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Berkshire Village of the Year Winners Revealed

The winning villages in the 2005 Berkshire Village of the Year competition have been announced.

The competition is run by Wendy Dacey on behalf of the Community Council of Berkshire with sponsorship provided by Calor, the UK’s leading supplier of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). The competition judges communities on six aspects of village life with categories in Building Community Life, Business, Young People, Older People, the Environment and Information Communication Technology (ICT).

The villages of Brightwalton, Ashampstead and Purley – all in the West Berkshire area – were visited by competition judges earlier in July. The overall winner, gaining the prestigious title of 2005 Berkshire Village of the Year, is the community of Ashampstead. Purley is the runner up. Thanks to competition support from Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) this year, there is an extra £500 prize money, which is being awarded to Ashampstead as the winner in the Building Community Life category. Ashampstead will also receive £250 as the overall winner and £100 for the best ICT project, making total prize money of £850. Purley will receive £100 as the overall runner up. The villages will be presented with their awards, including framed Calor certificates at a presentation event on Wednesday 14th September at Arborfield Village Hall.

Judges commented on Ashampstead, a small village with just 303 on its electoral role: “Ashampstead, although less than fifty miles from London, feels rural in a way that most Berkshire villages do not. The thing that most impressed the judges was the exceptionally strong sense of community spirit and a number of innovative responses to the question of sustainability. The village has no shop, the last pub closed many years ago, and the primary school closed several years ago; however, the picture is very different today.

“The former school is now managed by the Ashampstead Recreational Trust, is rented out during the day to a Montessori School and this pays for the upkeep of the building which then serves as the village hall in evenings and at weekends. The villagers decided they were going to have a pub, so applied for a Saturday evening licence for the village hall. The village pub now opens on Saturday evenings from 6.30 to 11.00 and is run by the villagers.

“During the village’s presentation to the judges, many people described various aspects of village life, and in the process demonstrated that there was harmony and integration between lifelong residents and relative newcomers, who described how quickly they became involved in village life. There is always something happening in Ashampstead and about 10% of the adult population has taken on a specific task in helping to foster the strong sense of real community.”

Ashampstead will now go forward to represent the county in the prestigious national English Calor Village of the Year^® competition, with the opportunity of following in the footsteps of Arborfield last year and gaining recognition at national level as well as a share in the £36,000 prize fund. They will be competing in the East England region of the competition against villages from Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.

Competition organiser Wendy Dacey commented: “I would like to congratulate Ashampstead and Purley on their success in the competition. I also want to wish Ashampstead the best of luck in the next stage of the competition. It is an enthusiastic and motivated community and we are sure they will do very well at national level.”

Further information regarding the competition is available from Wendy Dacey at the Community Council of Berkshire by email at wendy.dacey@ccberks.org.uk, or by telephoning 0118 961 2000.

Further press information from: Emma Flinn, Flent PR Ltd
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