Come and see our golf balls.

That's the invitation from Dartmouth's namesake town in Massachusetts as it prepares to push the boat out to celebrate its 350th birthday.

Dartmouth USA visitors due to arrive here later this year will get to visit Stonehenge, the Britannia Royal Naval College and Dartmouth's historic castle during their five-day stay.

And they are inviting a party from Dartmouth UK back across the Atlantic next year to take part in their anniversary celebration – and visit their golf ball factory.

The Massachusetts town is so proud of its Titleist golf ball factory – which is one of the biggest operations of its kind in the world, turning out almost a million top quality golf balls a day – that it wants the UK visitors to take a tour as part of their birthday visit.

Dartmouth town councillors were told about the invitation as they met to discuss the US visit in September this year ahead of next year's celebrations when the USA town will be marking the 350th anniversary of its foundation in 1664.

The town's general purposes committee chairman Felicity Smith said the US town was anxious to sort out just how many UK Dartmothians would be making a visit next year.

'They also want to know if the delegation would like to visit where the Titleist golf balls are made.'

The US Titleist Ball Plant II is sited in North Dartmouth and is run by the Massachusetts-based Acushnet Company which is a subsidiary of the South Korean golf equipment company Fila.

Dartmouth Town Council has already organised one meeting to see who would be interested in making the trip to the USA and is aiming to set up another.

As well as golf ball factory, the Americans are also asking if the visiting party from Dartmouth UK would be interested in taking a tour of a nearby fishing port at New Bedford, a look over the local trolley transport, a visit to the Plymouth Plantation living history museum and the historic old State House in Boston.

They UK party are also being invited to attend the Dartmouth Pride Parade which will be taking place as part of the foundation celebrations.

Around 30 visitors from the US town will be turning up on September 9 when they touch down at Heathrow and visit Stonehenge on the way to Dartmouth.

Their draft itinerary is likely to include a trip on the Dart – possibly in the historic paddle steamer Kingswear Castle – as well as the trip around the BRNC and a visit to the town museum and castle.

The Americans are also keen to visit Dartmouth Academy, with the aim of possibly setting up links with schools in Dartmouth USA.

Dartmouth was settled in 1650 by Quakers trying to get away from the 'Founding Father' Puritans of Plymouth who had turned up on the Mayflower in 1620.

The land for the town was bought from the local native Indians for 30 yards of cloth, eight moose skins, 15 axes, 15 hoes, 15 pairs of shoes, one iron pot and 10 shillings worth of assorted goods.

The new town of Dartmouth was officially incorporated in 1664.

With a population of more than 34,000, modern day Dartmouth Massachusetts is almost five times the size of Devon's Dartmouth.

Over recent decades, the two Dartmouths have maintained fairly informal links.

A party from the US town visited here just over a decade ago and a Dartmouth UK contingent of around a dozen people – including the then mayor, Richard Rendle – visited the US town in 2001.