This year 39 villages entered the Nottinghamshire Best Kept Village Competition and, after the first round of judging, a final 16 (4 in each category — see attachment (PDF)) were selected for a second visit by teams of judges during July.  The result is that there are new champions in two categories and two who retain the championship for the second year running, Collingham, Woodborough, Everton, and Ranby.  These are the villages which will now go forward to be judged for the final Wilkinson “Best of Nottinghamshire” Villages Award in the next few weeks.

In Category A (pop 2000 and over) it was Collingham who emerged as this year’s winner, Radcliffe on Trent was the runner up, closely followed by Burton Joyce and Lowdham.

Category B (pop 700-2000) saw Woodborough being the successful village after one year’s absence from the champions position, the runner up was East Bridgford, one of last years finalists, the other finalists in this group were Beckingham and last year’s winner Shireoaks.

In Category C (pop 300-700) this year Everton retained the top position and the runner up was Orston a previous winner.  The other finalists in this group were Normanton on Soar and Oxton.

The category for the smallest villages (pop under 300) was again won by Ranby with previous winner Widmerpool being runner up.  The other finalists in this group were Granby and Morton.

There were no new entrants to the competition this year.

The champion villages in each of the four categories will be awarded cheques of £125, oak and wrought iron plaques and framed certificates.  Runners up will each receive £50 and a certificate.

All cheques and certificates will be presented at the AGM of the Nottinghamshire Association of Local Councils on 17th November, and plaques will be unveiled in the prize winning villages during the autumn.

Each year the competing villages put in more effort to try and become the best in their category, this has the effect of making the villages of Nottinghamshire more inviting, and we would like to encourage more villages to enter the competition to increase the effect.