Sedbergh Town Twinning and International Links

Sedbergh Town Twinning

noreply@blogger.com (Sedbergh Webadmin) — Sat, 28 May 2011 16:11:00 +0000

Sedbergh’s twin town is Zreče in Slovenia

Sedbergh has been twinned with Zreče since 2005. The twinning came about in an unusual way: via a television programme – you can read about it on How and Why We Entered Into a Twinning Arrangement.

The primary focus of Sedbergh’s twinning consists of Musical Visits +

What better way for people of different backgrounds and cultures to grow closer than by singing and dancing together? The traditional and folk music of an area teaches us something about the grounding of a culture and the way the people of that culture think and feel.

The people of Sedbergh (some of them at any rate) have been exchanging songs with their friends in Slovenia since the inception of the town twinning agreement between Sedbergh and Zreče. Slovenian songs are being sung in Sedbergh and further afield. And singers from around the UK have been hearing and exchanging songs in English, Slovene and other languages as a result of the contacts and friendships made between singers and choirs from our nations.

The links on the left beginning ‘Music’ describe visits of singers and dancers from the UK and Slovenia, with people from Sedbergh, or related to Sedbergh’s connections with Slovenia in some way. We encourage singing and dancing between the people of the UK and Slovenia. The links on these pages are not only about Sedbergh, they are also about our friends worldwide.

and School Exchanges +

The annual visits of 13- to 14-year-olds from Sedbergh’s state secondary school, Settlebeck High School, to Slovenia, and the return visits of Slovenian students of a similar age to Sedbergh, have provided opportunities for the broadening of horizons and meeting of people from different lands and cultures that many young people here would otherwise have been denied.

The Settlebeck student group visiting Slovenia has included some young people with physical disabilities and some with special educational needs; this helps to foster cooperation and understanding of others.

The coming together of people across Europe and the close relationships and hand of friendship should always bind us in peace and prosperity.

Town signs, (dvojčki = twin, mesta = towns)

A view of Sedbergh's twin town, Zreče and its surrounding hills

Newsletter 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Sedbergh Webadmin) — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 11:41:00 +0000

Town twinning →Newsletter 2010

Once again we have had a busy year with groups large and small, young and not so young visiting Zreče and Slovenia and we have been very happy to welcome friends old and new visiting Sedbergh.

Especially welcome were a group of thirty-two students and six teachers who spent a week with us in May and June. In glorious weather they visited sites of historical and geographical interest. The first day was spent exploring Sedbergh and included a morning walk along the river luxuriating in the warm garlic-tinged scent of English woods in spring-time. In the afternoon they scaled Winder up Settlebeck Ghyll, quite a demanding hike, but everyone managed it and felt pleased with the achievement. That evening was quiz night with Settlebeck students which featured some questions relating to English traditions, history and vocabulary.

On Tuesday the group visited Liverpool in the morning, to visit Anfield, the home of Liverpool Football Club, for the stadium and exhibition tour. The guides there were even more hilarious than usual!

In the afternoon they transferred to the Manchester Trafford Centre, that temple to consumerism, a huge shopping mall. The students enjoyed themselves exploring and present-buying.

Wednesday was history day with a trip in warm sunshine to Carlisle and Hadrian’s Wall. The group started at the Castle with tales of countless gory conflicts between our ancestors both north and south of that highly contested border. On to the Cathedral for a look at the heavenly ceiling, the misericords and the wonderful stained glass windows. Our visitors had done their research and at each venue a student stood up before his or her peers to inform them about the background to the site from his or her own research.

After a lunch in Carlisle centre the party travelled on to Housesteads Roman Fort and, in stark contrast to last year’s visit, they all stood on the wall in glorious sunshine looking out to clear horizons over magnificent rolling hills, moorland and the Whin Sill ridge. The Roman fort is full of interest especially the arrangements for personal hygiene!

Wednesday evening was music and dance night in the People’s Hall thanks to the Cautley Carollers who entertained with traditional English and Slovenian folk songs sung in immaculate five-part harmony. The students sang some of their own songs accompanied by a very able 14-year-old accordion player, and Roger and Judith Bush amazed us all with the haunting sounds of the hurdy-gurdy and Neapolitan bagpipes. English and Slovenian folk dances got us all moving and laughing.

On the last day the students set off for the Lake District on one of the hottest days of the year so far. They walked the Rydal Water to Grasmere lakesides via Loughrigg Terrace, again stunned by the beauty of the views on a perfect Lakeland day. The group had a quick visit to Keswick to see Derwentwater and the market-place before returning for the final evening’s entertainments and packing before the long coach journey back via Stonehenge to Slovenia.

This was a particularly successful trip and as it was half-term a number of Sedbergh students were able to join in the various activities and get to know yet another year group of young Slovenian people, keen to learn English and to experience and understand the culture that they’ve been studying from the age of nine.

Later in June it was a great pleasure to be with the Pevke iz Brinjeve Gore again, a family of Zreče lady singers, when they came to the Choirs Meet event organised by David Burbidge. As the Sedbergh Music Festival coincided with their visit they were able to sing to us in the St Andrew’s church grounds and be our guests at a recital.

We also enjoyed traditional fish and chips in Settle where the group sang at a folk club to great acclaim!

The rock group Pet Sto Metrov arrived shortly afterwards. This young and lively group performed at the Dalesman Inn and at other venues in and around Sedbergh to appreciative audiences. This was a fourth visit for their lead guitarist Janez Skaza. He came with Samo’s choir in 2005 and sang with Oktet in 2008. In 2009 he played with the Zreče Town Band. David Burbidge continues to arrange tours and exchange visits for choirs from all over the UK and Slovenia which help further happy and close relationships between our two countries. We are so grateful to everyone who helps to transport and host our visitors.

In October a group of twenty-six Sedbergh denizens, all members of our Town Twinning Club, arrived in Zreče for a week’s sightseeing. So many people had expressed an interest in visiting our twin town that a visit was organised. All had heard promising accounts of all that Zreče and Slovenia had to offer and they were not disappointed! We had a wonderful week of welcoming parties and excursions admiring the stunning scenery and enjoying the friendship and hospitality of all. Tadeja at the tourist office was invaluable in arranging transport, venues and very comfortable accommodation. Zreče generously offers a discount to members of the Club and we are most appreciative of this.

The autumn leaves were turning into a kaleidoscope of brilliant colours painting a dramatic backdrop for all our excursions. We visited Ljubljana, Bled, Postojna Caves, Ptuj, the Lippizaner Stud at Lipica and local sites of interest including Rogla and its infamous toboggan run! We even found time to swim (and have an aerobics session!) in the impressive Spa pools. All our arrangements went like clockwork thanks to Tadeja, with wonderful food, excellent guides and, bar one day, bright sunny weather. We hope to repeat the experience in 2012.

And now we are busy recruiting a group of Sedbergh students to visit Zreče in August 2011. We have thirteen youngsters aged 13 to 18 eager to join the party. Many have elder siblings who have visited Zreče with the Settlebeck School exchange and have heard so much about their highly enjoyable experiences, successful encounters and friendships formed between the young people of our two towns that they can’t wait to get there!

We depend on member’s subscriptions to further our twinning activities eg helping with the students’ costs, and are very grateful to all who feel they can continue to support us.

If any groups or individuals would like advice on travelling to Slovenia or any information about our twinning endeavours, then please get in touch with our committee or send an email.

Susan Garnett and Dave Smith

A visit from Zreče School Students Sun 30th May – Fri 4th June 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Sedbergh Webadmin) — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 19:50:00 +0000

Town twinning →School – June 2010

School students from Zreče Visit Sedbergh

In 2009 the Zreče school’s visit to Sedbergh was notable for its very British weather. We kept reminding them that no matter how cold and damp it was they were at least experiencing the real thing and it would contribute to their understanding of why the British constantly talk about the weather. On Hadrian’s wall they were able to fully empathise with the miserable Roman soldier stuck on the most northerly frontier longing for sun and warmth in that grey, damp miserable climate.

This year has been very different. While Zreče has had rain and low temperatures we’ve basked in glorious warm sunshine and the Dales and Lakes have looked resplendent in their spring colours. The students couldn’t believe the rhododendrons in the Lakes; the huge displays of vibrant colours were stunning. The thirty-two students and six teachers stayed again at Howgill bunk barn. Nigel turned up with a tractor and farm trailer to transfer all their luggage and food from the large coach, on which they’d travelled over the previous two days all the way from Slovenia, via a sightseeing tour of London.

The first day was spent exploring Sedbergh and included a morning walk along the river, looking for evidence of the house in Akay Woods and luxuriating in the warm garlic-tinged scent of English woods in springtime. In the afternoon we scaled Winder up Settlebeck Ghyll and the visitors thought that this was really quite a demanding hike, but everyone managed it and felt pleased with the achievement. That evening was quiz night which featured some questions relating to English traditions, history and vocabulary.

On Tuesday we had our only damp period travelling to Liverpool, in the morning, to visit Anfield for the stadium and exhibition tour. I’m always amazed at the close allegiance to English football which the Slovenian young people have, though this is likely to be put on hold on June 23rd. The guides at Anfield were even more hilarious than usual and our visitors loved the gently-teasing Scouse humour.

In the afternoon we transferred to the Trafford Centre, that temple to consumerism that always wows young visitors from Slovenia – they have nothing like this in a country with a population smaller than Greater Manchester, and it’s a relatively safe environment in which the students can go off in groups for a couple of hours to explore and enjoy some freedom from adult supervision. This is the time for present-buying and maybe a tee-shirt with a saucy English message.

Wednesday was history day with a trip in warm sunshine to Carlisle and Hadrian’s Wall. We started at the Castle with tales of countless gory conflicts between our ancestors both north and south of that highly-contested border. On to the Cathedral for a look at the heavenly ceiling, the misericords and the wonderful stained glass windows. Our visitors had done their research and at each venue a student stood up before his or her peers to inform them about the background to the site from his or her own research.

After a lunch in Carlisle centre we travelled on to Housesteads Roman Fort and, in stark contrast to last year’s visit, we all stood on the wall in glorious sunshine looking out to clear horizons over magnificent rolling hills, moorland and the Whin Sill ridge. The Roman fort is full of interest but the communal toilets are always a particular favourite, with many a cry of shock and disbelief and yet how many hundreds of years did it take before Britons returned to that high level of Roman hygiene?

Wednesday evening was music and dance night in the People’s Hall thanks to the Cautley Carollers who entertained with traditional English and Slovenian folk songs sung in immaculate four-part harmony. The students sang some of their own songs accompanied by a very able 14-year-old accordion player; and Roger and Judith Bush amazed us all with the haunting sounds of the hurdy-gurdy and Neapolitan bagpipes. English and Slovenian folk dances got us all moving and laughing.

On the last day we set off for the Lake District on one of the hottest days of the year so far. We walked the Rydal Water to Grasmere lakesides via Loughrigg Terrace, again stunned by the beauty of the views on a perfect Lakeland day. We had a quick visit to Keswick to see Derwentwater and the market-place before returning for the final evening’s entertainments and packing before the long coach journey back via Stonehenge to Slovenia.

This was a particularly successful trip and I’d like to thank the members of the town twinning committee and all those Settlebeck students who came along on the trips and activities to support, and get to know, yet another year-group of young Slovenian people, keen to learn English and to experience and understand the culture that they’ve been studying from the age of nine.

Dave Smith

Sedbergh⇔Slovenia Events and Cultural Exchanges 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Sedbergh Webadmin) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 20:42:00 +0000

Town twinning →Achievements 2010

Achievements 2010

May-June 2010: Students from Zreče visit Sedbergh.

2010: Newsletter

Planting of Apple Tree in Zreče – December 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Sedbergh Webadmin) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:54:00 +0000

Town twinning →Planting of celebratory apple tree, December 2009

An apple tree marking the fraternal friendship between Sedbergh and Zreče was planted in Zreče in December 2009.

A little bit of Sedbergh now grows in Zreče, Slovenia – outside the bus station in the town centre – so that young people going to school can grab an English apple off the tree to give to teacher – or at least they can in about 10 years time.

An apple tree from Zreče apple tree grows outside the Howgills Bunk Barn in Sedbergh by the public footpath where many walkers have already enjoyed the fruits of our twinning.

May the friendship between our towns always be fruitful – naj naše prijateljstov vedno rodi sadove!

In the photos are Zreče mayor Boris Podvrsnik, Zreče town band manager Slavko Kejzar, and Sedbergh’s Town Twinning Cultural Commissar David Burbidge. Photos by Urska Firer.

Town Twinning and International Achievements

noreply@blogger.com (Sedbergh Webadmin) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 20:41:00 +0000

Town twinning →Achievements Index

Achievements

Wherever an event or a visit goes towards fulfilling one or more of the following aims it has been an achievement for Sedbergh. The event or visit:

• provides an opportunity for the community to look outwards

• helps stimulate business ideas and openings

• gives opportunities for the more disadvantaged members of our community to broaden their horizons

• raises Sedbergh’s profile nationally and internationally

• periodically at least, livens up the town a little

The people of Sedbergh who come into contact with others from overseas have the privilege and opportunity to learn about a different culture and way of life.

