TWO places in Swindon have been shortlisted for Wiltshire’s Best Kept Village competition. 

Villages across the county are competing to be this year’s champion and Blunsdon and Tadpole Garden Village are one step closer to the prize after the results of the first round of judging were announced. 

Blunsdon topped the list of large villages in North Wiltshire and Swindon, with Tadpole Garden Village and Brinkworth jointly in second place.

At total of 28 villages from around the county were put under the microscope by the team of judges, who are considering criteria including tidiness, cleanliness, presentation and village community spirit. 

Mike Manson from CPRE said: “The parish councils and their volunteers had clearly been hard at work, achieving encouragingly high standards and making the judges’ task that much more difficult.” 

Each village is judged within the categories of small, medium and large and in the first round they are only judged within their own district – West Wiltshire, North Wiltshire, South Wiltshire or Kennet (East Wiltshire).

Each winning village will receive a certificate and in July will be judged against similar sized villages in the other districts, to determine the best kept large, medium and small villages in Wiltshire.

Also next month, the Laurence Kitching Award will be judged. This involves the six villages who won their size categories in the past two competitions (2018 and 2019) and who are therefore ineligible for the main competition.

The final results will be announced in August and on September 26 the presentation to the winners will be made by the lord-lieutenant of Wiltshire and CPRE Wiltshire president Sarah Troughton.

The awards are sponsored by The Hills Group and Princeton Homes.