THREE Wiltshire communities are celebrating winning the top awards in this year’s CPRE Best-Kept Village Competition for the county.

They are Whiteparish (Large Village), Hindon (Medium Village) and Rushall (Small Village).

Rushall also won a merit prize for consistent effort after regularly being first or second in the Kennet Small Village competition in recent years.

Thirty-three villages throughout the county were tested against the competition criteria which include tidiness, cleanliness, presentation, conservation and village community spirit.

For the first time, this year’s CPRE Wiltshire Best Kept Village Competition was sponsored by CCm Technologies.

The firm’s CEO Pawel Kisielewski, said: “Driving through Wiltshire throughout the course of this year constantly underscores the diverse beauty of the whole county and CCm celebrates all entrants in this year’s competition, in particular Whiteparish, Hindon, Rushall and Bratton.”

Bratton won the Laurence Kitching Award sponsored by Princeton Homes, after beating off competition from Urchfont, Ramsbury and Tilshead. Ansty and Castle Eaton also qualified but did not enter.

The Laurence Kitching Award is also called the Winner of Winners’ competition – out of the six winning villages from the last two years (2019 and 2021) in which the competition was held.

Heytesbury won the Newcomers Award for villages which have not entered the competition for the previous four years. The village beat off competition from Southwick, Tytherington and Knook to win a £150 cash prize and a certificate. CPRE Wiltshire hopes it will encourage even more villages to enter in 2023.

All awards will be presented to the winning villages on Sunday, September 25 when The High Sherriff of Wiltshire, the Marchioness of Lansdowne, will pull away the Union Flag surmounting the shield.

Pawel Kisielewski, Chief Executive of CCm Technologies, and a senior member of Wiltshire Council, will both present commemorative plaques to the winners.

Cash prizes and framed certificates will be awarded to each winning village and to the second and third placed villages and to the Best Newcomer and Merit Award winners.

Cash prizes will also be awarded to fourth placed villages.  All villages who won in the First Round will also receive a framed certificate.

The final results were:

Large Village: 1. Whiteparish 94 points, 2. Bromham 86 points, =3. Box and Hilperton 85 points.

 

Medium Village: 1. Hindon 90 points, 2. All Cannings 88 points, 3. Heytesbury 86 points, 4. Great Somerford 81 points.

Small Village: 1. Rushall 93 points, 2. Tytherington 91 points, 3. Stapleford 88 points, 4. Charlton 86 points.