Regional Winners

East Keswick - Regional Winner 2001

The Yorkshire village of East Keswick is home to a rich selection of talent, amenities and initiatives. Groups and organisations cater for a wide variety of interests, regardless of age, ranging from local history and flower arranging, to football and indoor bowls. Local businesses also reflect this variety and include services as diverse as calligraphy and conference organisation. However, one particular area in which East Keswick excels is its care for the environment.

The village has its own Wildlife Trust, one of the few village-based Wildlife Trusts in the UK, which plays a major role in many of the village’s environmental initiatives. As well as helping to maintain and monitor areas of special conservation within the Parish, including Keswick Marsh and Ox Close Wood - a 35 acre site of ancient woodland - the trust also runs special events specifically for children, such as acorn gathering and making bird boxes. The trust also has its own newsletter to keep villagers actively informed of events and schemes in addition to general issues concerning the countryside.

As well as keeping villagers informed of environmental issues, steps have also been taken to detail events affecting the village over the past Millennium. The East Keswick Millennium Book proved an enormous success and brought together current and ex-villagers of all generations in a celebration of community life.
East Keswick won the Calor Gas Village of the Year competition for Northern England and also the Environment, Older People and Community Life categories for its region.

Judges’ Comments

"The village has an impressive awareness of all issues, both with the built and the natural environment involving a full cross section of the community - much based on local knowledge."