love Germany? Tempted by Town Twinning? Come to our FREE Oktoberfest event on 14 Sept!

Register your interest in free Oktoberfest tickets here ➡️ https://forms.gle/c2k43naThRWE5Qz37

04/09/2026

The French have a word for the moment everyone collectively accepts that summer is over: La rentrée! 🇫🇷☀️

Literally, it means “the return” and this week around 12 million French kids have made la rentrée scolaire and gone back to school.

But in France, la rentrée has come to mean rather more than digging out the school bag…

August is traditionally the great French holiday month, so September brings a much broader return to normal life. Politicians make their rentrée politique. Publishers prepare for the rentrée littéraire. New television and radio schedules arrive. Businesses get back up to speed. Newspapers even talk about the rentrée sociale as trade unions and public life stir back into action.

There’s no exact British equivalent. “Back to school” doesn’t quite cover an entire country looking at the calendar and deciding “right, suppose we’d better get on with it then!”

Bonne rentrée to our friends in Montigny-le-Bretonneux and everyone else reluctantly reacquainting themselves with September ☀️🍂

🇫🇷🇩🇪 Fancy France? Tempted by Town Twinning? Come to our FREE Oktoberfest event on 14 Sept!Register your interest in free Oktoberfest tickets here ➡️ https://forms.gle/c2k43naThRWE5Qz37

📸 École du Village in Montigny-le-Bretonneux

03/09/2026

Ever had more than a few pints in Germany and woken up with a clear head? Perhaps that’s down to Germany’s famous b**r purity law…

The Reinheitsgebot was introduced in Bavaria in 1516. It said b**r could only be made with three ingredients: water, malt and hops. Yeast wasn’t included because nobody yet understood what it did. It was simply doing its mysterious little job in the background.

The law was partly about protecting b**r quality, but it also helped control the use of wheat, which was reserved for bread. It wasn’t quite the timeless celebration of brewing freedom that modern b**r adverts sometimes suggest.

And despite the reputation, German brewers aren’t legally trapped in 1516. The rules have changed over time, and plenty of German b**rs now use ingredients that would have made a Bavarian duke reach for his paperwork.

Still, if you’re in Munich, Kierspe or anywhere else in , you can expect a serious attitude to b**r. 🍺

The clear head, however, remains your responsibility…

🍺🇩🇪 Love Germany? Tempted by Town Twinning? Come to our FREE Oktoberfest event on 14 Sept!

Register your interest in free Oktoberfest tickets here ➡️ https://forms.gle/c2k43naThRWE5Qz37

01/09/2026

Did you know there’s an Avenue de Denton and a Denton Bus Station in our French twin town? 😧

Our friends in Montigny-le-Bretonneux have marked our decades-long relationship with both a bus station and our very own road! 🚗🚌

We’re definitely overdue something in Denton, right?

26/08/2026

FANCY a bratwurst, a b**r and a taste of Germany without leaving Denton?

Residents are being invited to a free Oktoberfest Taster Night where they can find out more about the town’s links with Germany and France – with food, music and a few steins thrown in for good measure.

Denton Town Twinning Association is hosting the evening on Monday, September 14, giving residents the chance to meet people involved in Denton’s international connections and discover what town twinning is actually all about.

Read more: https://www.tamesidecorrespondent.co.uk/2026/08/23/denton-residents-invited-to-free-oktoberfest-night-with-a-twist/

25/08/2026

📰 EXTRA! EXTRA! Tameside Correspondent has covered our upcoming Oktoberfest taster night. Come and have a b**r and a bratwurst on us! 🍺🌭

Fancy a bratwurst, a b**r and a taste of Germany without leaving Denton? Residents are being invited to a free Oktoberfest Taster Night.

24/08/2026

🇺🇦 Today marks 𝟯𝟱 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 since Ukraine declared its independence - and, through town twinning, has developed a small connection of its own with Ukraine!

Our French twin town, Montigny, first established a solidarity partnership with the Ukrainian town of 𝗗𝗼𝗹𝘆𝗻𝗮 in 2022, following Russia’s full-scale invasion.

is a town of around 20,000 people in south-western Ukraine, in the foothills of the Carpathians. It’s an old town, with roots stretching back around a thousand years, in a part of Ukraine known for its forests, agriculture and fruit growing.

