Niederheimbach am Rhein
Verwood.
Following is a link to their website which unfortunately is in
German, but you may find it interesting. Niederheimbach am Rhein is situated
on the west side of the River Rhine north of the town of Bingen and not far
from Rüdesheim (Famous for its Brandy). It was initially considered a a town
that Verwood could twin with and initial exploratory visits were made but
Neiderheimbach considered itself too small to twin with an expanding town
like Verwood.
 Niederheimbach am Rhein
- site in German.
In 1981, a letter was sent from a
director of Manitou (Mr Himsworth) to the Verwood Parish Council, requesting a
meeting to discuss a possible twinning between Verwood and
Champtoceaux.
A meeting was
arranged at the Monmouth Ash Public House, at which Mr Himsworth (the
Director) and four Parish Councillors, R V W Curd, L Roberts, G J Thorne and
F W (Bill) Williams, were present.
 Manitou is a wordwide French company making
"Rough Terrain Handling Equipment" that has its headquarters and factory
based in the town of "Ancenis", which is situated on the "River
Loire", with a number of workers living close by in Champtoceaux
and the villages making up the Canton. Manitou had recently set up new
distribution centre on the "Ebblake Industrial Estate" in Verwood.
The Councilors reported to the full Parish Council and
received short shrift from the Chairman, who opined that "Twinning is
only an opportunity for councilors and officials of big towns to go
'junketing abroad' at ratepayers' expense".
Indeed, in the case of some places, this may well be true,
but, with regard to Verwood a decision was reached that an
independent Twinning Association could be set up with the blessing of
the Parish Council, but that no demands were to be made on public funds.
Note that Verwood was not officially designated a Town until
1988.
A public meeting was called in September 1981 in the
Memorial Hall with a speaker from Corfe Mullen to describe the
problems and pleasures of twinning.
At the meeting those members who had visited Champtoceaux
reported back and though there was some opposition it was agreed that a
committee should be formed for the Verwood Twinning Association.
The committee met for the first time on 1st October 1981. The
officers were Mr G Thorne (Chairman), Mrs C Thorne (Secretary) and Mr R
Bishop (Treasurer) and nine members: Mesdames D Curd, L Slater and
Messrs R Curd, A Cutler, D Hockaday, L Roberts, T Sims, F Williams and a
representative of Verwood Concert Brass.
Later in the year, a meeting was held at which Mr David Bailey
of the Fordingbridge Twinning Association gave us an interesting talk
on the revival of his association.
Subsequently, Mr White, a solicitor and member of the
Shaftesbury Twinning Association, gave the Committee much helpful advice
on the preparation of our Constitution.
In February 1982 the Mayor of Champtoceaux,
Monsieur Alain Levoyer, visited Verwood, and the Committee entertained him
and Mr Himsworth, together with the local Manager of Manitou, to
lunch at La Fosse Restaurant (which was then in Verwood prior to its move to
Cranborne). In the afternoon, Gordon Thorne took M. Levoyer on a guided tour
of Verwood.
In May 1982, the then Mayor of Champtoceaux, M. Alain
Levoyer visited Verwood again, bringing a small party. A coach tour
was arranged to show them the
New Forest, lunch being taken at the High Comer Inn.
Some months later a few of the Committee and their wives went
to Champtoceaux. They were shown the area and entertained at
"Le Champalude" the hotel next to the church. This was by all accounts
an extremely enjoyable weekend, apart from a car accident suffered by the
Mayors car with Gordon and Cherry Thorne as passengers. Fortunately nobody
was seriously hurt.
During this time French lessons were also arranged, which were
held in the evenings, first at the Thorne’s' and later at the Curds'.
In 1983 it was agreed that the official twinning
ceremony would take place in Verwood in 1984 during Carnival weekend, with
the second part in Champtoceaux the following year (1985).
Meanwhile, fundraising had proceeded apace with a car boot
sale, coffee mornings and wine & cheese evenings.
Also in this year, four teenagers came to Verwood for a
fortnight, and we were very grateful to the Palethorpe’s, Martins and
Thorne’s for hosting them, as it is always difficult to find hosts for
children.
 A competition was arranged for
the people/schoolchildren of Verwood to design a logo as Verwood being a
Parish didn't have one at that time.This produced some very amusing and artistic designs,
which were put on show at a wine & cheese evening in the Verwood Memorial
Hall and the design on the left was chosen.
The chosen design was a shield, including Forestry
and pottery plus a hint of closeness to the sea. 
When Verwood become a Town in 1988 it adapted the design, which for heraldic
reasons could not be a shield, and it became the Emblem for the Verwood
Town Council and now includes Besoms.
An early problem was the raising of funds as the Verwood
Twinning association was independent, although it had Parish Council members
on the committee, it had no money of its own. The early exploratory visits
had been funding by the initial members who travelled to Champtoceaux and
hosted return visits.
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Updates:- Please note the following
administrative changes in France
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 The
initial website for Champtoceaux no longer exists as the political
landscape of France changed under M. Holland on the 15th December 2015
as he attempted to reduce the cost of local administration. Verwood was
initially twinned with Champtoceaux and later twinned with the 9 towns
and villages of Champtoceaux and its Canton. It had 9 elected Mayors,
one for each community. Under the re-organisation
Champtoceaux and its canton of 9 communities have been merged for
administrative purposes and it is now called
"Orée-d'Anjou"
which consists of
the communes of Bouzillé, Champtoceaux, Drain, Landemont, Liré, Saint-Christophe-la-Couperie, Saint-Laurent-des-Autels, Saint-Sauveur-de-Landemont and La
Varenne.
Interestingly the number of mayors has increased from 9 to 10 as
"Orée-d'Anjou"
now has its own mayor.
Further information can be
found on Wikipedia etc, Use link
"Orée-d'Anjou".
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Verwood
and Three Legged Cross Twinning Association - UK
