Almelo is Preston’s oldest twin town and is situated in eastern Holland in the region known as Twente. The link was established in 1948 and was largely based on a shared heritage in textile manufacturing. Almelo’s cotton industry has now largely disappeared but it retains a number of similarities with Preston as a market town with a large agricultural hinterland. Like Preston the 1970’s saw industry dwindling and factories were relocating to cheaper labour countries. Some factories remain in the city centre and have been converted into apartments and offices. But the regeneration goes much further than this. The design of the library‘ the water board building and the law courts give the town an image of quality. On the outskirts of the town is Almelo Centraal where the district courts are now situated and an impressive factory complex originally dating from 1915 called Twente Centrum serves managed workspaces.

Urenco Nederland operates a uranium enrichment plant producing uranium for nuclear reactors and is a major employer in the town as is PANalytical (formerly Philips) and the Cirex foundry.

The town is central to a population of 200‘000 and provides education and hospitals as well as many hotels and restaurants. The markets‘ shops and department stores attract people from a wide area and there is an annual fair and other major event. The town hosts the Theaterhotel ‘ Hof88 and Preston Palace Entertainment complex (in honour of their twin town of Preston)‘ where visitors can see the Opera and other musical productions‘ hear Chamber Music or go to one of the many discos and cafes offering live entertainment and dancing. Hof88 contains the towns Arts Lending Library‘ the Music School and Creative Centre as well as offering regularly changing exhibitions in the Art Gallery. Galerie het Groenveld is a centre for the contemporary arts where many smaller galleries can be found. The town is decorated with a growing number of sculptures and art decorations‘ one of which is a striking series of mosaics decorating the walls of the Wierdenseestraat tunnel. Each mosaic is based on a story from a regional novel.

Almelo is the central town in the eastern part of the Netherlands and is easily accessible by train‘ boat‘ car and bus. Bisecting Twente is the A1 which brings both the conurbations to the west of the Netherlands and Germany within easy reach. The railway connects east and west and there is a direct connection to Schiphol airport running hourly. Twente airport is also less than half an hour away. For those who fancy sailing into town‘ Almelo can be reached using a branch of the Twente canal or the Overijssel canal. There are bus stations next to the railway station and in the centre of town linking with all the town districts and further afield.

A wide range of sports are available in Almelo with the sports halls and fields being kept busy. The local football team ‘Heracles‘ (2007) are currently playing in the Dutch Eredivisie which is the highest league in the Netherlands. Almelo is the birth place of Kea Bouman (1903-1998) who is the only Dutch female tennis player to win a grand slam title.

A couple more notables who were born in the town are Wubbo Ockels who was the first Dutchman in space working on the Spacelab 1 mission. He also has a planetoid orbiting between Mars and Jupiter after him. Azra Akin was born in Almelo and won the Miss World title in 2002 but sadly for the Netherlands she was representing Turkey.

Links:
www.almelo.nl	The official Dutch language site for Almelo.
www.jumelage-almelo.nl	The Almelo twinning web site.

Contact in Almelo:

metameijer@home.nl