How it all began

The seeds of the twinning link with Battenberg were sown when an 11 year old German schoolboy, Horst Hansel, was hosted by Bob and Heather Oliver when he first came to Romsey to improve his English in 1970.  When the Twinning Committee of Battenberg expressed an interest in linking with a town in the UK Horst suggested Romsey as the obvious choice because of its Mountbatten connections.  In a visit to Romsey in August 1984 he put the suggestion to the then mayor, Geoff Street, who was very enthusiastic.  He paid an informal visit to Battenberg in October and in May 1985 the Burgermeister of Battenberg, Herr Lutz Klein, with a 13-strong deputation, visited Romsey and were invited to Broadlands.

 

Further official visits from and to Romsey occurred in 1985 and 1986, with Pam Gale and Geoff Street very much to the fore, before the Town Council gave its approval to the establishment of a twinning link in April 1987.  The first formal twinning visit to Battenberg took place in September 1987 when Peter Ruston and Lutz Klein signed the friendship pact amid great festivities, which included the planting of a mulberry tree and six Mountbatten roses.  A year later the second part of this signing ceremony took place in Romsey and pupils from the Mountbatten School paid their first exchange visit to Battenberg.  A football tour by the school during the Easter holidays was a regular feature for many years.