The coming together of people across Europe and the close relationships and hand of friendship should always bind us in peace and prosperity.

Sedbergh⇔Slovenia Events and Cultural Exchanges 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Sedbergh Webadmin) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:50:00 +0000

Town twinning →Achievements 2009

Achievements 2009

December 2009: An apple tree marking the fraternal friendship between Sedbergh and Zreče was planted in Zreče.

September 2009: Igor and Jelena Cvetko visit Sedbergh with the Zapik Puppet Theatre

July/August 2009: The Crni Vrh male voice choir visit Sedbergh

July/August 2009: Three students from Slovenia stay in Sedbergh to absorb the culture and perfect their English. Two work at the Dalesman and one at the Cross Keys

July 2009: Slovene language summer school over the weekend of July 10–12 with Darja Mihelj from Slovenia

July 2009: Visit to Sedbergh by the Slovenian Ambassador to the UK

July 2009: The Zreče Community Band Visits Sedbergh

April 2009: Ljubljana Rudolf Steiner School Choir Visit Sedbergh.

March 2009: Girls from Sedbergh and Kendal Sing in Slovenia: Amabile Choir in Slovenia, March 2009.

March 2009: The fifth annual school visit to Gorenje near Zreče.

Rationale for Town Twinning in Sedbergh

noreply@blogger.com (Sedbergh Webadmin) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 18:01:00 +0000

Town twinning →Rationale for twinning in Sedbergh

Most town twinning arrangements were set up following the Second World War. Town twinnings and partnerships in Europe were a way of building friendship, bringing together people who had fought on opposite sides and of consolidating existing alliances. The concept of twinning began in Europe as early as the turn of the last century, with the first recorded UK link in 1920 between Keighley, West Yorkshire and Poix du Nord in France. The number of twinning links increased significantly after the War to aid the process of peace and reconciliation. They grew in number and flourished as young people came and went across the Channel. A second wave of enthusiasm for town twinning took place in the 1970s and 80s, following the UK’s entry into the European Economic Community.

Town twinning in Sedbergh is seen as a concept that includes the friendship-and-understanding aspect of many twin-town arrangements in the past and goes beyond that into more 21st-century objectives. Our aims in Sedbergh are:

• to provide an opportunity for the community to look outwards

• to help stimulate business ideas and openings

• to give opportunies for the more disadvantaged members of our community to broaden their horizons

• to raise Sedbergh’s profile nationally and internationally

• periodically at least, to liven up the town a little

Since the first UK international twinning arrangements in the 1920’s, and their rapid growth in the 1950’s, town twinning, or sister cities as it’s sometimes called, has passed through a number of phases in terms of people’s general perception. Currently, it is seen as a positive activity within and by the EU.

The EU website page, Twinning Towns for Unity is positive, if somewhat hard to get a grip on: ‘EU support for town twinning injects a structuring effect and strengthens the strategic direction, as well as the European content, of such activities.’

We in Sedbergh are developing our town-twinning goals. We have achieved each of the above five bullet-pointed aims to some degree. A challenge that remains is business ideas and openings, see Town Twinning and Economic Development. The other four aims have been satisfyingly moving forward, in particular with regard to school and musical exchanges, of which there have been a number each year since our town twinning arrangement began (see topics list on left).

Sedbergh began to look at finding a twin town in 2001 following the economically-depressing effect of the 2001 foot and mouth crisis (see Why and how we entered into twinning). Twinning was one idea for helping stimulate economic development; see Town Twinning and Economic Development.

Sedbergh Town Twinning – Economic Development

noreply@blogger.com (Sedbergh Webadmin) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:44:00 +0000

Town twinning →Economic Development

Economic Development Aspects of Sedbergh’s Town Twinning Initiative

No community, be it a place or a company, ever develops by looking inwards. It needs to look abroad; be ready to take on new ideas; to understand what others of similar type are doing and how they are doing it. If it does not do that then it puts itself at risk of being left behind, or at the very least of not knowing whether it is being left behind or not.

By looking outwards, contacts are made, ideas are assimilated, mistakes and shortcomings identified, and as a result, in a way that is often surprising, you find yourself getting bigger; this applies to a community as much as it does to a business.

There is nothing scientifically advanced about this – it’s what successful organisations have always done. Looking outwards stimulates growth.

It is not the job of a town-twinning arrangement to open up new markets for a local product overseas direct, that should be the job of the individual businesses or local trade organisation; more that initiatives raise awareness of what an overseas community of similar type and problems produces and by planning events the local community can, among other things, help boost the occupancy figures of the guesthouses and B&Bs. The twinning partnership is there to help the community gain a wider view.

The economic development success is indirect. Look outwards. Learn about the ways of others. (see Look Outwards. Learn Others’ Ways.).

History of Town Twinning in Sedbergh

noreply@blogger.com (Sedbergh Webadmin) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:05:00 +0000

Town twinning →History of twinning in Sedbergh

How and Why We Entered Into a Twinning Arrangement

Sedbergh decided to look at the possibility of finding a twin town in 2001, eventually signing its first twin town charter, with Zreče, in May 2005. During that time we were the focus of a television programme. Here is a brief history of how Sedbergh’s town twinning arrangement came about.

2001 and the ‘Foot and Mouth Crisis’
Sedbergh needed a boost
A number of options considered
Two initiatives gained enthusiasm – one was to look at town twinning
Why consider town twinning?
Having decided to establish a town twinning arrangement, how should we begin to find a town to twin with?
Sedbergh’s strengths and identity
A small town in Germany
And then along came . . . the telly
The story of our television programme (has a page of its own)
Sedbergh sets up a formal town twinning arrangement with Zreče

2001 and the ‘Foot and Mouth Crisis’

2001 and foot and mouth disease strikes Britain. Foot and mouth is a virulent virus affecting sheep, cattle and pigs and its affect on the ecomony of the country, and on rural areas on the country in particular, was severe. There is a UK government website dedicated to the subject, http://footandmouth.csl.gov.uk/

The widespread slaughter of livestock resulted in images on television of fields of burning carcasses – disposal of so many diseased and deceased animals being understandably not that simple a job. Although the disease does not seem to affect humans in any physical way, it does in a psychological one, and the distress of farmers and those in rural areas caused prime minister Tony Blair to be forced to postpone a planned general election, evidently to his chagrin (see Guardian Politics, April 2nd 2001).

Foot and mouth disease never came to Sedbergh. No animals were slaughtered here. But the signs of closedown were manifest everywhere. There were symbols of exclusion such as disinfectant mats for vehicles to drive over on leaving the motorway, and notices telling people not to drive on by-roads, and all the footpaths were closed including, for a while, those where no livestock would be likely to set foot (and certainly not mouth).

Farming was of course affected, as farmers were disallowed from moving, and hence selling, their livestock. And those people who ran tourism-related businesses found their customers dwindled, both in terms of visitor numbers falling off and in diminished sales of leisure-related goods such as walking boots.

Images such a disinfectant mats for vehicles, while intended in some way to support the farmers, had the opposite effect, giving the message that the countryside was diseased.

Sedbergh needed a boost

Foot and mouth disease was declared eradicated towards the end of 2001, but this did not lead to jubilation in the streets. One reason for this is that it had taught us something; it had taught us that the economy of our town was fragile. No one could be sure that the problem would not soon recur, and if it did what could be done to minimise its effect. An image of fields of burning animals, even if in Sedbergh’s case it wasn’t a reality, was not good for business. The town needed something to boost its self-regard.

A number of options considered

When foot and mouth disease was declared eradicated, sub-groups of members of Sedbergh Chamber of Trade got together to see what could be done to lift the town's spirits and, above all, to get economic regeneration kick-started.

We filled flipcharts with ideas of what might constitute an initiative for economic generation, and with some argument and a bit of agreement, the list was narrowed down to about eight possibile initiatives that might be achieveable and that might have potential.

Two initiatives gained enthusiasm – one was to look at town twinning

Coming up with an idea is one thing, putting it into practice, in terms of time and money, is another. And there was the question of whether the idea would actually achieve anything to make the town feel more optimistic about itself at all.

Two of the ideas seemed to be key candidates for doing something positive; one was to give Sedbergh a focus by which it might become known as identifiable as different from elsewhere, a brand if you want to put it that way, and hence was born Sedbergh Booktown, which you can read more about on Sedbergh Booktown. The other initiative that came out as a viable one was town twinning.

Why town twinning?

The initiatives for economic generation were the result of work by the Chamber of Trade. Business people, or some of them anyway, have learned that when you are faced with a problem, one of the things you can do is to look outside, look what others are doing, and see if there is anything that can be adapted to your circumstances.

In doing this research, it isn’t usually much help to contact people who are in exactly the same position as yourself, because they are not likely to have any better idea of what to do than you. Far better to try and broaden the horizons.

Early on in this, we quickly discovered something: that of the two-and-a-half-thousand or so twinning arrangements between British towns and those overseas, just five, yes five, were from towns in the county of Cumbia. Did we in our region know something that the other’s didn’t? Or were we missing out on something here? We had a horrible worry that it might be the second.

Town twinning, which has a well-established infrastructure in place, seemed to be an opportunity to broaden the town's horizons.

Having decided to establish a town twinning arrangement, how should we begin to find a town to twin with?

Where should we look for a town to twin with? Some said France. France is our nearest neighbour and our children should learn more French. Others favoured Holland. Of the foreign car number plates we see around the district in summer, by far the largest number are Dutch. Various other countries were mentioned, influenced sometimes by individual people’s favourite holiday destinations.

What we actually did, first of all, was to erect a flipchart, and on it we wrote different people’s answers to the questions: ‘What do we want from this?’, and ‘What could be the synergies that might make this worthwhile?’.

We drew up a list of about seven or eight things that Sebergh is strong at and would be keen to develop. At the end of this we had our community-inspired twinning checklist.

Next, we put our town’s CV on the websites that existed at the time, for towns looking for a twinning partner. We also looked at other towns already on the list, to see whether there were any that seemed a suitable fit, but we couldn’t find any.

Sedbergh’s strengths and identity

Sedbergh has four schools: a long-established and well-known public (ie private or independent) school, a state primary school for children up to the age of 11, a state secondary school for 11–16s, and a residential school for boys with educational and behaviour difficulties. Sedbergh is strong on schools.

Sedbergh is a bookish and musical place. Even before becoming England’s first official book town, there were a number of bookshops and reading and theatrical groups, together with a town brass band, several singing groups, and an annual music festival.

Not all that big on sport, though there are thriving football teams and tennis and bowls.

Lots of shops for a town of its size, and a feature is that people worry about how long this can continue.

And then there are the two industries that, if you aked people what it was were the mainstay of the town, many would identify: farming and tourism. Farming is in severe decline and no one knows quite how to reverse this, and tourism has the problem shared by thousands of other places throughout the world, who also believe that their area is second to none, which is how to attract fewer visitors, with more money to spend (sometimes expressed as attracting more visitors).

A small town in Germany

As so often happens, when you’ve set in train the mechanisms for achieving something, someone comes along and says, ‘There’s a friend of mine who . . .’, and that was exactly what happened. A friend of a friend of someone who knew someone mentioned a town in Germany that was looking for a town twinning arrangement, and so closely did the twinning committee of the German town think that Sedbergh might fulfil their matching checklist, that a group of people from that town was coming over to visit. Of course, we did our best to be hospitable, and arranged visits to local points of interest and dug from the woodwork all our German-language speakers (there are quite a number) and arranged receptions, one of which was in the pub where Dennis, one of our local police officers, appeared in his uniform and said, “’ello”.

And then there was a reciprocal visit to the town in Germany, to which we took a representative from the regional twinning association, Jürgen, whose birthplace is Germany, and we were entertained most hospitably and went to a party in a beer tent and did a speech during the interval and Jürgen, on returning from the beer tent to his lodgings after the party, went behind a tree to relieve himself and disappeared, slowly like a sinking ship, down a hole in the ground he hadn’t spotted in the dark and broke his leg quite seriously and was in hospital for quite some time afterwards and all were concerned that he may never be able to walk normally again, and we thought that surely this must be propitious, and there were so many similarities between the concerns of this small town near Heilbronn, and Sedbergh, that all seemed to be going swimmingly.

The camera and jolly sound man arrive in Sedbergh

And then along came . . . the telly

Shortly after visiting our potential twin town, in summer 2004, we received out-of-the-blue an email from a television production company, saying that they were preparing a twelve-part series on town twinning, and that they might consider Sedbergh as the focus in the UK.

Representatives from the television production company came to Sedbergh during a sunny few days and met various people in the pub and seemed to think we might be quite a telegenic place.

