Allendale is England's No.1 Village
The Northumberland village of Allendale is celebrating its new status as the country’s top village, having just been revealed as the overall winner of the 2006/7 Calor Village of the Year® for England competition.
Allendale was announced as the regional winner for North England last week. Since then villagers have been on tenterhooks, waiting to hear if they could go one step further and clinch the national prize. The final results of the competition were revealed at a glamorous awards luncheon which took place in London on Tuesday 16th October with guest of honour food writer and presenter Sophie Grigson.
As the 2006/7 Calor Village of the Year® for England, Allendale wins £7,000 prize money, which is on top of the £2,000 the village gained as a regional winner, and a further £1,250 prize money for regional category prizes in Building Community Life and Young People. With a total of £10,250 to go towards community projects and the kudos attached to winning the title of Calor Village of the Year® for England, it’s no wonder that villagers are celebrating their success!
The Calor Village of the Year® for England competition rewards vibrant, self-sustaining village communities which, irrespective of size, have made the best of local opportunities to maintain and enhance the quality of life for all residents. The competition, which is organised and funded by gas supplier Calor, judged villages on six categories covering Building Community Life, Business, Young People, Older People, the Environment and Information Communication Technology (ICT).
To win the overall title for England, Allendale excelled in all six competition categories, beating off stiff competition from four other regional winners – Filkins & Broughton Poggs (South England); Henlow, Bedfordshire (East England); Bromham, Wiltshire (West England) and Geddington, Northamptonshire (Central England). As a regional category winner for Building Community Life, Allendale was also in
line for the Defra Building Community Life Award for the overall winner of this category; however, this prize went to the South England Building Community Life winner – Filkins & Broughton Poggs.
Managing director of Calor, Alex Davis commented: “Winning the title of Calor Village of the Year® for England is a fantastic achievement and the community of Allendale should be extremely proud of its success. Only the most vibrant, enterprising and caring communities get through to the final stages of this competition and this year in particular our independent judging team were faced with some excellent villages. Our congratulations go to Allendale and we hope that their success in this competition encourages them to further develop as a community in the years to come. We would also hope that Allendale will act as a best practice example for other villages, inspiring them on how to become and remain sustainable.”
James Money-Kyrle, Chief Executive of the Plunkett Foundation and member of the judging team, added: “The Calor Village of the Year® competition is a great opportunity for rural communities to celebrate their vibrant and dynamic community spirit. This year we were privileged to visit five villages across England that did this in spades. I was so impressed by the energy, passion and leadership of these rural entrepreneurs – they love their communities. They managed to pack their village halls with literally hundreds of different people, activities, societies and community groups; at times there was hardly enough room for the judges. These villages successfully demonstrated their huge wealth of community spirit and determination to make their communities confident, cohesive and special places to live. The Plunkett Foundation believes in dynamic, vibrant and inspiring rural communities. We need to support the wealth of talent and local leadership that is still thriving deep within our rural villages and towns, as so ably demonstrated by the finalists in this year's Calor Village of the Year® competition.”
For further information regarding the competition please contact Emma Flinn or Sara Tomkins on 0161 817 4200, email emma.flinn@connectpoint.co.uk.
