We're twinned ?

A Devon town is considering links with America after a man visited to mark 25 years of a twinning local officials said they knew nothing about. David Riley travelled to Bideford from Manteo, in North Carolina, with a clock to officially mark years of friendship between the two towns.

Bideford deputy mayor David Ratcliff said there had been links between the towns, but no official twinning. He said the town hoped to reciprocate Mr Riley's gift in the future. Although Mr Riley said Manteo even had a sign proclaiming that it is twinned with Bideford, town dignitaries said nothing was ever made official.

But Mr Ratcliff said that informal links between the two towns had been discovered. "In the mayor's parlour we have a plate which was presented to somebody from these good people in Manteo," he said. "I can only assume back in the 1980s, that there might well have been some form of proclamation of civil friendship which was never formalised."

Mr Ratcliff said it meant Mr Riley's gift could not be officially reciprocated, but that it might be in the future. "It perhaps sounds a little mean and somewhat embarrassing as they had gone to great effort. But from the town council's point of view, because it is not a formalised arrangement, we couldn't actually give a gift in return. Hopefully, that is something that we can rectify in the future," he said.

Bideford is officially twinned with Landivisiau in France.