Author: Brian Smedley

For the third time this year we’ve hosted the ladies of the Akropolis family centres in Uherske Hradiste and Kromeriz. Dagmar, Natalie, Marie and Ivana. Linking up for a full weeks job shadowing at […]

Bridgwater’s link with Priverno is going from strength to strength and this week it was the turn of Mayor Steve Austen to pay his first visit to the hilltop Italian town with a small […]

Bridgwater is incredibly fortunate to be twinned with the French Mediterranean  town of La Ciotat. Apart from both once having a bit of industry there’s not a right lot in common. However, this ‘jumelage’ […]

The thing about Community Choirs is they’re a great way to bring people together and break down cultural barriers.  Even better probably than the football trips we do where players of different nations kick seven […]

The heatwave that had swept England had come to an end and the birth of the Royal baby had coincided with a lightning strike on Manchester railway station. What better time to get away […]

In June 1992 Bridgwater and Uherske Hradiste became the first British and Czech towns to twin in the wake of the Velvet Revolution. Since then we’ve had 21 years of happy twinning together. And […]

It was like a scene from a Biblical epic. Or at least one of the better performances by the great Leeds United squad of the 1960’s. After 5 years of defeat after defeat at […]

For many years we’ve taken singers from Somerset to far flung destinations to sing with people of many Nations. This autumn we took a group of singers from several choirs scattered along the A303 […]

A few years back we made contact with the Italian town of Priverno in the Lazio region just South of Rome when we met their people in Uherske Hradiste, their and our Czech twin […]

A few years back, natural voice practitioner Yvette Staelens founded the Voice of the People Choir at the Bridgwater Arts Centre to help people find the singing voice that she believes everyone has inside […]