BEST KEPT VILLAGE COMPETITION – WINNERS ANNOUNCED

The best kept villages in Wiltshire have been decided as the results of the CPRE Wiltshire Best Kept Village Competition are announced.
Ramsbury, Tilshead and Castle Eaton came top in their respective categories and are this year’s winners.
Urchfont, in the Vale of Pewsey, has won the Laurence Kitching Award – also called the Winner of Winners’ competition – out of the six winning villages from the last two years the competition was held.
This year’s CPRE Wiltshire Best Kept Village Competition has been sponsored by The Hills Group for an eighth consecutive year: The Competition was not held in 2020 due to the Covid pandemic.
The first round of the competition saw the expert judging teams from the Wiltshire Branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England and from Wiltshire Council putting each village under the microscope in May and June. Thirty-nine villages throughout the county were tested against the competition criteria which include tidiness, cleanliness, presentation, conservation and village community spirit. As ever the Parish Councils and their volunteers had clearly been hard at work, achieving encouragingly high standards and making the judges’ task that much more difficult. Each village is judged within the categories of ‘Small’, ‘Medium’ and ‘Large’ and in the first round they are only judged within their own district: West Wiltshire, North Wiltshire, South Wiltshire and Kennet (East Wiltshire).
In July the winning villages in each district were then judged against each other in the County Round, using fresh judging teams. The final results are:
Large Village Medium Village Small Village
1st Ramsbury 90 pts 1st Tilshead 86 pts 1st Castle Eaton 97 pts
2nd Whiteparish 84 pts 2nd All Cannings 85 pts 2nd Woodborough 88 pts
3rd Blunsdon 78 pts 3rd Oaksey 72.5 pts 3rd Bishopstrow 81 pts
4th Hilperton 77 pts 4th Sutton Veny 69 pts
Note that different teams of judges were used in each of the three categories, so the points scored should not be contrasted between categories.
Laurence Kitching Award – Sponsored by Princeton Homes
The winning six villages from 2019 and 2018 were, as dictated by our rules, not allowed to compete in the main competition but were invited to enter the Laurence Kitching Award, sponsored by Princeton Homes and often called the ‘Winner of Winners’ competition. The results were:
1st Urchfont 2nd Biddestone 3rd Ansty
4th Bratton 5th Charlton (near Malmesbury) 6th Hullavington
Newcomers Award
This award encourages villages which have not entered the Best Kept Village Competition for the previous five years to give it a go. It comes with a £150 cash prize and a certificate. CPRE Wiltshire hopes it will encourage even more villages to enter in 2022. This year five such villages qualified to enter.
The results were:
1st Castle Eaton 2nd Maiden Bradley 3rd = Ham, and Tadpole Garden Village
5th Bulkington
Merit Prize for Consistent Effort
A prize is awarded to the village that has been most consistently successful in the past four years but has not won the Laurence Kitching Award this year, nor the Merit Prize in 2019. In 2021 this has been won by Bishopstrow, who have regularly been 1st in the West Wiltshire Small Village competition in recent years.
First Round Results
NORTH WILTSHIRE AND SWINDON | ||
LARGE VILLAGES | ||
Blunsdon | 85 | 1st |
Tadpole Garden Village | 80 | 2nd = |
Brinkworth | 80 | 2nd = |
Box | 79 | 3rd |
MEDIUM VILLAGES | ||
Oaksey | 82 | 1st |
Dauntsey | 72 | 2nd |
SMALL VILLAGES | ||
Castle Eaton | 89 | 1st |
Hankerton | 88 | 2nd |
Marston Meysey | 83 | 3rd = |
Upper & Lower Seagry | 83 | 3rd = |
WEST WILTSHIRE | ||
LARGE VILLAGES | ||
Hilperton | – | Bye |
MEDIUM VILLAGES | ||
Sutton Veny | – | Bye |
SMALL VILLAGES | ||
Bishopstrow | 82 | 1st |
Bulkington | 76 | 2nd |
Beanacre | 50 | 3rd |
SOUTH WILTSHIRE | ||
LARGE VILLAGES | ||
Whiteparish | – | Bye |
MEDIUM VILLAGES | ||
Tilshead | 87 | 1st |
Maiden Bradley | 85 | 2nd |
Dinton | 80 | 3rd |
SMALL VILLAGES | ||
No entries | – | – |
KENNET | ||
LARGE VILLAGES | ||
Ramsbury | 92 | 1st |
Seend | 91 | 2nd |
Bromham | 85 | 3rd |
Rowde | 72 | 4th |
MEDIUM VILLAGES | ||
All Cannings | 82 | 1st |
Froxfield | 73.5 | 2nd |
SMALL VILLAGES | ||
Woodborough | 87 | 1st |
Rushall | 85 | 2nd |
Ham | 75 | 3rd |
BEST NEWCOMER | ||
Castle Eaton | 85.2 | 1st |
Maiden Bradley | 84 | 2nd |
Tadpole Garden Village | 77 | 3rd = |
Ham | 77 | 3rd = |
Bulkington | 64.4 | 5th |