Village life page

Best Village Competition: 2008

2008

Helmdon has been voted second in the best medium sized village in Northamptonshire in the 2008 Calor Village of the Year for Northamptonshire competition.

The full results of the competition are as follows, with the judges’ marks and comments underneath.

Overall awards 1st Creaton

2nd Syresham

3rd Crick

Small Villages 1st Creaton

2nd Clipston

3rd East Carlton

Medium Villages 1st Syresham

2nd Helmdon

3rd Kilsby

Large Villages 1st Crick

2nd Middleton Cheney

3rd Silverstone

Newcomers Cup 1st Creaton

2nd Syresham

3rd Kilsby

	Maximum Marks	Marks Awarded	Remarks
Village Life	31	31	Is all encompassing with excellent facilities in every area of art, history, crafts, literary and not to forget the social events, often for charitable reasons. A practical playing field with clubhouse, about to be refurbished, to include more sporting activities.
Community Life	34	33.5	Meeting with the villagers in the Pub gave a first hand experience of a lively, active and inspired community. A cross-over of interest bonded young and old and gender alike.
Business	10	10	A multitude of businesses from physiotherapy to hairdressing, well patronised by the locals. All these contribute to the community and beyond.
Young People	21	21	Plenty of social and sporting activities as well as an outstanding primary school with a well equipped and safe play area.
Older People	16	12	Well looked after and participate and add to village life in many ways.
Environment	25	23.5	Progress and conservation are blended together. To make life practical as well as respecting the work of previous generations. The children contribute under direction with matters environmental.
TOTAL AWARDED	137	131	It is an outstanding village in every respect of life, generated by the enthusiasm and hard work of its local population. It must be a wonderful experience to live in such an interesting and active village.
IT Category	11	10	This was judged by three independent judges and the average mark awarded.

At the Awards Ceremony, Harj Virk, representing competition sponsor Calor – the UK’s leading supplier of liquefied petroleum gas, presented representatives of the winning villages with cups and commemorative certificates.

The competition is run by Northamptonshire ACRE. Chair of the Village of the Year Judges, David Scudamore, commented: “Our congratulations go to all of the successful villages in this year’s competition. We were very impressed by the standard of the villages and the judges had a very tough job selecting the winners. We hope that even more villages will be encouraged to participate again in 2009. In addition to the main competition sponsor Calor, we would also like to thank Northamptonshire County Council and Northamptonshire Community Foundation for their support.”

As the 2008 Calor Northamptonshire Village of the Year, the village of Creaton now has the added honour of being nominated to go forward and represent the county in the prestigious Calor Village of the Year® for England competition 2008/9. This will give villagers the opportunity of gaining recognition at national level as well as a share of a prize fund totalling more than £40,000.

For further information on the county competition, please contact Northamptonshire ACRE by telephoning [phone number removed].

Links In This Section:

• Village Of The Year Competition 2007
• Northamptonshire ACRE

Groups and series: Best Village Competition
Topics: Northamptonshire's Best Village Competition

Researched and written by Helmdon Local History Group volunteers. We do our best, but we can sometimes get things wrong. Corrections and additions are welcome.