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Everybody needs friends - and so do towns and cities.

In the United Kingdom, the terms 'twin towns' and 'twin cities' are most commonly used to describe official arrangements between different places, while 'sister cities' is generally used for agreements made by towns and cities in America. In mainland Europe, people sometimes refer to 'partnership towns', 'partner towns', and 'friendship towns'.

A great many of the agreements in place today were generally made to promote cultural and commercial links - as well as peace and understanding, with the modern-day concept of 'twinning' having begun during World War Two.

There are approximately 2,000 twinning arrangements in Britain and approximately 75% are with French and German authorities. But the seeds for such official arrangements were sown many centuries earlier.

What were the first twin cities in the world?

The German city of Paderborn and the French city of Le Mans could claim to have formed the earliest twinning partnership on the planet, in 836 AD, following the transfer of the relics of Saint Liborius from Le Mans to Paderborn - but their twinning arrangement was not officially recognised until 1967.

In 1920, in the wake of World War One, the Yorkshire town of Keighley forged links with the small, war-ravaged French town of Poix-du-Nord, building it a community centre which was called Keighley Hall. Keighley, many of whose soldiers had fought in the town, was said to have "adopted" Poix-du-Nord, but the two communities didn't formally exchange their charters until 1986.

One of the world's first official, signed and sealed twinning arrangement concerned the cities of Toledo in Ohio, America and Toledo in Spain, in 1931. They may be 4,000 miles apart but - apart from having the same name - their bond can be traced back to 1835 when the Toldeo Blade newspaper was launched in Ohio, its name inspired by the world-famous swordsmiths of Toledo in Spain.

What twinned cities are in the UK?

• Most of London's boroughs have a twin town, including Lewisham which is linked with Kingston, Jamaica, and Kensington & Chelsea which is twinned with Cannes, France.
• Edinburgh has been twinned with Kyiv, Ukraine since 1989, just before the fall of the Soviet Union.
• In 2024, Cardiff celebrated the 60th anniversary since its formal twinning with Nantes, France. It is also twinned with Stuttgart in Germany.
• Liverpool has links with Dublin, the capital of Ireland, and Shanghai, the commercial centre of China.
• Bristol is twinned with multiple cities, including Hannover, Germany and Bordeaux, France.
• Since 1995, Belfast has been the official sister city of Nashville, US.

What was the UK’s first twin city?

In the UK, the modern-day concept of "twinning" is said to have begun in 1944, when Coventry formally twinned with Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in Russia, in the aftermath of both cities being devastated during World War Two.

After the Battle of Stalingrad, which lasted from July 1942 to February 1943, 830 women in Coventry, having experienced the Coventry Blitz of November 1940, signed their names on a tablecloth, which was then embroidered and sent with a message of solidarity to the women of Stalingrad. It included the words "Little help is better than big sympathy."

These women, together with other people in Coventry, also raised money for general supplies and medicines to be sent to the people of Stalingrad. In 2022, Coventry City Council - "with a heavy heart" - suspended the twinning relationship with Volgograd due to the war in Ukraine.

What are the most unusual twinned towns?

Have you heard the one about how a village called Dull got together with a town called Boring - and then a region called Bland Shire? It's actually no joke, but a true story – and one which has helped put three very different areas, separated by thousands of miles, on the map.

Dull is a village in Perth and Kinross, Scotland; Boring is a town in Oregon, USA; and Bland Shire is a region in New South Wales, Australia.

First, Dull got together with Boring, in 2012. Then, in 2017, Bland Shire decided it wanted to join the party! And so was born a nickname; the ‘Trinity of Tedium’, while a Bland Shire Council sign trumpets the "League of Extraordinary Communities", and accurately, and amusingly, introduces the area to visitors with the wording "Bland… far from Dull and Boring."

But the places have more in common than their names, for each area is known for being rural and tranquil. Dull has a tiny population of around 85, so some might say Boring, which has approximately 12,000 residents in 2012, is relatively bustling. This also beats Bland Shire, which is home to about 6,000 people.

Which UK town is twinned with Timbuktu?

Timbuktu - once spelt Timbuctoo - is the city in northern Mali in Africa that has come to represent a place far away, at the end of the world. It has been symbolically defined as "the most distant place imaginable" by the Oxford English Dictionary, and also gave birth to the saying 'From here to Timbuktu' - meaning somewhere very far away indeed.

But Timbuktu isn’t too far away to be linked to other cities or town. It is twinned with Chemnitz in Germany; Kairouan in Tunisia; Marrakesh in Morocco, Saintes in France and Tempe in America, as well as with Hay-on-Wye in Wales. The latter was chosen by Timbuktu to be its UK twin as a result of a nationwide competition.

In October 2007, the Mayor of Timbuktu visited Hay, and a 'declaration of friendship' was signed. Both Hay and Timbuktu have a connection with literature and a deep love of the written word. Timbuktu is famous for its collection of medieval manuscripts, while Hay-on-Wye is home to the annual Hay Festival and is the National Book Town of Wales, with more than 20 bookshops.

Are any towns twinned with fictional places?

The late, best-selling author Sir Terry Pratchett - known for his Discworld series of 41 comic fantasy novels - couldn't quite believe it when he was told a market town in Somerset was to be twinned with a city he had made up!

Wincanton was to 'join forces' with the fictional Discworld city of Ankh-Morpork - a first in the world of twinning arrangements.

"My reaction to this event is one of benign amazement," Sir Terry told ����tv News Online in December 2002, ahead of attending a ceremony in Wincanton, where more than 1,000 fans - many in costume - were to gather for a weekend festival.

Two years earlier, Sir Terry had endorsed a project, proposed by Bernard and Isobel Pearson, to open the Discworld Emporium in the town - stocking everything Pratchett and Discworld-related.

Fast forward to December 2002, and people flew in from as far as Australia and the USA for the Hogswatch celebrations - the Discworld equivalent of Christmas - and the twinning ceremony.

Sir Terry, who died in 2015, said: "I am not an organiser but a happy participant."

Organiser Bernard Pearson said: "It is an unguarded secret that Wincanton is a place of magic and charm and, like Ankh-Morpork, we are very good at welcoming strangers.”

This article was published in September 2024