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Hannington announced ‘Best Newcomer’ for 2023 in Best Kept Villages competition

By Jamie Hill - 25 June 2023

Community

Villages in Wiltshire competing to be this year’s CPRE Wiltshire and CCm Technologies Best Kept Village Competition 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.

Hannington Hall, Hannington, Swindon by Brian Robert Marshall

This year’s competition started with 29 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.

Hannington, near Highworth in North Wiltshire, has been announced as this year’s ‘Best Newcomer’ and will receive a £150 cash prize.

Pawel Kisielewski, CEO of CCm Technologies, said: “CCm is all about making the environment a better place and salutes the achievement of villages across Wiltshire in being recognised at this stage of the competition.”

“As in previous years, the parish councils and their volunteers had once again been hard at work. Every village received praise from the judges for most if not all of the criteria being judged,” said Mike Manson from CPRE Wiltshire. He added that “several villages that had not been highly placed last year had done much better this year” and that “in several categories there were just a few total points between first and last”.

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 24th September the presentations to the winners will be made in each of the villages.

The results are:

NORTH WILTSHIRE AND SWINDON

LARGE VILLAGES

1^st Hullavington

2^nd Ashton Keynes

3^rd Box

4^th Blunsdon

MEDIUM VILLAGES

1^st Biddestone

2^nd Upper and Lower Seagry

3^rd Great Somerford

4^th Dauntsey

SMALL VILLAGES

1^st Tockenham

2^nd Charlton

3^rd Hankerton

4^th Hannington

KENNET

LARGE VILLAGES

1^st Bromham

2^nd Rowde

3^rd Seend

MEDIUM VILLAGES

1^st Urchfont

2^nd All Cannings

SMALL VILLAGES

No entries

WEST WILTSHIRE

LARGE VILLAGES

1^st Bratton

2^nd Hilperton

MEDIUM VILLAGES

1^st Sutton Veny

2^nd Heytesbury

3^rd Horningsham

SMALL VILLAGES

1^st Tytherington

2^nd Bulkington

3^rd Knook

SOUTH WILTSHIRE

LARGE VILLAGES

1^st Alderbury (only entrant)

MEDIUM VILLAGES

1^st Dinton (only entrant)

SMALL VILLAGES

1^st Burcombe

2^nd Stapleford

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 (2021 and 2022) 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 24^th September when the Union Flag surmounting the winner’s shield will be pulled away 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

The Best Newcomers 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. They were both judged by a different pair of judges from those judging them in the main Competition. This year two such villages entered and the winner is Hannington who will receive a £150 cash prize. Tockenham also entered and there was just one point in total between the two villages’ scores.

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 (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.