We told them about our budding arrangements with the town in Germany but they said that set-up jobs would be seen through by the great television-watching public and that we should have to be introduced to places, which we were not told even the name of beforehand.

This is an unconventional approach to finding a twinning partner, but on the other hand the town felt that it could not reject the opportunity for some exposure on national television, and we therefore put our position to our new-found German friends, who kindly understood the dilemma we were in, and so to Sedbergh came the arrival of the cameras. You can see a description of the presence of television cameras in Sedbergh here.

Sedbergh sets up a formal town twinning arrangement with Zreče

The activities put in place by the television production company resulted in a pulling-together of the people of Sedbergh, the like of which had not been seen in anyone’s memory. The number of people who voted for a twinning arrangement with Zreče exceeded the votes given to all the other candidate towns put together, and the number of people who voted was greater than the number who turn out for most general and local elections.

A formal twinning charter has been signed and reciprocal visits are regularly underway.

In Britain, at least, Slovenians come with no baggage. Everyone likes a Slovene. The twinning arrangement between Sedbergh and Zreče has so far been a huge success. A satirical song dating from the 1950s includes the words: ‘The whole world is festering with unhappy souls. The French hate the Germans and the Germans hate the Poles. Italians hate Yugoslavs, South Africans hate the Dutch. And I don’t like anybody very much!’ †. Fortunately, so far as we know, we have no Slovenophobes, in Sedbergh.

† lyric by Sheldon Harnick, who also wrote the words to Fiddler on the Roof

Look Outwards – Learn Others’ Ways

noreply@blogger.com (Sedbergh Webadmin) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:59:00 +0000

Town twinning →Economic Development – Look Outwards

Look Outwards

Look at this picture.

What nationality are these people? Are they all the same nationality?

In fact they are predominantly Slovenian, with one or two British thrown in to confuse you. It is a photo of a choir who visited Sedbergh in April 2009. (see Summer is Icummen In – Loudly Sing Slovene!)

So if Slovenes look essentially indistinguishable from Brits, Swedes, Americans or Belgians, do they think and behave differently?

It might depend on who you ask. Here is a passage from the autobiographical recollections of the British journalist and international news reporter, John Simpson ¹:

‘. . . the differences between us are disappearing as fast as the animal, bird and insect species we share our planet with . . . we are losing our distinctiveness, our human biodiversity, with appaling speed . . . everyone everywhere now seems to want exactly the same things . . .’

Many people whose business or leisure takes them to different European countries might wonder where on earth John Simpson has been. Possibly his views are influenced by staying in international hotels and travelling around only in aeroplanes and taxis. For although the people in different parts of Europe may dress much the same, and carry the same make of mobile phone, by no means do they all think the same, behave the same, eat the same food or have the same culture, education or aspirations. Not at all do they do so.

In Sedbergh we are extremely conscious of the need to narrow the gap of cultural understanding between different people and for each to learn from the other and in that way make us all more wordly and bigger. Sedbergh has active adult language and culture classes in Italian, German, Spanish and Slovenian (in fact the only regular Slovenian language course in the country, please email for more detail).

1. John Simpson (2000), A Mad World, My Masters, London: Pan Macmillan ISBN 0 330 35567 8

Zapik Puppet Theatre in Sedbergh – September 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Sedbergh Webadmin) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 19:18:00 +0000

Town twinning →People – September 2009

Igor and Jelena Cvetko visit Sedbergh with the Zapik Puppet Theatre

Igor Cvetko is something of a hero in Zreče where his cantata to local folk poet Juri Vodovnik is sung by the town’s choir, and his research and books are celebrated at Vodnik&rsuo;s house in Skomarje. He came to Sedbergh with the four male Zreče folk singers Ljudski Pevci iz Stranic in May 2005 – so we were delighted to have him back in Sedbergh with his wife Jelena and Zapik Puppet Theatre’s The Mouse Was Making Porridge. They performed in Sedbergh Library which was packed with children and their adults; visited the Quaker meeting at Brigflatts; met old friends in Sedbergh; and then toured Britain with shows at venues including the Kendal Mintfest international street festival, Edinburgh Festival, and Cambridge.

Speaking Slovene

noreply@blogger.com (Sedbergh Webadmin) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 16:07:00 +0000

Town twinning →Speaking Slovene, August 2009

Some thoughts on the Slovene language from David Burbidge, organiser of numerous exchange singing events.

There are many who say that Slovene is a very hard language to speak – my experience has been the opposite, it must be one of the easiest.

I’ve never been good at languages. I put it down to a crippling experience in my early teenage years. My father worked in the United Nations and clearly thought that speaking more than English was a good thing. So I was packed off to stay with Vincent Roland in Paris for the summer. On arrival I tried out my creaky schoolboy French: ‘Bonjour. Je m’appel David. Comment allez vous?’ And was greeted by guffaws of laughter and: ‘I think perhaps we speak in English – your French is terrible.’

So what makes Slovene so easy to speak is the enormous ammount of encouragement you receive if you say anything more than hvala (thank you) or dober dan (good day). I try out my growing list of phrases which started with those gleaned form the Berlitz phrase book: Kako cudovit dan (what a wonderful day) and Bi kay popili? (can I get you a drink) and moved on to even more useful proclamations: Naj bo vasa casa vedno polna (may your cup always be full) – and the results are either total delight or total incomprehension (can an Englishman really be speaking Slovene?) But never scorn.

The reasons why there is this myth about Slovene being a difficult language and why there is so much encouragement to learn it are, ironically, the same. With only 1.8 million people in the country Slovene is not very widely spoken throughout the world. And most people having enough spare time to learn a language tend to choose the ones where there are countless millions of people to communicate with.

And the Slovenes, being essentially a polite and thoughful race of people, let people off the hook by telling them that the language is far too hard to learn anyway.

Je Skomarskih Ofarjev is a song by the famous Zreče poet Juri Vodovnik about a pig who hides in an old house which the villagers use as a toilet, because the mushrooms are so good there!

What I think is this: if it is so hard, how come that all the tiny infants and children in Slovenia speak it? And also, if there are only 1.8 million people speaking it then the more people who learn it the better – there’s already far too many people speaking in German, French and Spanish.

Although, having said that, the grammar for Slovene is not easy – there are different endings for everything, not just for singular and plural but also for if you are speaking to two people. (Though every language has its hurdles. How people learn English with grammatical constructions like one cow, two cows – and then, one sheep, two sheep – is a mystery to me.)

Personally I find it easier to sing Slovene than to speak it. Our group in Sedbergh has been learning some of the Slovene songs, most of which tend to be very sad love songs. Like Nocoj pa oh nocoj (Tonight oh tonight, when the moon shines over the earth, I will leave – but don’t cry my love, I will be back in seven short years.) But also lively drinking songs like Kolko kaplic tolko let (May God grant you as many years in your life as there are drops of wine in the glass).

And the wonderful national anthem which translates as:

God’s blessings on all nations who long and pray for that bright day,

When over earth’s habitation, no war, no strife, shall hold its sway.

Who long to see, that all men free, no more shall foes but neighbours be.

Being the seventh verse of a long poem by the national poet France Preseren called the Toast, in praise of wine, women and camaraderie. And the only national anthem in the world to advocate world peace rather than national glory.

The advantage of having a healthy repertoire of songs is that I am now able to communicate the odd line when appropriate. So when I am leaving a company of Slovenians with friends I turn to them and say: Pojd’mo veselo domo (let us go joyfully home) – from the lovely old song Vecernica (Evening hymn).

The Cautley Carollers met with the Skomarje singers in Medved – along with the Mayor and the president of Unior who both made some fine speeches. We all sang Zivijo together, the pace slowing down with every toast.

And from the same song I am able to comment on beautiful sunsets: Glejte ze solnce zahaja, skoraj za goro bo slo (look at the sun setting over the distant hills). A translation of an Ali Burns song – May your cup always be full – has many useful lines for greeting and toasting like: Zelimo vam veselja in zdravja in ljubesni in vecni mir (we wish you joy and health and love and peace for ever) though it’s not so useful when shopping at a supermarket or haggling over the price of a taxi ride.

Other phrases come from asking my long suffereing Slovene friends for translations. So when I was asked how I like being back in Zreče recently I was able to reply: Vreme je lepo in toplo kot se srca Zrečanov – (the weather is beautiful and warm like the hearts of the people of Zreče).

I have been organising cultural exchanges and performance projects between singers from Sedbergh and singers from Zreče for the last couple of years and have found that the best events were the ones where most people didn’t speak the other’s language.

Oscar Wilde put his finger on it when he said that America and England were two countries divided by a common language. Language is so much more than the mere words – behind everything we say there are layers of meaning which are tied up with our culture and our history.

So when the Zreče youth choir visited Sedbergh and were singing in the mediaeval market fair they met the Fool, the court jester, sitting on a pole in the middle of the street. ‘Ah here come the Slovenes, you can smell them.’

The Odmev Quartet from Zreče singing in Rydal Caves with the Lakeland Voice singers one wintry night in December 2005. The acoustics were terrific. Everyone had learnt some Slovene phrases, and especially Bi kaj popili? – which was very useful when we all went to warm up and continue our singing in the Badger Bar.

Now as a straight translation this is nothing but a terrible insult – what a dreadful thing to say! But the wider context around the court jester being the only one who could insult the king, and his role as the one who makes everyone feel a bit uncomfortable, gives a different meaning. (Although personally I was quite ready to kick him off his pole.)

Similarly, when the Scottish football players were recently visiting Slovenia and walking down Celje high street in their kilts singing and happy after having won the match, the Slovenes all said how much they liked them. ‘Yes, we were calling out to them how pretty they looked in the skirts.’ Fortunately in Slovene rather than in English. I have known Scotsmen who had been told something similar in England and had never returned south of border again.

And when the Ljudski Pevci iz Stranice (folk singers from Stranice) came to Sedbergh, none of the singers spoke any English at all. But that didn’t stop Ivan getting into a very long conversation with Vivienne Postlethwaite in her shop, both in their native tongues, neither of them worried that they didn’t understand a word the other said.

The Odmev male voice Quartet joined us in the Sportsman’s Inn for some more singing – 150 people all joining in on the choruses, and even some Balkan dancing in the back room. A night to remember.

Afterwards Ivan told our friend Igor Cvetko, a Slovene ethnomusicologist who speaks perfect English, that Ivan had had such a good time that he wanted to take her home and marry her!

There has been much research which suggests that communication has little to do with the actual words – some people say as little as seven per cent – and everything to do with the tone of voice, facial expression, and body language.

When we visited at Christmas and drove a minibus on the right for the first time we managed to upset several other drivers who saw our number plates and thought we were Italian. Their gesticulations really needed no translation. Though it was interesting that when we translated the number plates with the addition of GB stickers, the rude gestures changed to friendly waves.

And there is also the point raised by a Irishman I heard on the radio recently talking about his countrymen’s fame as talkers: ‘It’s said that Ireland is a nation populated by warm hearted people talking to each other’, he said describing typical people meeting to talk in the emerald isle. ‘But my experience is that they are a nation of warm hearted people talking to themselves. Few people bother to listen to each other.’

Perhaps there is something of that in all of us.

I recently attended a meeting of Slovene poets in the hilltop village of Skomarje, in the Skomarski Hisa – the old house where Zreče’s most famous poet Juri Vodovnik lived. The poems were all written by the people who read them, about love, and loss, and hope – the poets’ themes. I sat listening to the music of their voices, not particularly troubled by understanding only one word in every fifty.

And then someone read a poem by Robert Frost – and the extraordinary thing was that it was no different – I still couldn’t understand a word, but took great delight from the music of the words and the drama of the setting.

But I continue learning my phrases and my songs, because it gives me as much pleasure as it obviously does our Slovene friends to be able to say something in the language of this beautiful country. So . . . Se eno si zapojmo.

David Burbidge

A video with some basic phrases useful when visiting Slovenia.

Slovene language courses in Sedbergh take place each year.

See comments from His Excellency Iztok Mirošič, Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia, (2008).

Crni Vrh Male voice choir in Sedbergh – July/August 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Sedbergh Webadmin) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 17:06:00 +0000

Town twinning →Music July 2009

The Crni Vrh male voice choir visit Sedbergh

We met The Crni Vrh Male voice choir at an evening in Skomarje near Zreče, and were delighted when we heard they were coming to Sedbergh. As well as singing at Farfield and in the Dalesman pub, they joined the nearby Hardraw folk festival singing alongside English folk musicians in concerts and pub singarounds, taught some Slovenian folk songs and learnt some English ones – and took great delight in the landlord’s largesse and extreme generosity with his excellent beer!

Slovenian Students in Sedbergh on Work Experience – July/August 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Sedbergh Webadmin) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 17:41:00 +0000

Town twinning →People – July 2009

Three Slovenian students came for three weeks of work experience in Sedbergh and district.

