Lancashire Best Kept Village Competition
Welcome to Lancashire…
The Red Rose County situated in the North West of England, extending over 1,189 square miles from Carnforth to Ormskirk and Blackpool to Colne, with a population of 1.5 million, who inhabit its cities, towns and villages. Historic, proud and evolving; part of the the country's great heritage through industry and innovation, art and its people - proud Lancastrians.
The Best Kept Village Competition, focuses on the hundreds of rural, semi-rural and industrial villages that give Lancashire its sense of history and time; villagers encouraged to take pride in the location and surroundings, to care for and take care of these many residential jewels, and to put their villages forward across many categories in this popular and inclusive annual competition.
Aims
The aims of the competition then, as now, are to encourage, through community effort and involvement, a high standard of care and maintenance in Lancashire villages and hamlets.
The competition marked its Diamond Jubilee in 2018, celebrating 60 years of 'inspiring communities to work together to make their villages a better place to live'.
The competition is open to all villages, hamlets and settlements in Lancashire. We encourage all Lancashire villages to enter and to be part of something quite special and communitarian.
The 2020 competition is now open for entrants for both 'Lancashire Best Kept Village' and 'Outstanding Features' categories (closing date 31st March). We look forward to another good year in this our 62nd year, we will post updates as the competion progresses.
The 2019 competition had 56 villages entering across the categories. The AGM with judges' training session took place (18/5/19); with the competition underway, first round judging was between 9th June to 21st July, followed by second round judging 9th to 22nd August, and then final Judging of the 10 finanlists, carried out by John Gilmore of Radio Lancashire, 29th and 30th August. Winners announced at a special Presentation Event at The Villa in Wrea Green on Monday, 14th October. Our congratulations to all our winners - our 2019 overall winner was Higham (Full details).
Our thanks to those who enter. Big thanks too to our Judges, LBKVC team and our sponsors.
Our Sponsors
News: Latest
Planning for the 2020 competiton is now underway with the entry form now online (return by 31st March). We look forward to a hearing from and seeing the competiton villages and assessing the 'outstanding features'.
Presentation Event (2019) took place at The Villa 14th Oct where the winners were announced (2019 Results):
Champion Villages 2019:
◆ Champion Village: Higham
◆ Large Village: Freckleton
◆ Medium Village: Mawdesley
◆ Small Village: Bretherton
◆ Hamlet: Wiswell
Thanks to everyone who took part and for the time given by our Judges and Committee. A special thanks to John Gilmore of Radio Lancashire.
In 2019 the 'Constitution of the Competition' was updated and streamlined, simplifying all paperwork used by villages and judges; the Certificate of Merit part of the competition was overhauled, replaced by a secondary competition called 'Outstanding Features' - villages entering the main competition able to nominate up to 10 Outstanding Features of their village, and certificates awarded to the best in each class.
Downloads
- Entry Form 2020 PDF | Word (Return by 31/3/20)
- Results (2019)
- Press Briefing (Awards Ceremony 2019)
- Outstanding Features Marking Criteria (2019)
- Results (2018) | Press Briefing (2018)
Other Information
'10 Lancashire villages that you should visit' - Lancashire Life (article)
Did you know there are regional best kept village competitions across the United Kingdom?
Our thanks to our sponsors: The Villa, Wrea Green; Lancashire Life; Lancashire Association of Local Councils; Ribble Valley Borough Council. We are grateful too for the support of a number of Lancashire County Councillors.