Residents of three Wiltshire villages are celebrating after being named as the best-kept in the county.
CPRE Wiltshire and CCm Technologies have announced the winners of the county’s Best Kept Village Competition.
Bratton won the large village category while Urchfont was judged to be the best kept medium-sized village, regaining the title it last won in 2019.
Tockenham was awarded the best-kept small village title after entering the competition for the first time this year.
Rushall has won the Laurence Kitching Award - also called the Winner of Winners competition – out of the six winning villages from 2021 and 2022.
Pawel Kisielewski, CEO of CCm Technologies, which is sponsoring the competition for the second year, said: “The 2023 winners stretch north/south across the county and showcase the divergent beauty of Wilshire.
"CCm congratulates all this year’s entrants, in particular Bratton, Urchfont, Tockenham and Rushall.”
Mike Manson, CPRE Wiltshire project officer responsible for running the annual competition, said: “It is important to point out that this competition could not take place without the very generous contributions of our sponsors, the support of Wiltshire Council, the large team of volunteer judges 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.”
Rushall is the first village to win the Laurence Kitching Award for the third time since its inception in 2000.
Urchfont also won a Merit Prize for being the most consistently successful village in the past six years.
The award is given to the village that has not won the Laurence Kitching Award this year nor the Merit Prize in 2021 or 2022.
Urchfont has regularly been first or second in the Kennet Small Village competition or in the Laurence Kitching Award in recent years. Two years ago Urchfont won the Laurence Kitching Award for the 'Winner of Winners'.
This Newcomers Award went to Hannington, which wins a £150 cash prize and a certificate.
Thirty villages throughout the county were tested against the competition criteria which include tidiness, cleanliness, presentation, conservation and village community spirit.
Each village is judged within the categories of small, medium and large and in the first round in May/June 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: 1 Bratton 95 points, 2 Bromham 81 points, 3 Alderbury 80 points, 4 Hullavington 78 points.
Medium village: 1 Urchfont 90 points, 2 Sutton Veny 84 points, 3 Dinton 82 points, 4 Biddestone 81 points.
Small village: 1 Tockenham 77 points,= 2 Burcombe and Tytherington 76 points (no entrant from Kennet).
Each winning village will be presented with, and keep for a year, an eight-foot standard with mounted shield, usually emplaced on their village green.
Award ceremonies will be held sequentially at the three winning villages on Sunday 24th September when The Lord-Lieutenant of Wiltshire, Sarah-Jane Troughton, will pull away the Union Flag surmounting the shield.
Commemorative plaques will be presented by Pawel Kisielewski, chief executive of CCm Technologies, and by a senior member of Wiltshire Council.
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.
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