Three Slovenian students came for three weeks of work experience in Sedbergh and district. Vesna, Neza got jobs in the Dalesman pub and Darja at the Cross Keys, where she was treated with some real Sedbergh hospitality from Alan Clowes and family . Darja was taken for a tour of London and also a visit to Stratford on Avon. Vesna and Neza also got jobs at the Hardraw folk festival where they served several thousand pints of beer – most of them to the visiting Slovenian choir!

Slovenian Language Classes in Sedbergh – July 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Sedbergh Webadmin) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 16:35:00 +0000

Town twinning →Music July 2009

TOWN BANDS BAND TOGETHER

Visit to Sedbergh by the Slovenian Ambassador to the UK

noreply@blogger.com (Sedbergh Webadmin) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:00:00 +0000

Town twinning →Official Visit July 2009

His Excellency Iztok Jarc Visits Sedbergh

Tuesday 7th July. His Excellency Iztok Jarc, the Slovenian ambassador to the UK, together with his wife, Helena Jarc, and two members of the consular department from the embassy, Ms Mateja Ŝtrumelj Piŝkur and Mr Matej Zakonjŝek, arrived at Oxenholme station on a train from from London, to be greeted the mayor of Kendal, Coun John Bateson, station manager Stephen Reynolds, Sedbergh twinning officials Garth Steadman, Susan Garnett and David Burbidge, and a 45-piece band from Slovenia playing the Slovenian national anthem.

While the band went to give a public performance in the centre of Kendal (see The Zreče Community Band Visit Sedbergh), a lunch of welcome was held in the Cross Keys at Cautley where the leader of Sedbergh Parish Council, Vic Hopkins; the head of the Sedbergh Booktown project, Carole Nelson; the secretary of the Sedbergh Town Band, Hilary Hodge; the head teacher of Sedbergh School, Christoper Hirst; the head teacher of Sedbergh Junior School, Sara Hirst; the head teacher from the state primary school, Sedbergh Primary, Maggie Cullen; and the head of languages from the state secondary school, Settlebeck High School, Alison Brown; together with members of Sedbergh’s town twinning group, were host to the ambassador and his party together with the Mayor of Zreče, Mr Boris Podvrsnik. This lunch meeting was well-reported by all the Sedbergh people present as consisting of useful and stimulating discussion, in particular the learning about what the embassy does and plans to achieve, and about economic conditions and developments in Slovenia.

A FARM VISIT AND A CONCERT

After lunch the ambassador and his party, together with Mr Podvrsnik, were taken to the farm of Thomas and Barbara Gorst at Mutton Hall to see and hear about the raising and economics of cattle and sheep on a hill farm.

In the evening there was a concert in Powell Hall of Sedbergh School with Sedbergh’s town brass band and the Zreče Community Band that included some renowned Slovenian musicians and singers, see The Zreče Community Band Visit Sedbergh

David Burbidge

See more videos of the tour at www.youtube.com/davidburbidge

The Zreče Community Band Visits Sedbergh, July 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Sedbergh Webadmin) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 19:53:00 +0000

Town twinning →Music July 2009

TOWN BANDS BAND TOGETHER

The Zreče Community Band came to Sedbergh to meet the Sedbergh town band. A welcome evening at Ernie Hailwood’s, was followed the next mrning by the Zreče Mayor Boris Podvrsnik, seventy musicians and friends performing the Slovenian National Anthem alongside English singers at Oxenholme station as Ambassador Iztok Jarc’s train arrived, the band played and then there was a grand reception in the mayor of Kendal’s office followed by dancing in the centre of Kendal. The Zreče band did a concert that evening with Sedbergh’s Town Band in Sedbergh, and afterwards played and sang long into the night at the Dalesman pub. The Mayor of Zreče, the Ambassador and party were given a tour of Sedbergh and district.

Slovenians are often very conscious of coming from a small country – but on their recent visit everything was extremely large.

The large double-decker bus unloads its passengers in Sedbergh Main Street.

Not only was their group of seventy the biggest we have ever had the pleasure to welcome to Sedbergh, and their display of talent the largest we have yet witnessed, they also came in one of the most enormous coaches any of us had ever seen before – a 90-seater double-decker coach, causing some speculation about whether they would get over or under many of our bridges. With an hourly update on their progress up from Dover via Stansted airport (where they collected about half their party) they finally appeared down Black Horse Hill and were escorted to Ernie Hailwood’s home for a party with the Sedbergh Town Band – where the first Sedbergh person they met was Dennis Whicker complete in Town Crier outfit out in the road showing them where to park. We wondered if they thought that they had not only travelled a vast distance across Europe to get here – but also a few hundred years back in time.

What was particularly pleasing about this visit was how many of those who came with the Zreče Town Band already knew people in Sedbergh and there were many fond reunions. Travelling with the Zreče band were some of the finest musicians, including some from other parts of Slovenia, and we had the pleasure on the first night of enjoying some of their folk songs – with a more modest response from our very own Cautley Carollers singing in Slovenian and English.

The whole group, including the Zreče Mayor Boris Podvrsnik, musicians, colleagues, friends, youths and family, filled up the Bull Hotel, one of Nigel Close’s holiday flats on Bainbridge Road, and the Howgills Bunk Barn – but despite being scattered around Sedbergh all were ready on time for departure to Kendal on Tuesday morning.

With the help of Oxenholme Station manager Stephen Reynolds I had been able to get permission for the band to play as the train bringing His Excellency Iztok Jarc, Slovenian ambassador to the UK, arrived at the station. Other passengers were amazed as their train pulled in, and there in full force was a 45-piece band playing triumphant music. The Ambassador was escorted to the band ’ where he also met Kendal Mayor Councillor John Bateson, the Sedbergh Town Twinning Committee, the Zreče Mayor – and English and Slovenian singers bursting into song as the band played Zdravljica, the Slovenian national anthem.

While the Ambassador and Zreče mayor were given a tour of Sedbergh and a lunch of welcome by Susan Garnett and the Town Twinning Committee , the Kendal mayor kindly invited the band to visit him in his chambers where they were not only treated to wine and other refreshments but were also given a tour of the treasures of the town hall. We had also arranged a performers’ licence for the day and the band played under the town centre ‘Birdcage’ – where amazed onlookers were invited to enjoy Slovenian delicacies (lovingly prepared by many of the wives and mothers of the group back in Slovenia) and to dance with them. Several people in Kendal, including local town councillors, said how much they appreciated the warmth and good spirits of the Slovenians and looked forward to future collaborations with their own twin town projects.

The pinnacle of the band’s visit was of course the evening concert in Sedbergh School’s Powell Hall with the Sedbergh Town Band which was superb – and prompted one of Sedbergh’s leading musicans to say how she had been moved to tears by the expertise displayed by the Zreče band, and also by the pride she felt on hearing our own band so skillfully led by Mr Alan Lewis.

The two bands played in two halves with English and Slovenian solo singers – including a spirited performance by the Ambassador’s wife Helena Jarc. Many of us in Sedbergh have come to love the singing of Zreče tenor Marjan Hren who came with his Odmev comrades to our Folk Carols festival a few years ago and again with the Zreče town choir. This time we were treated to a very moving performance of Poletna Noc by his daughter Katarina Hren. But crowning it all was the singing of the world acclaimed soloist, Matjaž Mrak. The group from our twin town brought many kind presents with them for us to share in the treasures of their culture – this extraordinary talent represented the crown jewels. Katarina and Marjan also joined together in singing Mini Maxi – a song which many of us have come to love here since Zreče’s Samo Ivačič taught it to us several years ago.

The Mayor and the Ambassador also made speeches thanking the people of Sedbergh for their hospitality. The Ambassador praised the wisdom of the people of Sedbergh in choosing Zreče to be its twin, gave advice on future developments, and said how much he had enjoyed visiting Sedbergh: ‘What I found here were very kind people, and a town which is very dynamic. I found people here have ideas: they are developing a book shop industry and their tourism. I know Zreče could learn a lot from you – I know you are already developing an exchange of culture, music and young people. I would also encourage you to develop an exchange between small- and medium-sized business’.

The concert was followed by the Sedbergh Town Band inviting the Slovenian visitors to a party at the Dalesman pub which apparently went on until the early hours of the following morning and included music from the Zreče rock band Pet Sto Metrov and from many other bandsmen and singers. With an early-rising two-year-old daughter to look after I was not able to stay for too long, but it did prove that not only can the Sedbergh Town Band pull off an extraordinary concert worthy of many big city international venues – they can also host a party to end all parties.

It was perhaps here that the only blemish in the visit came with some very understandable complaints from nearby residents who were disturbed by late-night noise. I mentioned this to some of the English-speaking representatives of the Zreče group and immediately they rushed to apologise to Chris at the Post Office on behalf of their high-spirited youths – which, in all fairness, did include some Sedbergh youngsters.

With my own Slovenian singing exchanges we have learnt over the years to make sure that youth groups are adequately supervised and that music events either finish early or are nowhere near residents’ homes – but it was perhaps understandable that the Sedbergh Town Band would chose the Dalesman for their party as the Ambassador was staying there, it was the nearest pub to the concert venue, and had many other advantages.

The following day the mayor and his family had a tour of Farfield Mill Arts Centre where he was kindly shown round the exhibits by Elizabeth Eaton, and discussed exchanges between the two towns with artists and crafts people such as potter Rebecca Callis.

As well as the expertise portrayed in the music, what many of us enjoyed most about this visit of a Slovenian group to Sedbergh was getting to know the Zreče Mayor who proved himself to be a diplomat of the finest order, a leader rich in wisdom, charm and humour and we all look forward to meeting mayor Boris again when we next visit Zreče.

A naïve understanding of the English character is sometimes made by some English-speaking visitors from Slovenia who claim that the English will be polite to your face but then insult you behind their backs. While of course all countries have two-faced people who will pay you a compliment and then stab you in the back – here in Sedbergh all I have heard behind the backs of the Slovenian visitors is how very pleased everyone was that they came, and how much everyone appreciated their humour, high spirits and expertise.

As usual there are a handful of people who worked selflessly here to make this happen. Alan Lewis, Hilary Hodge and the Town Band created one of the most memorable concerts – and post-production parties – in recent history. And thanks to Ernie Hailwood and family, we hosted a wonderful display of welcome to the Slovenians. Due to work commitments none of the band could help during the day on Tuesday and Wednesday so Lucia Marquart, Liz Close, Dave Smith and myself leapt at the opportunity to take several days off work to look after their guests. Susan Garnett and her local dignitaries looked after the Zreče mayor and Ambassador’s party in style. Nigel and Liz Close helped at the Bunk Barn both with willing hands and kind discounts.

As a mere menial backroom boy on this project it is perhaps not my place to do the thanking – but on behalf of us all I do extend our thanks to all those in Zreče who made this happen: the Zreče Mayor Boris Podvrsnik, band leader Avgust Skaza, musicians and Obcina council workers too numerous to mention who helped with the organising and gathering up of musicians from all over Slovenia to treat us with; the Zreče bakers and cooks who made delicacies for us all to enjoy; the coach drivers who proved that it is not just drivers from Sedbergh who are courteous on the road (I was on their coach when it pulled over to the side to let a backlog of faster cars overtake) Marjan Skaza who brought an extraordinarily kind gift commemorating the fruits of our two towns’ friendship now standing proudly outside the Howgills Bunk Barn; and finally Zreče teacher Peter Kos, who not only did most of the translation and pre-visit liaising, but also surprised us all with wonderfully humorous and showmanlike MC-ing at the concert.

I believe this visit marks a turning point from what until now has been a romantic liaison between our two towns to the commitment and hard work involved in a long-lasting relationship

David Burbidge

See videos of the tour at www.youtube.com/davidburbidge

Ljubljana Rudolf Steiner School Choir Visit Sedbergh, April 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Sedbergh Webadmin) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 19:08:00 +0000

Town twinning →Music April 2009

SUMMER IS ICUMMEN IN – LOUDLY SING SLOVENE!

The Slovenian Waldorf choir’s forty singers stayed with local singers and friends from the greater Sedbergh area and performed alongside the Cautley Carollers, the Gladly Solemn Sound Choir and Lakeland Voices in local concerts, workshops, walks and Dent church service. They then went to Edinburgh to meet a local Steiner school, the Scottish community choir Harmonise (who regularly visit Dent for our folk carols festival ) and town twinners from Pitlochry for a stunning concert in Dunkeld cathedral.

Forty visitors from the Steiner School in Ljubljana learned (quickly and impressively, as you can see from the video on the right), to ceilidh-dance to the Garsdale Street Band. The event at Dent Memorial Hall had Slovenians and Sedberghians (together with other local folk) communicating in one of the most effective ways known to humankind – through the medium of folkdance.

The Slovenians were a choir made up of teachers and parents from the Ljubljana Rudolf Steiner School which many of us have visited when we have been singing in Slovenia. After landing at Liverpool they came here before going on to visit community choirs, town twinners and Steiner Schools in Scotland.

