Rye could soon find itself twinned with Montreuil-sur-Mer, an historic French town that's already twinned...with Slough and Riga. The link-up proposal, led by Rye mayor Andi Rivett, is being considered by Rye Town Council.
Whether this means that Rye will automatically be twinned, or rather "tripletted", with the urban conurbation best known as the setting for the TV series The Office remains to be seen.
There certainly appear to be more similarities between Rye and Montreuil. Rye's population numbers around 4,500, while at last count the French town had 1,935 inhabitants. Slough, unsurprisingly, boasts around 165,000 people and the Latvian capital of Riga a paltry 671,000. Both Rye and Montreuil are settlements that used to be coastal but now find themselves some distance from the sea. Slough might well have been coastal...some time before the Ice Ages.
There is, of course, more to town twinning than physical and historical similarities. It's all about establishing relationships between people, cultural exchange and, in short, friendship. While there are deep historical connections between Rye and the northern coast of France, it's fair to say a lot of the early meetings were not particularly amicable. For hundreds of years, bloody raids, skirmishes, smuggling and tit-for tat nastiness occurred between the two sides of the Channel. This included the devastating French raid of 1377, when Rye was burned to the ground (save for four stone buildings) and Rye's retaliatory counter raid of 1378, when the St Mary's Church bells were triumphantly seized back.
Twinning was very popular in the 1960s and 70s and some people still recall school visits to their twin towns. But as Rye Town Council discussed earlier this month, twinning comes with a cost: it generally relies on volunteers and can be difficult to sustain; a lot of administration may also be involved. It's unclear whether twinning will be popular in Rye, especially in the current economic climate and in the wake of Brexit. Crucially, should Rye residents get the chance to vote on whether the Montreuil twinning goes ahead, or do we allow councillors to make a unilateral decision on our behalf?
It's understood the French town's mayor is keen on twinning with Rye, which has in the past rebuffed a number of other suitors. Andi Rivett will be in touch with his counterpart to establish what would be expected of Rye if the two towns were to twin.
Montreuil is a town surrounded by impressive brickwork ramparts dating from the 16th Century. Between March 1916 and April 1919, the settlement served as HQ for the British Army in France during the First World War. A statue of General Douglas Haig stands in Montreuil, and writer Victor Hugo set much of the first volume of his novel Les Miserables in the town.
In other news, Rye has also received a request from its namesake town — Rye in New Hampshire (population 5,543) — to hold some sort of joint celebration for the US town's 400th anniversary in 2023. Our Rye has agreed in principle. Watch this space.
