HEYTESBURY has been named as the ‘Best Newcomer’ for 2022 in this year’s CPRE Wiltshire and CCm Technologies Best Kept Village Competition.

The village will receive a £150 cash prize after beating off competition from Southwick, Tytherington and Knook who also entered the category.

The Best Newcomers Award encourages villages which have not entered the Best Kept Village Competition for the previous five years to give it a go. They are all judged by a different pair of judges from those judging them in the main competition. 

Meanwhile, 29 large, medium and small villages around the county have found out if they have taken one step closer to the main prize as the results of the first round of judging are announced.

They were put under the microscope by the expert team of judges who are looking for criteria including tidiness, cleanliness, presentation and village community spirit.

Mike Manson, from CPRE Wiltshire, said: “As usual, 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.

“Finally, it is important to point out that this competition could not take place without the very generous contributions of our sponsors (CCm Technologies), 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.”

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 the presentations to the winners will be made in each of the villages on Sunday, September 25.

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 four of the six villages who won their size categories in the past two competitions (2019 and 2021) and who are therefore ineligible for the main competition.

The second round results will be published in August. Cash prizes between £30 and £200 will be awarded to all villages in this round. 

The results are:

North Wiltshire and Swindon

Large: 1 Box, 2 Ashton Keynes, 3 Brinkworth, 4 Blunsdon, 5 Hullavington, 6 Tadpole Garden Village Box. Medium: 1 Great Somerford, 2 Biddestone. Small: 1 Charlton, 2 Hankerton.

Kennet

Large: 1 Bromham, 2 Seend. Medium: 1 All Cannings, 2 Froxfield. Small:  1 Rushall, 2 Woodborough.

West Wiltshire

Large: 1 Hilperton, 2 Dilton Marsh, 3 Southwick. Medium: 1 Heytesbury, 2 Sutton Veny.

Small: 1 Tytherington, 2 Bishopstrow, 3 Knook, 4 Bulkington.

South Wiltshire

Large: 1 Whiteparish, 2 Alderbury. Medium: 1 Hindon (only entrant). Small: 1 Stapleford (only entrant).