BASTILLE Day was marked in Ilkley when representatives of a twinning committee met with the mayor.

On July 14 members of the Ilkley-Coutances Town Twinning committee met Ilkley Mayor Cllr Mark Stidworthy to choose the site for a plaque presented by Coutances in 2019, marking the 50th anniversary of the official twinning.

The plaque will be mounted on a stone planter close to a maple tree, in the garden round the Canker Well on the Grove, which was planted thirty years ago by the Coutances Swimming Club. Speaking to a small and suitably socially distanced group, Cllr Stidworthy paid tribute to the long-standing links between Ilkley and Coutances and the many lifelong friendships which have resulted.

It was a particular pleasure for him to meet Margaret Smith, one-time Chairman of the Twinning Committee and who served as Secretary for some thirty years, as she led Ilkley Swimming Club for many years and witnessed the planting of what is now a flourishing tree. Accompanying Margaret was her daughter, Kate Duxbury, who as a girl was the only swimmer never to be beaten at butterfly by any member of the Coutances team.

Judith Dunn, current Chairman of the Twinning Committee, was delighted to receive messages of support from several friends in Normandy, including one from Yves Lamy, former Mayor of Coutances, who presented the plaque in 2019. The present Mayor, Jean-Dominique Bourdin, also sent greetings and expressed his hope to receive a delegation from Ilkley and to lead a return visit in the not too distant future. These messages and more pictures can be viewed on the Ilkley-Coutances Facebook page.