Devon's best kept village winners

Winners of the county and district best kept village competition received their awards from the Chairman of East Devon District Council, Councillor Graham Godbeer, last week.

Best Kept Village is a long-established county-wide competition run by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) and sponsored by Mole Valley Farmers.

Villages are assessed by an independent panel of judges who mark competitors against country-wide criteria.

When the results become available, the Devon administrator of Best Kept Village tells the district council which villages have won the various categories in the county, and also provides scores for the competing villages within East Devon.

From those scores, the district council works out which villages within East Devon should be awarded cups as winners of the district competition within the Large and Small Village Categories and which villages are runners-up.

The East Devon element of the competition is a way of acknowledging the efforts of villages within the district. The cups – Baker and Glanvill – are engraved annually. The winners and runners-up of each category also received a framed certificate signed by the Chairman.

A council spokesman said: “East Devon District Council is always keen to support competitions of this nature, which celebrate the great community spirit within the district’s villages”.

Below is a list of the successful East Devon villages in the county and district competitions. Photos of village delegates receiving their awards are available.

Devon Winners:

Large village (past winner) Kilmington, runner-up Musbury.

Small village (past winner) Dalwood, runner-up Offwell.

New entry runner up Lympstone.

East Devon Winners:

Large village – Baker Cup – East Budleigh, runner-up Axmouth

Small village – Glanvill Cup – Talaton, runner-up Hawkchurch.