As well as singing in the morning service and taking communion at the Dent Parish Church, they joined English singers in the Dent Memorial Hall where everyone sang songs from both countries before going on a walk, singing in different places through the village and beyond with a picnic lunch by the river.

They were joined by the Cautley Carollers who had learnt the Slovenian mountain song Planinska for the occasion and the evening hymn Vecernica, and Lakeland Voices who learnt Tece Mi Tece (Flow river flow,) and Pobelelo Pole (the fields were white with sheep) which everyone was able to sing together. Singers from both countries were also able to join together singing English songs such as Tarry Wool, I am a River , and the mediaeval round Summer is icummen in ludhe sing Cuckoo.

Being teachers interested in fostering children’s creativity the Slovenians were particularly interested when the Cautley Carollers sang On Children, an arrangement of Kahlil Gibran’s famous poem Your children are not your children . . . they are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself . . . They come through you but they are not from you . . . and though they are with you they belong not to you.

Another local choir which some of us from Sedbergh sing with, and who are most remembered for their stirring addition to the history of church music concert in St Andrew’s a few years ago, are the Gladly Solemn Sound west gallery choir. So low was the river and still the wind that when the choir arrived in Dent they could hear the voices of the singers as they sang by the bridge. This choir had also learnt a couple of Slovenian songs – including Krasni Majnik – In praise of the Virgin Mary and the month of May – which the two choirs sang together in the Dent Memorial Hall concert as well as two English folk songs similarly praising spring By the Green Grove and Halantoe.

Even after a fine and hearty meal for 70 people prepared by Lucia Marquart (helped by our two-year-old Anika who chose the most suitable time to have a long afternoon nap!) no one could stay seated for long once the Garsdale Street Band took to the stage – the language barrier once again nimbly leapt over by caller Clare Pope.

A couple of days before I had taken some of early arrivers on a tour of Sedbergh’s religous establishments – St. Andrew’s Parish Church, Brigflatts Quaker Meeting house, and Dentfoot Methodist Church. On the way back they thought Clare’s husband Ken was joking when he leant over his garden gate and said, “You’ve seen the churches and now you’re meeting the Pope”.

Some of the Slovenian teachers who work in the kindergarten were staying with Alison Siddal from Brigflatts Quaker Meeting and they went with her to teach Slovenian songs to the children which they sang after the meeting ’ afterwards travelling on to be reunited with their comrades in Dent thanks to Slovene language students Mike and Liz Clarke.

A couple of others were given a warm welcome when Erik licked them all over. Not an overabundance of international affection, but a greeting from a dog you will have seen at the Sedbergh Gala dog show who they met when they stayed with singer Emma Watton. Dave Collier’s two guests liked it so much in Sedbergh that half way to Scotland the Slovenian choir leader Igor Velepic received a phone call. “Who’s that?” “Mirjan.” “Mirjan who?” ”Mirjan who’s been left behind in Sedbergh.” A problem that was soon solved by David kindly driving them up to be reunited at Penrith. [and when I got there – oh! what handshakes and cuddles! Come to Edinburgh with us, one of the women said, and they all agreed, yes, come with us to Edinburgh! Have you ever read JB Priestley’s Good Companions? Ah well, Priestley won’t be writing about me (even if he hadn’t been dead). Ho, hum, one gets so respectable in one’s old age. Do you ever have regrets? Or perhaps I’m just destined to do the writing, rather than be the hero of the tale. Dave C.]

Four of them stayed with David and Pauline Ramsbottom (including the son of teacher Maja who arrived unexpectedly on the train from Leeds,) and three with Cris and Barbara Lewis, who are part of our regular Slovene language classes and were well known by the visiting Slovenians for the luxury chocolate factory they run near Ljubljana. Others stayed here with us and our neighbours Mick and Nicky Lavery Hoff at Farfield where they were also able to meet Rebecca, the secretary of the Lancaster Steiner school. The rest stayed with singers from the Greater Sedbergh areas of Kendal, Stavely and Arnside.

For the rest of the tour the choir visited the Rudolf Steiner School in Edinburgh where they met Anne Jardine’s class who are themselves going to visit the Ljubljana Steiner School later in the year. As well as singing with all the children, the choir sang and stayed with the Edinburgh Harmonise community choir who come to Sedbergh every year to sing in our Folk Carols Festival and have learnt several Slovenian songs at workshops led by myself.

On their last day they did a magnificent concert in Edinburgh’s St. Giles church. Veronika Kallus who arranges the cathedral’s concerts said that where as usually tourists will wander into the cathedral and hold loud conversations during concerts, at this one the sense of grace and peace was so palpable that everyone was calmed and hushed.

The Choir at Pitlochry

That night the choir visited another town linked with a Slovenian town – Pitlochry where in enterprising Dennys Campbell is making a partnership with Bled. They sang alongside the town’s Sine Nomine choir and a local fiddle playing group led by Pete Clarke, before joining a wild evening of music and dance in Dunkeld’s Taybank Hotel – made famous by folk singer Dougie Maclean as a centre for Scottish folk music. Our most heartfelt thanks go to Dennys for arranging what we will hope will be the start of many fine collaborations between our two towns.

And many thanks to everyone who made their visit such a success – despite all the stories of economic recession and gloom it is quite clear that in this part of the country hospitality is still in very good health.

Nazdravija. Slainte. Cheers!

David Burbidge

Girls from Sedbergh and Kendal Sing in Slovenia

noreply@blogger.com (Sedbergh Webadmin) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 16:12:00 +0000

Town twinning →Singers Visit Slovenia March 2009

Amabile Choir in Slovenia, March 2009

Girls from Sedbergh and Kendal who sing with the award-winning choir Amabile sang with a Slovene group in Sebergh last year, but now took off for their own tour of Slovenia with five days of concerts alongside Slovene singers in Ljubljana, Bled Castle and Lipica – where the Queen’s horse galloped up to meet them. They were welcomed everywhere – especially at the Franciscan church in Ljubljana where they sang for the mass – the beauty of their singing is still talked about by those who use the church. They also sang with a girls’ choir at Kranj high school and met students at the Waldorf school.

Sedbergh Students Visit Zreče – March 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Sedbergh Webadmin) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 17:17:00 +0000

Town twinning →School Visit March 2009

Students from Settlebeck School, Sedbergh Stay at the Gorenje Centre Near Zreče, March 2009

This is the fifth year that Settlebeck year 9 students have visited the Gorenje Centre near Zreče but the first time that they have travelled all the way there and back by coach. The trip had been planned for Monday 2nd to Monday 9th February and we set off for Stansted Airport at 2.30 am on the 2nd in order to catch our 9.00 am flight but of course that was the day on which the east of England had the heaviest snowfall for eighteen years and as we approached Stansted rumours abounded of cancelled flights, while the landscape turned ever more Arctic the further south we travelled. Repeated calls to Stansted assured us that we had nothing to worry about and even as we pulled into the snow-covered coach park we watched a large passenger plane taking off into a murky sky, but it must have been the last, because the moment we arrived all flights were cancelled. After hanging around for an hour considering our options there was nothing we could do other than return to Sedbergh while we still had a coach. What a journey! 13 hours, an hour at Stansted and a couple of toilet stops only to end up back on Settlebeck’s bus park feeling very tired, disappointed but lucky to get back without getting stranded.

Our friends in Slovenia were equally disappointed but Alison Brown, our party leader and organiser, determined to make this trip happen and immediately set about negotiating alternative dates, accommodation and travel arrangements. Luckily our aborted attempt cost us nothing with a complete refund from Ryanair (not a common occurrence) and our travel insurance coming up trumps for the other costs. There were to be no further cheap airline seats for a party of 40, however, and Alison organised instead for us to travel by coach.

This was the way in which the last group of Slovenian children, who visited us in October, travelled and I must confess that their journey sounded to me like a nightmare so I wasn’t exactly looking forward to the route down to Dover, across on the ferry to Calais, then through Belgium, briefly into Holland, through Germany via Dusselldorf, Frankfurt, Nürmberg and Regensburg, across Austria via Graz and into NE Slovenia. We had two drivers who took turns at sleeping and driving, and we too slept overnight on the coach as it sped through northern Europe. We set off at 2 pm on Sunday 1st March and arrived the next day at 7 pm – a 28-hour journey (having gained an hour with the change of time zone). We had a leg stretch on the one-and-a half-hour ferry crossing and about five 20–30 minute stops at motorway services. Yes we were tired on arrival but an early and good night’s sleep soon put that to right and on reflection the journey was fine. Luckily the thirty five 14-year-olds were impeccably behaved and, in fact, a pleasure to be with. We watched 6 DVDs, chatted and joked our way through Europe and with the lights out managed to get a few hours valuable kip on the bus. The return journey proved even better with much of interest to look at as we crossed the Alps.

All in all we would certainly choose coach over air travel in the future, with less stress, more convenience, no baggage restrictions and with the added convenience of having your own coach and drivers always on hand during the rest of the visit.

Predjama Castle

For those of you who haven’t yet had the pleasure of visiting Slovenia we continue to find it a wonderful experience. Slovenia is almost as large as Wales, bounded by Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia. In the northeast it is dominated by the alpine mountain region adjacent to Austria, in which Zreče is situated with excellent skiing at Rogla, and wonderful warm spa waters for bathing even in the dead of winter. Apart from Sweden and Finland it is the most forested country in Europe (nearly 60 per cent of the land area). The population is only just over 2 million, and the population of Ljubljana, the beautiful capital city, is about 300,000 (the second and third largest towns, Maribor and Celje are about 100 and 50 thousand respectively). The history is rich and interesting and the country boasts many beautiful buildings, castles, areas for walking and a varied wildlife. The Karst is a thickly-forested limestone area (from which the geological term karst derives) famed for its amazing subterranean world of rivers and the most stunning caves. Best of all though are the people who are warm, generous and friendly. Currently the cost of food and accommodation is a little less than in Britain.

About 180 students from Settlebeck have now visited, and our latest group benefited from the best programme to date.

The first day was spent with our hosts, Zreče Primary School (ages 7–15), which included activities on the Slovenian language (not for the faint-hearted), sport and a town-trail, finishing with a 3-mile and 1000-foot climb back to the Gorenje centre. That evening we used the centre climbing wall.

The second day we spent skiing on Rogla followed by swimming in the spa – this was great fun and every single student and staff member rose to the challenge of swimming in the cold outdoor pool immediately after swimming in the hot pool (even less for the faint-hearted), you could say this was a scream.

The Postojna Caves

The third day we’d set aside as a rest day for reflective journals and relaxation. We were invited to a 40-minute school play based on an old folk tale, in Slovenian! The evening was spent doing a quiz with our Slovenian hosts.

On the fourth day, after early morning gymnastics we set out to visit first a wonderful castle perched high above the town of Celje, second, the Velenje coal mine and finally the Frankolovo museum. This turned out to be an amazingly rich experience. The coal mine was a revelation since we actually descended over 500 feet using the miners’ tiny cages in pitch black shafts at 12 feet per second, followed by a tour of the old workings which had been kitted ouy with a wide range of exhibitions and simulations to provide an emotional experience of what it felt like to live and work in that environment. We were all greatly impacted by the hardship experienced by the traditional miner, and the simulated explosion and disaster will live in the memory for ever.

Even more impacting, however, was the Frankolovo remembrance site where 100 civillians were hanged by the Nazis during their occupation in 1945, from the apple trees which still border the road through the valley. Their misfortune was to be political prisoners, in the local prison, at the time when a high-ranking Nazi soldier was killed by partisans. This atrocity, committed near to Zreče, is still remembered every year by the whole country and is movingly commemorated by the beautiful memorial and museum at the site. This event provides an important symbol for the European awareness we seek to engender in our students and the dreadful historical events which led to the European Union and its subsequent focus on peace and harmony between our nations.

On the fifth day we went with our host students to Postonja in the Karst region to view first of all the stunning Predjama Castle built into the face of a huge limestone cliff and cavern.

Then we moved on to the Postojna cave, always a high point of our visit and a sort of real life Disneyland. We travelled by train 3 kms into the cave and then walked 2–3 kms through the most astonishing collection of thousands of stalactites and stalagmites, many over 20 feet long. A visit to Slovenia must include these caves. On then to Ljubljana, which, in the centre, resembles a small version of Prague. Our students were guided around the city by their Slovenian hosts and we witnessed twilight descend on the beautiful Presener Square next to the triple bridge over the Ljubljanica river. That evening we walked in the woods by the light of six or seven paraffin lamps looking after each other, enjoying the beautiful full moon and starlight over the valleys and mountains and hoping that we wouldn’t get too close to the bears and wild boar which occasionally pay a visit to the district. Bingo, the centre’s St Bernard’s dog, accompanied us for extra reassurance.

