A GROUP of delegates have travelled to Germany to celebrate 45 years of twinning with Bracknell.

Between September 7 and 10, delegates from the Bracknell Leverkusen Twinning Association, which was founded in 1973, visited the town in north-west Germany along with 50 representatives from Leverkusen's other twinned towns in eastern Germany, France, Slovenia and Poland.

The trip coincided with the town's History Festival Weekend, which was hosted by the Opladen History Society, their sponsors and supporters, and attended by the town mayor.

Maggie Stock from the Bracknell Leverkusen Twinning Association said: "This shared History Festival Weekend gave all guests from different countries a rare opportunity to come together, to learn about and learn from the last 100 years of European history – including both World Wars, which had impacted all nations involved on different sides of the war fronts – to exchange ideas and develop friendships.

"These links at all levels with our friends across the Channel are more important now than ever before – to our European partners, as much as to us in Bracknell and across the UK. We are after all an island, part of the European continent; throughout history we have always played a significant role within Europe."