AMESBURY — After a personal trip across the pond to visit Amesbury’s twin city, Mayor Kassandra Gove is hoping to strengthen the relationship between the two communities even further.
Gove visited Amesbury, England, on Aug. 5, stopping for a day during her travels to the United Kingdom to reunite with Amesbury, England, Mayor Monica Devendran and engage with townspeople.
Gove’s visit to England comes shortly after Devendran and her family visited Massachusetts in July.
While Gove’s visit was short, her schedule was jam-packed with activities, including visiting Stonehenge and signing a twinning agreement.
Gove’s day in Amesbury, England, began with interviews for BBC television and radio before touring Stonehenge, where she marveled at the enormity of the monument.
“They’re so impressive. They’re way bigger than I could have imagined,” she said.
Gove attended the opening of a local Men’s Shed, a space that is part of a men’s mental health initiative in England. She also had her name attached to a plaque to commemorate the occasion.
“It’s just like a safe space for them. It’s a full workshop, so there’s people there who are highly skilled, and they provide the training and then there is people learning,” she said.
Gove said she was able to find similarities between the two Amesburys during her visit despite them being thousands of miles apart.
“Because of their landscape with Stonehenge and things like that, they do feel like they’re surrounded by plains and open space. Which is actually very familiar to us,” she said.
After a day’s worth of activities, Gove and Devendran took part in the main event, the signing of the twinning agreement between the two communities. A twinning agreement is a nonbinding social contract to help boost tourism, promote peace and exchange cultures.
Gove said the ceremony was impactful, with the local band playing both countries’ national anthems and the mayors making the twinning relationship official.
“The ceremony was incredible. We were on the last people to leave the room. We were just talking to lots of folks, everyone had great questions about town and we shared a lot about Amesbury,” she said.
Now, with both mayors’ trips in the books, Gove said she and Devendran hope to continuing fostering the relationship between their communities and are forming a joint committee on the matter.
Gove said she hopes the committee will make it easier for residents of either Amesbury to visit their twin across the pond.
“We’ll have a small group of people to talk about the twinning in general and what we want to be able to accomplish together,” she said.
Gove said as she looks to the future, she hopes Amesbury residents will take the time to learn more about Amesbury, England.
“I’m hoping that people show an interest, that they learn more about Amesbury, they learn more about Stonehenge so we can honor our namesake in a few new and important ways, and that this will be the start of something really special,” she said.