Day six was our final day and our second on the ski slopes. Every student had a day of downhill tuition and a day of cross-country skiing and it was amazing how well the great majority, over these two sessions, developed the skills to ski reasonably competently thanks to the excellent tuition of the centre staff. We were very lucky with the weather during this second session, with bright sunshine and blue skies from horizon to horizon. We finished our visit to the mountain with a high speed toboggan on rails – a perfectly safe but serious thrill as you hurtle at 30 mph down the mountain with hairpin bends and once again the chance to let rip with some heartfelt screaming! The final evening was spent with our hosts watching their fine performances of music and dance and a presentation of their trip to Sedbergh last October. The students came together for the last time with their Slovenian hosts at a disco and there were many sad goodbyes as our programme came to an end.

It was a trip to remember, a reaching out across 1000 miles of Europe to the new Europe, our twin town, their young people and the close relationships and hand of friendship that will hopefully always bind us in peace and prosperity.

Dave Smith

Sedbergh⇔Slovenia Events and Cultural Exchanges 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Sedbergh Webadmin) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 20:33:00 +0000

Town twinning →Achievements 2008

Achievements 2008

Feb 2008: Twenty-six year 9 students from Settlebeck High School enjoyed the fourth annual school visit to Gorenje near Zreče.

Apr 2008: Slovene language course at Sedbergh CDC, Monday April 14 for ten weeks: basic instruction in the language (phrases, simple grammar, pronunciation of place names etc.) as well as visits from Slovenians to practise conversation skills, teach how to make the Slovene festive cake, Potica, and other delights.

12 May 2008: Comment by His Excellency Iztok Mirošič, Ambassador to the UK of the Republic of Slovenia

“It is my particular pleasure to say that the twinning program between the Slovenian town Zreče and Sedbergh first started after I was appointed Ambassador to the Court of St James’s in 2004. When at that time many people from Sedbergh, Cumbria didn’t know where the small town of Zreče from Slovenia could be found on a map, and people from Slovenia also had to locate Cumbria on a map of the UK as well. Now I am more than pleased to see that for the last four years and since the beginning of establishing the twinning activities the relations between twinned towns Zreče and Sedbergh have become very intense and fruitful in all fields of cooperation. Singing festivals, other twinning activities, and many visits in both directions since 2004 are proving that. It is particularly encouraging that Slovene language courses have started in Sedbergh this year giving an opportunity to the people of Sedbergh and its surroundings to learn the Slovenian language with a quite difficult grammar. It is flattering that Slovenian language is taught in Sedbergh as the only part-time adult Slovene language course in the United Kingdom apart from Slovene language courses as part of university courses in Nottingham and London. I am convinced that the language courses and numerous other activities conducted in Sedbergh will encourage and influence people of Sedbergh and Cumbria to visit Slovenia – the country on the sunny side of the Alps – and on the other hand encourage people from Zreče and other parts of Slovenia to pay their visit to the beautiful Cumbria. The fact that Slovene language courses started in Sedbergh this year also proves a great wish to discover Slovenia, and to upgrade the already excellent relations which exist not only between the twinning towns but also between our two countries and peoples.

May I wish you all the success with the Slovene language courses and other twinning activities including Harmony Singing Festivals in the future. The Embassy of Slovenia shall be as it was also the case in the past very supportive of future initiated twinning projects helping to bring our two nations even closer.

Long live the friendship between Sedbergh and Zreče, Slovenia and the United Kingdom.”

Iztok Mirošič Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia

June 2008: Sedbergh was represented at a reception at the Slovenian Embassy in London at the celebration of the national presidency of the EU council.

July 2008:

Article in the Westmorland Gazette, 4 July 2008 with text transcription reproduced below.

FOLLOWING the success of its town twinning project, Sedbergh is set to become a blueprint for other towns to follow, it was revealed at a diplomatic function in London.

The function to celebrate Slovenia national day and the country’s end of office as president of the EU was hosted by the embassy in London. David Burbidge, from Sedbergh, who has organised more than a dozen cultural exchanges between the two towns, was invited to the reception by the embassy.

“It was terrific,” he said. “So many people there had heard about the success of Sedbergh’s twinning with Zreče in Slovenia or had seen us on television and were asking me for advice about how they could do the same with other towns in Britain.”

These included a planned twinning between St Ives in Cornwall and Medvode, near Ljubljana, and a proposal by the Slovene consul in Edinburgh for a partnership between the Caimgorms and Triglav national parks.

The function was attended by diplomats from other embassies and at one point Mr Burbidge was introduced as ‘The Ambassador for the Yorkshire Dales,’ and asked ‘Is your embassy in Sedbergh?’

“It was so surprising that a small town like Sedbergh could be so well known by these international diplomats in the capital even if some of them clearly thought Sedbergh was bigger than it is,” said Mc Burbidge.

“And the Slovene Ambassador, Iztok Mirošič, who has visited concerts in the town on a couple of occasions, shook my hand as I was leaving and told me to send his best wishes to the people of Sedbergh.”

Other guests included Slovene nationals who are living in England and many of them were keen to holiday in Sedbergh, having heard about the welcome that visiting Slovene choirs had received from those living in the town, and the attractions for walkers and cyclists.

Others were businessmen and women keen to stay in Sedbergh while conducting business in the area, including a couple of nuclear physicists wanting to visit the power stations at Sellafield and Heysham.

The town’s next cultural exchange connected with the Town Twinning involves Oktet, a group of 15 male voice singers from near Zreče who are visiting Sedbergh at the end of August.

The Slovene boys aged 15–20 will join up with 45 girls from Sedbergh and Kendal who sing with the BBC Radio 3 award-winning youth choir Amabile for concerts and workshops.

Amabile musical director Charlotte Jackson said: “We are very pleased that we will be meeting this choir from Slovenia. The girls were delighted, especially when they realised how old the boys are.”

The boys will also meet singers from other local choirs, including the Cautley Carollers, The Gladly Solemn Sound, Howgills Harmony and Five In A Bar, as well as joining youth choirs from other parts of England for workshops to learn Slovene and English songs, and taking part in local walks through places of interest.

And English singers, who are busy learning Slovene folk songs, will be joining a tour of Slovenia organised by the Sedbergh singing group Lakeland Voice at the beginning of August and again at the end of October.

August 2008: SLOVENE BOYS’ AND ENGLISH GIRLS’ CHOIR MEET – AUGUST 29-31 2008

Sedbergh rings once more with the harmonies of voices from our twin town, this time joined by one of Cumbria’s top girls’ choirs.

The Slovene male voice youth choir Oktet sang at concerts and workshops in the area. During their visit they met with the highly acclaimed South Lakeland girls’ choir Amabile who have won many national prizes for their excellence. The choir of forty-five girls aged 13–19 includes singers from Sedbergh.

October 2008: Visit to Sedbergh of the Zreče Fireman’s choir for concerts and workshops.

October 2008: Male Voice Choir Voice Male Visit to Slovenia with David Burbidge.

October 2008: Thirty students and six teachers from Zreče visit Sedbergh for cultural and social activities.

Zreče Students Visit to Sedbergh – October 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Sedbergh Webadmin) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:13:00 +0000

Town twinning →School October 2008

Zreče Students Visit Settlebeck School in Sedbergh

For the first time our partner school in Zreče decided to forgo the stress of air travel (last year they had a cancelled return flight) by travelling all the way from Slovenia to Sedbergh by coach. With an overnight stop-off in London and a brief visit to the sights and Madame Tussaud’s, the journey took from 7.00am Monday 13th until 12.15am Thursday 16th October, clearly a long haul. Yet as the thirty students and six teachers stumbled their way, by torchlight, up Castle Haw Lane to Nigel’s Howgills Bunk Barn these hardy souls remained cheerful and in good spirits. They were, however, a little surprised to be faced with this final obstacle since the Slovenian coach driver initially insisted that he could drive his 48-seater coach up there because Castle Haw Lane was clearly showing up on his satnav! (Castle Haw Lane is just about wide enough for a car).

It was 1.30 am before they all got settled down and yet they were up, fresh and raring to go at 9.30am on Thursday morning when they joined 30 Settlebeck students for series of rapid-fire drama games and activities designed to provide an intensive English language experience in just two and a half hours. By the time we were sitting down for lunch in Settlebeck’s dining room every Slovenian student had conversed with every English student and all had contributed to a series of Stuart Manger’s drama scenarios using English. Our visitors were using their school English vocabulary for real at last.

The English students showed their guests around Settlebeck school and then around the town in small groups. The six Slovenian teachers on this occasion included the headmaster of Zreče’s primary school (ages 7–14) and they too enjoyed the tours in warm, bright sunshine, it could almost have been a normal summer’s day.

On Friday it was time for the trip highlight for many of our visitors with a stadium tour of Old Trafford and the chance to experience the hallowed turf up close. For the last two years we’ve done the Liverpool stadium tour (because Man. Utd. was not available) but it’s really Man. Utd. they all wanted to see, being avid fans of the super-brand. Our tour enabled our visitors to sit in the directors’ box, sit in the players’ changing rooms and be photographed next their favourite player’s shirt (at Liverpool you get a fullsize cardboard cutout player to pose with) and to walk tantalisingly close to the perfectly manicured turf.

Once we’d visited the M&S sized Man. Utd. shop it was along to the Trafford Centre, that other temple to consumerism, but a memorable experience for our visitors who’ve never seen shopping on this scale.

Saturday was dedicated to more educational matters with some serious reflections on English and Scottish history at Carlisle castle and cathedral, followed by a visit to Housesteads Roman Fort on Hadrian’s Wall. Our visitors were able to reflect, while standing on the cold, windy and bleak wall, on the experience of the soldiers nearly 1800 years ago who’d made a journey of similar distance to themselves but on foot, and would return the same way.

Saturday evening a special event of music and dance was held at Settlebeck contrasting the two folk traditions courtesy of Caroline Francis and the Pepperpot primary instrumentalists, Settlebeck choir and Jenny Lamb, Robyn Lewis and Zoe Craven. Our Slovenian visitors provided a stunning example of their own folk tradition, still vital in the lives of their young people, with virtuoso accordion playing, guitar playing, singing and dance. Andrew Allan and Ian Hutt rounded off the evening with a scorching disco before the Slovenian party braved the rain to return to the barn.

Sunday was the final day and the Slovenian party had requested a visit to a coal mining area to complement a project they are working on contrasting coal mining in Slovenia, which was on a very small scale, with serious industrial mining in England. We therefore decided to try the Haig Colliery Mining Museum in Whitehaven which is seriously impressive. The mine had shafts 1000 feet deep and tunnels running 7 miles under the sea. We unfortunately got rather lost on the way there due to the coach satnav which failed to discriminate between the three Solway Roads in Whitehaven, but finally we stood high above the town, in the teeth of a gale, with panoramic views of a stormy sea. The huge engine rooms and winding gear towered above us and Tom the guide, who went down the pit at the age of 16 and worked there until it closed in 1986, provided much local colour and amazing tales of coal mining days. We left two hours later in pouring rain for a brief visit to Keswick before returning to Settlebeck for an indoor BBQ, courtesy of the Settlebeck PTFA. Games and a disco rounded off a wonderful four days in which Slovenian students and English students came together to forge new friendships and mutual understanding.

In February the whole of Settlebeck’s year 9 (37 students) will pay a return visit to Zreče where we will be with our friends again, this time for skiing, swimming in the spa and learning about their town and Slovenian culture. We can’t wait, but we’ll be flying!

Dave Smith

Zreče Firemen’s Choir Visit, 10–14 October 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Sedbergh Webadmin) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 19:52:00 +0000

Town twinning →Music October 2008

Zreče Fireman’s Choir Visit Sedbergh and Dent

Friday October 10 Collection Liverpool with David Collier taking bags to Sedbergh while I drove the Slovenes to Kendal where they met the current mayor Claire Feeney Johnson and also the former mayor Councillor Gwen Murfin who grew up at Thorns Bank in Sedbergh. We were also accompanied by Dr David and Jane Willis from the British Council who sing in my group, and came with us on our August tour of Slovenia – and on previous occasions have had many of the Slovenes for meals in their house – with on one occasion providing beds for twelve visiting language students from Slovenia. They welcomed us with tea, and allowed us to use their parking space which was very near to the Town Hall and proved to be invaluable for the elderly passengers who couldn’t walk so far.

THE MAYOR OF KENDAL

After a fascinating talk about Kendal’s history illustrated by the exhibits of various items of silver and gold, and speeches from Madam Mayor and myself, we were treated to a Famous Five-esque afternoon tea of cream and scones and lashing of lemonade . . . and wine – before tumbling out of the mayor’s parlour into the Kendal Beer Festival ’ which fascinated many of the Slovenes: Beer without Bubbles!

KENDAL FIRESTATION

Then up to the Kendal firestation where the Kendal men – including Garth’s son Brian – showed us their tools and gave us a tour of the firestation. When the Slovene men mentioned their 100-metre hoses, the Kendal crew opened the back of their state-of-the-art fire engine to show that they had one a kilometre long. Delightfully male!

