28 years of friendship
Bromley has been twinned with Neuwied since October 16, 1987. A steering committee was set up in Bromley several years previously to explore possible town twinning links. When it was found that the Rhineland town of Neuwied was looking for an English partner, the committee recommended to Bromley Council that a formal twinning be established.
The recommendation was accepted and since then the relationship has never looked back and has been nurtured by the twinning associations in Bromley and Neuwied.
Some of the members of the original steering committee are still involved in Bromley's twinning activities. Another from the early days was Cyril Rooke, for many years our membership secretary, who died in 2012. His own association with Neuwied went back to 1952 when he and his wife were hosts to a 16-year-old student from Neuwied. They returned the visit to see him and his parents in 1962. As many of us have since come to appreciate, Neuwied is in easy reach of many historic areas surrounding two of Germany's greatest rivers, the Rhine and the Mosel.
In the very early days of our twinning, it was decided to inaugurate the Bromley Shield of Honour which was presented by our association to the Freundeskreis Neuwied-Bromley to be awarded each year to those who have made a lasting and notable contribution to the friendship between our two towns.