When I took over the management of the project I decided that as the stories were to be aimed at 10 to 11 year olds I would first approach Greenfields Junior School in the village to see if the school was interested in becoming involved. The Head Teacher was very keen not only to have the children write the stories but was also hopeful that there would be continued links between the school and our two twinning partners. I was invited to speak to the children. I spoke to the whole school about the history of our twinning with St Savin and Malle and also told them about the whole Golden Bridge Project. I then spoke to the older pupils, those aged 10 and 11, and asked them to write two stories for the project. They were most enthusiastic. Through research on local history I decided that there had to be a story about the oak trees that are such a feature of our village. There was also an article in the parish magazine distributed to all houses by St John's Church that I felt could be the basis of another story. I gave the children the basic facts about the two stories, introduced them to Twin and Twan and left it up to them and of course their teachers. The pupils worked on their stories in groups and the two best stories were chosen.

This project has been most successful in making a wide group of people aware of twinning. This has been achieved in the following ways:

1. The involvement of the local school both short and long term
2. Talking to people at the village festival who gave me lots of local knowledge and stories for me to choose from
3. Contact with the local Preservation Society
4. Involvement of local people involved in one of the stories - in particular the lady who owns the tortoise featured in the story.

For me the greatest success has been the chance to involve pupils at the school who are the twinners of the future.

Gerda Bennett
Project Manager- Heritage