FELL HOUSE

Then back as the sun set over the Lakeland fells to Sedbergh where Lucia and Anika and Susan Garnett had prepared a huge evening meal with meat from Garth’s butchery. Zdenka had assured us the Slovenian firemen wouldn’t mind sharing some of the double beds – but some of them were clearly grateful for the extra beds provided by Susan Garnett and Dave Collier, which I noticed had been moved into the bedrooms during their stay. The accommodation proved a great success with this group – not least because it has such a wonderful dining area upstairs – but I would be reluctant to use it with younger Slovene groups as it is so near other houses ’ and the youngsters stay up all night singing.

Some of the firemen took the opportunity for some late-night shopping at the Spar shop and then visited the pub where I introduced them to some of the Sedbergh people – some of whom they had already met. Stefan had been before and remembered meeting Pete Packham when the television show was being recorded.

Saturday October 11

MORE SHOPPING IN SEDBERGH

The firemen sing in Garth Steadman’s butchers shop.

We started with a tour down Sedbergh Main Street for some shopping and to see the sights – like our notice board which is the only one in Britain in both English and Slovene, visits to the Garth’s butchery and other shops.

BBC

Nigel Close very kindly let us use his shop as a venue for the BBC to ring us. They were doing a programme about the Slovenian choir visit via some friends of mine who work there. This went out live at 9.45am (we were due at the firestation at 10am which is why we did it at Nigel’s rather than at home) and included a short interview with myself followed by the choir singing. We were also made very welcome by Anika who works there (not my 22-month-old daughter – a different Anika.)

MORE FIREMEN

After a bit more shopping, we met the Sedbergh firemen at their station with more singing of Slovene firefighting songs (I particularly like Na Pomoc – which is their motto – a bit like the SAS ‘Who Dares Wins’ – only this means something between ‘Help Me’ and ‘One For All and All For One’.

GEORGE AND THE FARM VISIT

Singing in George Handley’s garden

Then back down Sedbergh Main Street for more shopping before going up to George’s for Yorkshire tea with scones and a farm visit with cows and farmer and sheep etc. George delighted the firemen with tales of his youth at The Hylands when it was a maternity hospital.

THE SLOVENE CONSUL FROM SCOTLAND

As we arrived back at Fell House, Ana Wersun arrived. I had met her a couple of times at the Slovenian embassy in London and also in Edinburgh when I have visited the Consulate, and I was so pleased when this charming lady had said she could come and join us. Ana’s husband was away on business in Slovenia (he is English) and the friend she was going to come with was ill ’ so she came on her own. But over another huge meal cooked by Lucia, Ana said this was the largest group of Slovenes she had been since she was last in Slovenia ’ talking to Lucia and myself in faultless German and English. (Ana has been very kind to us in arranging contacts with the mayor and tourism director in Bled where we are arranging a tour involving a concert on the famous island.)

The Firemen were very gallant and loved meeting Ana – it made them feel very at home in the same way as the Ambassador does when he meets our Slovene visitors – and the whole meal looked a bit like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, with Ana in the middle surrounded by 14 fearless firefighters. After a few songs and various toasts (and a quick dash to the shops for shopping by one or two firemen) we all piled into the minibus for our outing to Coniston.

CONISTON WATER AND THE GONDOLA CONCERT

The fireman sing on the steam yacht on Lake Coniston.

Arriving an hour early at Coniston, we did a walk up to the nearby Colwith Falls to sing by the waterfall which was a perfect warm-up for the concert on the Gondola.

The boat was full to bursting with all the audience and our singers and guests (George came too as did students from the Sedbergh Slovene language course – with the exception of Geoff and his wife who live in Coniston – ironically they were away in their second home in Slovenia that weekend!) The Union Jack flew proudly from the front of the boat – and the Slovenian flag from another mast at the rear – possibly the first time this flag has been flown on British waters.

We left straight after the concert as the men had to powder their noses and prepare for the Golf Club do (and do any last minute shopping in Sedbergh) – although one of them had lost a jacket which meant that we were about ten minutes late, but a very dramatic entrance with all the firemen bursting in, in their blazers and badges.

THE GOLF CLUB

And what a lovely meal – with all the flags and food and a top table as well for Ana the guest of honour – and the various Sedbergh dignitaries. Others will be writing much more extensively about this event but on behalf of the Zreče firemen I must say it was superb and all the effort that went into making it so special. We were very fortunate as well to have such a superb professional English group of singers join us who were very popular both with the Slovenes and English – people still stop me in the street and say how much they enjoyed their singing.

Five in a Bar sing at the golf club.

Five in a Bar sing another.

Even though Five in a Bar have made some very successful CDs and are very popular in the world of a cappella harmony singing, this professional group of singers said they would sing for our Slovene and English guests for just expenses rather than their usual fee – which was very generous of them and of course much appreciated.

Others who arranged this fantastic event will be much more qualified to report on the Golf Club supper than me ’ I just drove the Slovenes and made sure they got some translation – but I can only say how very special it was, and very much appreciated by our Slovene guests who were still talking about it when I met them in Zreče a few weeks later.

I took the men back to Sedbergh when the evening was finished (no chance even for late night shopping as only the pubs were open) and Ana back to Oakdene, and the following morning she joined the men at the church before motoring back to Edinburgh.

Sunday October 12

LUNCH WITH THE PARISH COUNCIL – AND MANY THANKS

While I rehearsed in Dent for our tour of Slovenia with the English folk choir Voice Male, who had effectively paid for one of the previous groups of Slovene singers from Zreče (the women family singers Pevke iz Brinjeve Gore) when they stayed together for our singing weekend at the Howgills Bunk barn last year, the Slovene firemen went to church in Sedbergh followed by a meal at the White Hart Social Club, kindly provided by Vic Hopkins and the Parish Council – I was elsewhere during this meal but on behalf of the Zreče visitors can I pass on their excessive thanks for such kindness and hospitality.

DENT – SLOVENE SONG WORKSHOP AND CONCERT

I collected the Firemen after their meal and we went on to Dent where they taught some of their songs to about 50 singers before joining the two English male-voice choirs – Voice Male and the Greater Manchester Police Male Voice Choir.

Voice Male sing Dent.

The Dent Memorial Hall was full to bursting with local people, visiting singers, visitors who came for the weekend to be near the firemen . . . as well as all the Police Choir and friends who were so prolific they all came in a huge coach from Manchester.

Dennis Whicker was the MC, and told the story about how he was travelling down Dentdale when he came across the police coach stuck in the road causing a traffic jam. So he got out and directed the traffic to get them free – commenting that this was probably the first time a civilian had been needed to direct the police, rather than the other way round. Other stories followed and if the police force were ever looking for a good PR exercise , Dennis and the Police Choir provided it with their goodwill, humour and generosity.

THE POLICE CHOIR AND THE NATIONAL ANTHEM

The Police Choir had asked if they could sing the national anthem but said they would only do it if the Slovene choir sang their’s too. This seemed very fair – but in the event when they sang the British national anthem about a quarter of the audience didn’t stand up – although of course all the Slovene visitors did – as you would expect!

This encouraged a lot of discussion afterwards about how many people won’t stand up for an anthem which encourages aggressive invasion of weaker nations and militariasm (send her victorious,) and an anachronistic praise of ruling over us – as one woman who remained seated said, ‘I don’t want her to rule over me’. Many felt that the anthem – and indeed nationalism itself – has been hijacked by the political right and they didn’t want to lend their support to it. This is partly because many of the British singers come from pacifist, humanist, democratic and sometimes anarchistic community choirs (see http://carnival-of-anarchy.blogspot.com/2007/12/monty-pythons-anarcho-syndicalist.html) where the political meaning of the songs we sing is seen to be very important.

But the entire hall did stand up for the Slovene anthem with its overtly pacific theme and the declaration of international brotherhood. As I am sure you all know, the anthem is the seventh verse of France Prešeren’s drinking song The Toast, or Zdravljica. The rest of the song is in praise of wine, comrades and beautiful women, but the seventh verse translates as ‘God’s blessings on all nations who long and pray for that bright day when over Earth’s habitation no war, no strife, shall hold its sway; who long to see, that all people free, no more shall foes . . . but neighbours be’.

Greater Manchester Police Male Voice Choir

GARSDALE STREET BAND CEILIDH

Dancing to the Garsdale Street Band – spot the Slovenian firemen.

After the concert we moved the tables around, had another of Lucia’s 100-people meals, and then the Garsdale Street Band with the steps called out in English by Clare Pope, took us into a ceilidh.

We thought at first that we might need to provide translation – but in fact it wasn’t needed. Most of the older men who didn’t speak any English didn’t dance much, some of the younger ones spoke enough English anyway, and all the rest followed the others. It was probably the first time there’d been a ceilidh in Dent where there were more men than women. Various people helped take the elderly visitors home to their beds – and the rest of us cleared up and went home with several gallons of goulash still to eat!

Monday October 13

After some more shopping down Sedbergh Main Street with much discussion about the best place to buy souvenirs here, we went to the primary school where we have taken Slovene choirs on five previous occasions.

PRIMARY SCHOOL

I had been teaching the boys and girls in Sedbergh Primary School a couple of Slovene children’s songs and they sang them beautifully – although they were getting a little wild during rehearsals so I had some worries. I think the sight of so many firemen made them more disciplined.

They then sang the firemen a couple of what appeared to be humanist hymns singing the praises of the best of human nature. The men were in tears, as much from the quality of the children’s voices as from the singing of their native tongue and the meaning of the English songs translated for them by Zdenka.

The Firemen also sang a couple of their songs, one of which was a love song about a woman who thinks the men are coming to her pub to see her, but in fact they come for the beer – which Zdenka translated as: ’This song is about a girl who looks in a mirror and thinks she is very pretty and how nice that is!’

We had arrived at the school three quarters of an hour early but headteacher Maggie Cullen took it in her stride and took us round to visit all the classrooms – the firemen were fascinated. After the assembly we all gathered in the staff room and I mentioned a project which Linda Livesey had suggested over a year ago – for the children to write to the Zreče children and make some pen friends. The teachers were all enthusiastic – and it was arranged that I would pick the children’s letters up later the following night at the only place in town which would be open when I returned from teaching an evening class: The Bull. (I was leaving for Slovenia the following morning with the English choir before anything else would be open in town.)

HOWGILLS BUNK BARN – AND LUNCH WITH THE CLOSES

Firemen sing Howgills Bunk Barn

Firemen sing Settle

Settle voices sing to the Slovenes

Then there was more shopping in Sedbergh, before getting to the bunk barn where Nigel kindly had made them all lunch which was wonderful – and very much appreciated.

SETTLE VOICES

We arrived in Settle just in time for our concert and meeting with the 40 singers of Settle Voices – many of whom are of the same age as the firemen, and some of whom came with my groups to Slovenia or met the Slovenes at singing events in Sedbergh. A lovely crowd of Yorkshire men and women, who treated the Slovenes like old friends and provided an enormous afternoon tea which most of them had baked themselves. The hall had the flag with St George’s cross on it on the wall and the firemen asked why it was there. They were fascinated to learn how the Union Jack is composed of the different flags of the United Kingdom.

RIBBLEHEAD AND DENTDALE

Finally (after a little shopping to get what can’t be bought in Sedbergh) we headed off towards Dentdale. We had been told to be there for 6.30pm but I knew that Ron never opens his pub before 7pm – and never opens for anyone who turns up early. So we delayed our arrival by visiting the Ribblehead viaduct and railway museum where they talk about other firemen – those who shovelled coal onto the furnaces of trains running the line.

Tony the Ribblehead station master and railway museum curator came out to greet us and brought us all tea and made us very welcome even though they were meant to be shut – and everyone was delighted when Patricia, Tony’s wife, appeared wtih some more cake: she had been singing with the Slovenes in Settle along with Settle Voices.

We arrived at the Sportsman’s Inn half an hour after we were scheduled to arrive – but as I thought the pub was just opening and we were the first to arrive, so the men settled in by the fires and made themselves comfy, and an hour later everyone else arrived – and a bit later singers from as far away as Kentmere and Ulverston came and gave their voices to the evening, even picking up some Slovene songs like Majolca, a love song to the wine bottle, and Kol’ko Kaplic, a toasting song wishing everyone as many years in their life as there are drops of wine in the glass.

Many of our groups have sung before at the Sportman’s Inn (and will be again on the evening of December 6 for the Slovene and English folk carols weekend) but out of courtesy I of course asked Sandra if it was alright if we sang there to which she replied, ‘Oh, you don’t need to ask that David – your singers are always welcome here’. They have a licence which allows singing in all the rooms of the pub – including the outside toilets!

MANY THANKS TO THE TOWN TWINNING COMMITTEE – AND EVERYONE WHO HELPED

The evening meal was very kindly paid for by the Town Twinning Committee – as was the Golf club meal – and featured the famous Garth Steadman sausages which inspired many hours of discussion amongst the firemen as to their ingredients – and one fireman asked if on some future occasion when I come to in Zreče I could bring him some of these sausages, such was his enthusiasm.

