There was a toe-tapping start to a weekend of events organised in Llanbedr with songs from the Cambrian Coast Community Choir.

Alongside the village’s annual beer festival on Friday and Saturday, 20 and 21 September, the choir gave a performance to celebrate the visit of a group from Huchenfeld in Germany who had come to Llanbedr to celebrate the twinning of their town with the village.

Following the choir was harpist Erin Lloyd, and then there was a lively Skype session with people in Huchenfeld.

Their Harmonica Band provided a humorous interlude before local photographer Mari Wyn Lloyd discussed her degree project, documenting the life of the farming community in Cwm Nantcol. Her gritty black and white photographs of the region were stunning.

Afterwards there was a chance to look at the various stands in the hall including a local history display, a Llanbedr-Huchenfeld stand, garments knitted by two groups who meet in the hall weekly, displays by the Yoga and Tai Chi teachers, a Welsh learners’ corner, and cakes decorated by Beti Miller who also made a fabulous rocking horse cake complete with a model of Hoffnung, the little rocking horse given to Huchenfeld Kindergarten in 1994 as a token of reconciliation after the horrendous events that took place in Huchenfeld at the end of the Second World War.

Back in 1945, Wing Commander John Wynne of Llanbedr was flying over the Huchenfeld area when his plane was hit and caught fire. Thinking he was over Allied territory, and knowing that the plane was likely to explode within 20 minutes, John Wynne instructed his crew to bail out.

His men parachuted out but they were, in fact, over a German controlled area. They were captured by a group of Nazis who shot five of the crew in the church in Huchenfeld. Two men managed to escape. Against all the odds, and on his own, John Wynne succeeded in getting his damaged aircraft back to England.

Years later, Dr Curt-Jürgen Heinemann-Grüder, a Lutheran pastor and former army officer who retired to Huchenfeld, became aware of the incident and resolved to place a plaque where the airmen had been killed. The plaque appeared in 1992 on the wall of the church, and when John Wynne heard about it, in the spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation, he had a rocking horse - Hoffnung - made in Wales and, in the name of the mothers of 214 Squadron, gave it to the Kindergarten in Huchenfeld. Hoffnung celebrated her 25th birthday this summer, as every year, with a box of carrots!