The special relationship between the UK and the United States was further cemented with a unique tie-up between two Mayors who each have a foot in both camps.

Dave Naghi, the Mayor of Maidstone, was born in America and still holds American citizenship.

Greg Skinner was born in Kensington, London, but moved to America as a child. He stills holds British citizenship, though he is now the Mayor-elect of a borough called Peapack-Gladstone in New Jersey, due to take office on January 1.

Cllr Naghi said: "It's an amazing co-incidence because Greg lives in New Jersey just a few miles from where I was born."

Mr Skinner makes frequent trips back to England to visit friends and relatives. He first met the Mayor of Maidstone several years ago - at a Maidstone United football match.

Cllr Naghi said: "A mutual friend realised we shared an American connection and introduced us. Since then we have stayed in touch."

Mr Skinner's borough with its population of only 2,854 is rather smaller than Maidstone - population 170,240. Its name Peapack derives from a Native American word meaning "marriage of the waters" while the Gladstone is named after the British prime minister William Gladstone.

Mr Skinner, a retired policeman, was given the full civic treatment on his visit to the Town Hall - and presented with a map of the borough drawn by Boughton Monchelsea artist Graham Clarke.

The two Jersey boys then went on tour of the borough - at the Mayor's own personal expense - visiting the Hush Heath Winery in Staplehurst, inspecting an historic Second World War Dakota airplane from Headcorn Aerodrome and ending up having tiffin at Allington Castle.

The two Mayors are hoping their two boroughs might form official twinning links in future.

Cllr Naghi said: "Greg had a good visit, but I felt I had to remind him that I was the only one of the two of us who could become President of the United States!"

(The Americans require their President to have been born in the country.)