We finished at 9.30pm, some late night packing and then back to the Fell House to pack and depart the following morning, with a very kind lift provided by Susan Garnett for the bags, and a farewell from George and dog Jessie who had walked down from The Hylands to see the firemen off.

Tuesday October 14

We had left ourselves plenty of time as a traffic jam on the M6 would have ruined what was by then a perfect visit – so our early depature meant that there was no final opportunity for any more shopping in Sedbergh (at 7am there are sadly very few shops open anyway!)

As a result we arrived at Liverpool over an hour early and so visited the huge Morrison’s store near the airport for coffee, and last minute buying of anything which might not have been available to buy on the many shopping expeditions in Sedbergh. As a result, everyone got their flights in time, and arrived back in Zreče by evening time full of wonderful memories of Sedbergh and the good people who live here.

Once again on behalf of the Slovene visitors, many thanks to everyone who helped – and especially the kind generosity of the Town Twinning Committee and the Parish Council.

POSTSCRIPT – AND APPENDICES

I was in Zreče the following week and complete stangers came up to me in the street with tears in their eyes and shook my hand and gave me gifts – these strangers were mostly elderly people related or married to the firemen.

In terms of the sheer goodwill between our two towns the event could not have been more successful – even without the presence of our guest of honour, whom I also met on a couple of occasions in Zreče.

BORIS PODVRSNIK, MAYOR OF ZREČE

Boris was very charming and friendly – he is a hard working mayor who cares deeply about the well-being of his town – while we were there he was supervising the building of a new road (or rather a newer dirt road) above Skomarje.

Boris has appointed Zdenka as director of Town Twinning in Zreče which has made her very proud and he has approved funding for the following year for the twinning to continue.

It’s unfortunate Boris’ mother is so ill – many friends in Zreče told me about how her health has been deteriorating recently, otherwise he would have come to Sedbergh. He has always been very welcoming to our many groups who visit Zreče – and I am sure his absence was not meant in any way to be an insult to the people of Sedbergh. He was very pleased that we had looked after his father so well during his visit to Sedbergh, and is genuinely fond of us here.

IZTOK MIROŠIČ, SLOVENIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE UK

The Slovenian Ambassador, His Excellency Iztok Mirošič, and his wife, the cultural attaché Tina Kokalj, contacted me on my return from Slovenia to apologise for their absence. They had both tried very hard to come to Sedbergh and we had his secretary ringing us on several occasions to try and arrange trains, or flights, or road travel to be with us in time.

But the state visit of the Queen to Ljubljana and the Ambassador’s end of term at the embassy meant that he had not been able to get time off. He has visited us on two occasions – which given the distance from London is far more than we could hope for. His encouragement for our language students and singers and our cultural exchanges has always been of the greatest help, and that he tried at all to come at this busy juncture in his career is, I think, a sign of how highly our twinning efforts are valued by the diplomatic representatives of our two countries.

He rang me up and at first left a message on my answerphone which I transcribe here:

“Hello David

I feel very sorry that I wasn’t able to come to Sedbergh – it was my great wish to come, but as you know we were in the middle of a state visit of her Majesty to Slovenia and at the same time we were in the middle of moving house which is quite an annoying thing, as you can imagine.

I just wanted to talk to you, to thank you for all your excellent cooperation, and also the people from Sedbergh, and I hope that you will pass to them my wife Tina’s and my best regards – we hope one day that we will be able to come and see you again. If you do have time, you can call me as I would like to talk to you before we leave Britain. We had a marvellous four years here in the UK – we are very satisfied and we are very pleased that we met such lovely people like you and the people from Sedbergh. Thank you very much and bye bye.”

TIM SIMMONS, BRITISH AMBASSADOR IN SLOVENIA

I have also been in touch recently with His Excellency Tim Simmons, the British Ambassador in Slovenia, and had invited him to our concerts in Zreče, and asked if our choir and the Slovenian choir we were visiting in Ljubljana led by Igor Velepic could sing to Her Majesty in Ljubljana during her visit there on Tuesday and Wednesday morning. He wrote a very charming reply:

“Dear Mr Burbidge,

Thank you very much for your email about your choir’s visit to Slovenia. I am glad that the twinning relationship with Zreče continues to go well. I know that Ambassador Mirošič greatly enjoys his association with Sedburgh.

It is a nice coincidence that Voice Male will be In Slovenia at the same time as the Queen’s visit. Your offer to sing at the reception was very kind and a performance would have been highly appropriate, if only we had been able to factor it in earlier. I am very sorry to say however that every aspect of the visit has been carefully laid out for some weeks and that it is just not possible to reopen the programme at this stage. You would not believe (or perhaps you would!) how much preparation goes into a visit like this and there is no longer scope for changes.

I have one thought to leave with you and Mr Velepic. You may be interested to know that The Queen will walk through Prešeren Square at around 1430 on the afternoon of 22 October, from the Triple Bridge towards the Hotel Grand Union. We expect quite a crowd. Perhaps there is scope for you to sing an impromptu song or two while the people are waiting?

Thank you also for your invitation that someone from the Embassy attend one of your concerts during the choir’s visit. At any other time, I or a colleague would have loved to come along. We have had several British choir trips here in the past few years and they are always great fun. This time, I fear, the State Visit will completely fill our calendar. The advance party will be here before your choir arrives and the visit will end on the 23rd. So throughout the time of your visit we will have our hands full. I am sorry we cannot take proper advantage of your visit. I wish you a successful trip nevertheless. You will know from previous visits how warm Slovenian hospitality is.

With Best Wishes

Tim Simmons

Tim Simmons | HM Ambassador | British Embassy |

See the writeup of the Voice Male singing trip to Slovenia

Lep pozdrav iz Farfielda – in ostani zdrav.

David Burbidge

Voice Male Visit to Slovenia

noreply@blogger.com (Sedbergh Webadmin) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 15:57:00 +0000

Town twinning →Music October 2008 – Voice Male Visit to Slovenia

Male Voice Choir Voicemale Visit to Slovenia with David Burbidge

Sedbergh singers joined the male voice folk choir Voicemale for a tour of Slovenia where they were all hailed with great affection in Zreče, Ljubljana and Crni Vrh – meeting with singers everywhere they went. The visitors were especially welcome at a party thrown by the Firemen’s Choir in Zreče who had sung with them in Dent, and later with Zreče’s Pevke iz Brinjeve Gore and Zbor Jurij Vodovnik. On a visit to Zreče school they sang with the pupils and taught them to play conkers. They also visited the Ljubljana Waldorf school and sang at Celica hostel and in Crni Vrh.

Our week-long tour of Slovenia with the male voice folk choir Voicemale (that followed the Zreče firemen’s visit to Sedbergh) was a huge success – even though we didn’t sing on Bled island this time or do a concert in Celje that Oktet leader Gregor Deleja had promised us.

PRIMARY SCHOOL

We took the letters from the primary school to the Zreče primary school (see Zreče Firemen’ visit to Sedbergh where Jolanda, the assistant head, promised to make sure the children replied. We met various old friends and teachers in the corridors of the school including Peter who has been to Sedbergh several times, and Magda who has welcomed us into her home opposite the Skomarska Hisa on several occasions, and Vanja who is Jože’s daughter from Medved.

The children sang to the English male voice choir, and then the men sang to them and taught them an English folk song (Bound Away) – and then taught them how to play conkers, with several shining English horse chestnuts already strung and ready (and primed for one to break after a few hits!)

CONCERTS, WORKSHOPS, DANCES

We did concerts with the Zreče choir in Zreče and in Slovenske Konjice, a workshop in Zreče where we taught English folk songs and dances (accompanied by English concertina from one of the lads) and learnt Slovene songs (accompanied by the Slovenian piano accordion played by our friend Peter), sang in three masses in Skomarje, Zreče and Slovenske Konjice, had a day long picnic and singing event with the women singers Pevke iz Brinjeve Gore – and several walks to the Brinjeve Gore (where I am singing in a few weeks time at Christmas) and my favourite walk where I led them down from Skomarje via the Altmans and Rozmans farms.

AT THE FIRESTATION

The most festive night was the last night in Zreče where we met up with the firemen and guests in the firestation for a huge party with meal and singing and speeches and dancing and music.

Inspired by the Sedbergh golf club do they had all the flags out – including the English St George’s flag – and a top table where I had to sit – although I don’t like this kind of arrangement, much preferring the camaraderie of circular seating.

And then in the middle of the party a man walked in with a gun – but he’s greeted with cheers because this is Marjan the policeman who came to Sedbergh with the firemen. It was of course wonderful to see him again, though this was the first time I had been to a singing event where one of the singers was armed – I was very careful not to sing out of tune!

As the party was ending someone called out that it was the former mayor Jože Košir’s birthday, so about 80 of us drove across town to Jože’s house (less than a mile!)

We crept round the side of the house in that idiosyncratic way that only 80 drunken people can creep, and at the back door rang his bell . . . bursting into song as he opened it – Happy Birthday in two languages with Kol’ko Kaplic and several other songs too. Jože’s family came out with wine and boroničevec for us all and he made a couple of very fine speeches translated by Zdenka and greeted with cheers from the men.

FRANKOLOVA WAR MEMORIAL PERFORMANCE

A more sober gathering was when we sang songs of war and peace at the war memorial opposite the Frankolova museum commemorating the 100 partisans butchered by the Nazis in World War Two. The Slovene Veterans joined us and our songs were accompanied by Northumberland bagpipes in memory the gallant men from all our different countries who have died in these terrible conflicts (who of course we remember today with silence.) One of the songs was an arrangement of an A.E. Houseman poem reflecting on the solders going off to the Boer war.

LJUBLJANA AND THE QUEEN

After five days in Zreče we stayed one night in Ljubljana – by coincidence the same night as the Queen was visiting. We visited the Steiner school where my friend Igor Velepic works (he came to Sedbergh last Wednesday and taught a Slovene song to our choir which you will probably hear at the Carols Concert in December.)

We split up into smaller groups so that several classes could have some English input which included showing the concertina and pipes to the music classes, teaching English rounds to some of the classes, showing them an English puzzle (“Which my father had shown to me” as one man put it), reading some English poems, and joining English conversation with the Slovene English language students (several of our singers are former teachers so this was like a walk down memory lane for them).

After lunch in the school, we went and sang to the Queen under Prešeren’s statue, did some sightseeing, and came back for our concert in the school described as an ‘English Evening’ in the advertising – with poems, and songs and instrumental breaks – very pleasant.

CELICA AND THE ETHNIC MUSIC NIGHT

Then back to Celica hostel where we were staying – where we met my friend Janko Rožič who saved the hostel from being demolished when it was still a prison and using various artists and architects designed this astonishing building. All the rooms are different – one has a glass floor with little statues underneath looking up plaintively at you (rather unnerving when you’re undressing) another is like a Swiss chalet, another like a Mosque. On Tuesday nights they have their regular ethno music night (which is why we were there on a Tuesday) and we sang a concert before the band Triplec came on – and then the men joined the band with their instruments for a display of international harmony at its best. As with the Scots, these music sessions start late and finish early in the morning – which is why we were pleased to be staying upstairs in the hostel. We also met the Slovenian/Macedonian group Pella who came to Sedbergh last December and who were very pleased to see us.

THE CRNI VRH MALE VOICE CHOIR

Our last day was spent with the male voice choir from Crni Vrh (a farming community in Idrija where the lace comes from) whom I had met in Zreče when they were performing there in April.

They arranged everything for us č even paid for our accommodation! Just before their leader Veronika arrived we were taken to a chapel high in the hills where like Bled they have a bell you can ring and make a wish. I did this – and then Veronika came running out from the trees. Quite typical of these charming, thoughtful and fun-filled young people!

Our concert that night was the best of the tour – over 200 people filling the hall including some friends who had driven over from Trieste to hear us. We performed alongside the Slovene choir, and did stories and poems and I did my Les Barker monologue ‘Clifftop Picnic’ – all translated for us. Then we all sang a Slovene song together and were given gifts by the choir – one woman had stayed up all night knitting us woollen hats!

Then back to our accommodation for a slap-up meal with more singing – and speeches and dancing and a scratch band with trumpets and bagpipes and general melodious merriment.

Although on the rest of the tour I had a single room (as is always available for those who would like one on my tours) because we were being given the accommodation I felt it would have rude to make it happen on this last night. So of course the other men put me in the room with the two loudest snorers in the choir (and possibly in Europe). I slept that night on the balcony, very comfortably, but had to shut the window to keep the noise IN!

A FAREWELL TO FARMS

We left the farms of Crni Vrh in the early morning and finished our tour at lunchtime with some more singing under Prešeren’s statue in Ljubljana, recorded by the local television with interviews, and then it was back to the airport and home to England.

A wonderful couple of weeks – and I still have several miles of video if anyone knows what to do with it.

Lep pozdrav iz Farfielda – in ostani zdrav.

David Burbidge