Ends
Further press information available from: Emma Flinn, Connectpoint, tel: 0161 817 4221, email: emma.flinn@connectpoint.co.uk
CALOR VILLAGE OF THE YEAR® FOR ENGLAND COMPETITION 2006/7 FINAL RESULTS
OVERALL WINNER: ALLENDALE, NORTHUMBERLAND
Regional Winners:
Village / County / Region
Allendale Northumberland North England
Geddington Northamptonshire Central England
Henlow Bedfordshire East England
Bromham Wiltshire West England
Filkins and Broughton Poggs Oxfordshire South England
Regional Category Winners:
(Regional overall winners are highlighted in bold)
NORTH ENGLAND
Village / County / Category
Allendale Northumberland Building Community Life
Stillington Tees Valley Business
West Cornforth Durham Young People
Antrobus Cheshire Older People
Antrobus Cheshire Environment
Allendale Northumberland Information Communication Technology
CENTRAL ENGLAND
Village / County / Category
Hemingby Lincolnshire Building Community Life
Misterton Nottinghamshire Business
Creswell Derbyshire Young People
Geddington Northamptonshire Older People
Geddington Northamptonshire Environment
Bidford-on-Avon Warwickshire Information Communication Technology
EAST ENGLAND
Village / County / Category
Henlow Bedfordshire Building Community Life
Aldermaston Berkshire Business
Belton with Browston Norfolk Young People
Ickleford Hertfordshire Older People
Orwell Cambridgeshire Environment
Rayne Essex Information Communication Technology
WEST ENGLAND
Village / County / Category
Loxhore Devon Building Community Life
Constantine Cornwall Business
Tarrington Herefordshire Young People
Bromham Wiltshire Older People
Inkberrow Worcestershire Environment
Tarrington Herefordshire Information Communication Technology
SOUTH ENGLAND
Village / County / Category
Filkins and Broughton Poggs Oxfordshire Building Community Life
Selborne Hampshire Business
Brighstone Isle of Wight Young People
Lingfield Surrey Older People
Selborne Hampshire Environment
Herstmonceux East Sussex Information Communication Technology
Defra Building Community Life Award for the overall winner of the Building Community Life category: Filkins and Broughton Poggs, Oxfordshire
Special award for the overall winner of the Information Communication Technology (ICT) category: Rayne, Essex
Notes to Editors:
Calor Village of the Year®
Calor, the leading supplier of LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) to those living and working in the countryside, has supported rural activities in England, Scotland and Wales for 20 years through its Rural Sponsorship programme, which includes the Calor Village of the Year® for England competition.
The Calor Village of the Year® for England competition, now in its eleventh year, was founded and developed by Calor, and is organised and funded by the company on an annual basis.
Please note that Calor Village of the Year® is a registered trademark and should be referred to in full in all circumstances.
Entry to the Calor Village of the Year® for England competition is through the existing county competition network. Every year, Calor sponsors the majority of the county village competitions – which this year total more than 40 – each of which is invited to nominate one village to take part in the Calor Village of the Year® for England competition.
The national Calor Village of the Year® judges look for well-balanced, pro-active, caring communities which, irrespective of size, have made the best of local opportunities to maintain and enhance the quality of life for all residents.
The prize money for the 2007 national Calor Village of the Year® for England competition alone stands at over £36,000. First prize is £7,000 with £2,000 going to each of five regional winners. In addition, there are five category prizes of £500 within each region (covering Business, Environment, Care for Older People, Care for Young People and Information Communications Technology), and a prize of £750 for the winner of the Building Community Life category in each of the five regions. The five regional winners of the Information Communication Technology category are judged to find an overall winner, the award for which is £1,000. There is also, thanks to support from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, a prize of £2,000 for an overall Building Community Life winner, which is selected from the five regional winners.
For general information on the Calor Village of the Year® for England competition:
email: info@calorvillageoftheyear.org or visit: www.calorvillageoftheyear.org
For all media enquiries relating the Calor Village of the Year® competition, please contact Emma Flinn:
email: emma.flinn@connectpoint.co.uk or tel: 0161 817 4221
For all general enquiries relating to the Calor Village of the Year® competition, please contact Brian Challis:
email: b.challis@ntlworld.com or tel: 01962 629768
The Plunkett Foundation
The Plunkett Foundation (www.plunkett.co.uk) is a national charity based in Woodstock that is dedicated to improving rural livelihoods through co-operative and social enterprise. Plunkett is the UK's leading exponent of rural social enterprise and uses its original research and policy ideas to galvanise support for vulnerable rural communities. Plunkett works with public and private sector partners to help rural communities solve the challenges of today's rural society, such as social exclusion and deprivation. It helps rural communities set up and run sustainable social enterprises such as local food initiatives, community-owned village shops and community transport schemes. These enterprises not only stimulate rural economies by providing access to essential services, creating jobs and training opportunities but they also inspire the whole community to get involved and help put the heart back into village life.
Full details of the work of the Plunkett Foundation and its range of programmes to support rural communities are available on its website: www.plunkett.co.uk
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