Lord Mayor Mark Lygo joined a Mad Hatter’s tea party to mark the 75th anniversary of Oxford’s longest-running twin city link.

Oxford and the Dutch university city of Leiden were joined in 1946 as Europe sought to build friendships among countries immediately after the Second World War.

The Lord Mayor, accompanied by his escort and mother, Eva Emmett, in a garden at Begbroke, near Woodstock, praised the long history of the link in front of 25 members and friends, some of whom wore a colourful array of hats and costumes.

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Before cutting the anniversary cake, he said he hoped to go to Leiden twice before his term of office ends – to an anniversary tree planting in October and to the Dutch Remembrance Day next May. John Chipperfield, chairman of the Oxford-Leiden Link, said: “We’ve had only two events this year, both online, and we were pleased to be able to organise one outdoors.”