First round results of the Best Kept Village Competition announced

Find out if your village has made the next round of Wiltshire’s Best Kept Village Competition – sponsored by The Hills Group

Villages in Wiltshire competing to be this year’s CPRE Wiltshire and The Hills Group Best Kept Village in the county have found out if they have taken one step closer to the prize as the results of the first round of judging are announced.

This year’s competition started with 28 villages from around the county who were put under the microscope by the expert team of judges who are looking for criteria including tidiness, cleanliness, presentation and village community spirit.

One village, Castle Eaton, has been announced as this year’s ‘Best Newcomer’ and will receive a £150 cash prize.

“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,” said Mike Manson from CPRE Wiltshire.

Each village is judged within the categories of ‘Small’, ‘Medium’ and ‘Large’ and in this first round they are only judged within their own district: West Wiltshire, North Wiltshire, South Wiltshire or Kennet (East Wiltshire).

The final results will be announced in August and on the 26th September the presentation to the winners will be made by the Lord-Lieutenant of Wiltshire and CPRE Wiltshire’s President, Mrs Sarah Troughton.

The results are:

NORTH WILTSHIRE AND SWINDON

LARGE VILLAGES

1^st Blunsdon

2^nd = Tadpole Garden Village Box

2^nd = Brinkworth

4^th Box

MEDIUM VILLAGES

1^st Oaksey

2^nd Dauntsey

SMALL VILLAGES

1^st Castle Eaton

2^nd Hankerton

3^rd Marston Meysey

4^th Upper & Lower Seagry

KENNET

LARGE VILLAGES

1^st Ramsbury

2^nd Seend

3^rd Bromham

4^th Rowde

MEDIUM VILLAGES

1^st All Cannings

2^nd Froxfield

SMALL VILLAGES

1^st Woodborough

2^nd Rushall

3^rd Ham

WEST WILTSHIRE

LARGE VILLAGES

1^st Hilperton (only entrant)

MEDIUM VILLAGES

1^st Sutton Veny (only entrant)

SMALL VILLAGES

1^st Bishopstrow

2^nd Bukington

3^rd Beanacre

SOUTH WILTSHIRE

LARGE VILLAGES

1^st Whiteparish (only entrant)

MEDIUM VILLAGES

1^st Tilshead

2^nd Maiden Bradley

3^rd Dinton

Each winning village will receive a certificate and in July it will be judged against the similar sized villages in the other districts, to determine the best kept large, medium and small villages in Wiltshire.

Also in July the Laurence Kitching Award will be judged.  This involves the six villages who won their size categories in the past two competitions (2018 and 2019) and who are therefore ineligible for the main competition.

The results of this second round will be published in August.  Award ceremonies will then be held sequentially at the three winning villages on Sunday 26^th September when CPRE Wiltshire’s President, the Lord-Lieutenant for Wiltshire, Mrs Sarah Troughton, will pull away the Union Flag surmounting the shield and commemorative plaques will be presented. Cash prizes between £30 and £200 will be awarded to all villages in this second round.

Best Newcomers Award

For several years an award has been made available to encourage villages which have not entered the Best Kept Village Competition for the previous five years to give it a go. This year five such villages entered and the winner is Castle Eaton who will receive a £150 cash prize.

Making the Competition Work

Finally it is important to point out that this competition could not take place without the very generous contributions of our sponsors (The Hills Group and Princeton Homes), the support of Wiltshire Council and of course the immense hard work put in by individual parish councils and villagers. It is a joint effort but one we feel benefits Wiltshire and in particular the participating villages.