Since 2022, life in Dolyna has inevitably been shaped by war. Like communities across Ukraine, local people have been called to defend their country, while the town and its international partners have supported the war effort and humanitarian response. Dolyna and Montigny have continued their friendship throughout, including fundraising to support Ukrainian defenders.

And that means Dolyna has become part of our wider town-twinning family too. Delegations from Denton have had the privilege of meeting our Ukrainian friends several times in recent years, and we’ve been struck by their warmth, culture and extraordinary resilience.

We’re looking forward to seeing friends from Dolyna again when our twin towns come together in Montigny this Christmas.

On Ukrainian Independence Day, we send our friendship and solidarity to everyone in Dolyna and across Ukraine. 𝗦𝗹𝗮𝘃𝗮 𝗨𝗸𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶! 🇺🇦

23/08/2026

80 years ago today, the British created a new bit of Germany… and called it Operation Marriage. 🇬🇧🤝🇩🇪

On 23 August 1946, the British Military Government brought together North Rhine and Westphalia to create 𝗡𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝗥𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗲-𝗪𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗽𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗮 – or NRW – the German state our twin town of Kierspe calls home.

The red rose on the coat of arms looks suspiciously Lancastrian to us. 🌹 So we’re claiming the people of NRW as honorary Lancastrians until somebody tells us otherwise!

The British connection didn’t disappear with the end of the occupation either. Over the following 80 years it developed into a much broader friendship, with links between towns and cities, schools, universities, businesses and millions of ordinary people.

And Denton has its own little part in that story. Our friendship with 𝗞𝗶𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗽𝗲, in the Westphalian part of NRW, has brought people back and forth between our two towns for years – exactly the sort of everyday international friendship town twinning is all about.

So, happy 80th birthday NRW – and particularly to our friends in Kierspe! 🎂🇩🇪

🍺 𝗧𝗲𝗺𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝘁𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝘁𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴? Come and give it a try! We’re holding a free Oktoberfest taster night in Denton on 14 September, with free b**r, bratwurst and a chance to find out what we get up to.

🎟️ Tickets are completely FREE for those interested in town twinning, but places are limited. Apply for yours here >> https://forms.gle/c2k43naThRWE5Qz37

20/08/2026

☀️ We’ve ditched our monthly meeting for a night at Hatters Food and Drinks Hall in Denton - Prost! 🍻

15/08/2026

There are a few myths about town twinning that still do the rounds — so let’s set the record straight 👇

“𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐚 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐣𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐕𝐈𝐏𝐬.”
Not true. We’re entirely self-funded — members pay their own way, and we fundraise to support school groups and local clubs so they can take part in projects and exchanges. It’s about opening doors, not closing them.

“𝐖𝐞 𝐯𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞, 𝐰𝐡𝐲 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨𝐰𝐧𝐬?”
Town twinning is about people - NOT politics. Town twinning was never an EU scheme, an actually started long before the European Union, as a way of building friendships and understanding after WWII. Leaving the EU changed political structures, but it didn’t change our connections with people, cultures, and communities across Europe.

“𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞.”
We do have some older members, but we also have lots of younger people involved. In fact, the majority of what we do supports young people — such as school exchanges, cultural visits, sports tournaments and performances.

“𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐫 𝐆𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧.”
Not at all. Most of our members don’t speak another language, and part of the fun is muddling through — finding ways to communicate, sharing a laugh, and learning as you go. You don’t need another language to take part, but if you want to try your skills, it’s a brilliant (and low-pressure) way to do it.

“𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐭 𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞.”
You really don’t. You can get involved as much or as little as you like - there’s no obligation. Come along to something that interests you, enjoy it, and that’s enough.

“𝐈𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲.”
It absolutely does. Over the years, thousands of local schoolchildren, musicians, community groups, residents, and sports clubs have taken part in exchanges. People share skills and learn new ones, experience different cultures, and build confidence. It creates opportunities that simply wouldn’t exist otherwise.

🌍 But the best way to know is to see for yourself. Come for a free b**r and bratwurst on us at our Oktoberfest twinning taster night on 14 September!

🎟️ Register for a free ticket here: https://forms.gle/c2k43naThRWE5Qz37