Lancashire Best Kept Village Competition

Welcome to Lancashire…

The Red Rose County situated in the North West of England, extending over 1,189 square miles from Carnforth to Ormskirk and Blackpool to Colne, with a population of 1.5 million, who inhabit its cities, towns and villages. Historic, proud and evolving; part of the country's great heritage through industry and innovation, art and its people - proud Lancastrians.

The Best Kept Village Competition, focuses on the hundreds of rural, semi-rural and industrial villages that give Lancashire its sense of history and time; villagers encouraged to take pride in the location and surroundings, to care for and take care of these many residential jewels, and to put their villages forward across many categories in this popular and inclusive annual competition.

Aims

The aims of the competition then, as now, are to encourage, through community effort and involvement, a high standard of care and maintenance in Lancashire villages and hamlets.

The competition marked its Diamond Jubilee in 2018, celebrating 60 years of 'inspiring communities to work together to make their villages a better place to live'.

The competition is open to all villages, hamlets and settlements in Lancashire. We encourage all Lancashire villages to enter and to be part of something quite special and communitarian.

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2025 Competition

Presentation Event at Eaves Hall West Bradford (13/10/25).

Winners:
Champion Class: Bretherton
Large Village Class: New Longton
Medium Village Class: Newburgh
Small Village Class: Hurst Green
Hamlet Class: Little Eccleston
Urban Community: Whalley

2025 Results

Previous Years

The Presentation Event at Eaves Hall West Bradford brought to a conclusion the 2024 which saw 45 villages entering across the 6 categories (including Urban Community) and 247 entries nominated as 'Outstanding Features' from Lancashire villages across the 16 categories. We were pleased to have the services of Edwin Booth, Chairman of Booths Supermarkets as the Final Judge who also presented the awards on the day with Grindleton taking the main prize (Champion Village) Full results (2024) (PDF).

The 2023 competition competition concluded in October with the Presentation Event at Eaves Hall West Bradford when winners were announced. Preparations had begun earlier in the year and entries invited for the 2023 'Lancashire Best Kept Village Competition', which saw three rounds of judging including the final two in each class. Our judges visiting villages large and small all over Lancashire, all hoping to be named 'Best Kept Village', as well as submitting entries for the increasingly popular 'Outstanding Features' category nominations. We were very grateful to all of our judges and in particular The Hon. Mr Justice Peter Openshaw who oversaw the 'Finalist' judging - two in each class - late August.

A new class 'Tidy Towns' was piloted. This had arisen due to many of the Lancashire Villages becoming much larger due to recent building. It was also felt that identifiable communities within a town could benefit from this category as participation does encourage Community Spirit and Pride. Whilst based on the principles of the Best Kept Village Competition there are some small differences.

Following the enforced hiatus in 2020 and a resumption in 2021 - albeit with still some caution impacting numbers involved - it has been good to see the competion return and evolve with villages across Lancashire competing for both 'Lancashire Best Kept Village' and 'Outstanding Features' categories.

Winners (2023):
Elswick (Champion) | Sabden (Large Village) | Class: Town Green (Medium Village) | Grindleton (Small Village) | Little Eccleston (Hamlet) | Ingol (Tidy Town).
2023 Results.

The 2022 competition saw 47 villages entering with a further 262 entries across the 'Outstanding Features' categories - Bretherton was announced Champion Village. Our special guest judge, Guy Topping, Managing Director of Barton Grange, took on the task of final judging and was present at our Presentation Event at Eaves Hall (17/10/22) - Winners 2022.

Whilst we had hoped to be able to go ahead with the 2020 competition, Government announcements and the impact of Covid-19 measures meant that we took the decision not to proceed. Happily, we were able to announce that the competition could go ahead in 2021, with entries requested by 17th April - 46 villages entered. Making the final in 2021, were the villages of Grindleton, Halsall, Pilling, Barton, Blacko, Little Eccleston, Whitechapel, Barley and Wiswell; Ralph Assheton (Sheriff of Lancashire 2020) was the overall judge, and Blacko was announced as our 2021 Champion Village and overall winner. Full details of 2021 Competition HERE (PDF Download).

The 2019 competition had 56 villages entering across the categories. Our 2019 overall winner was Higham as judged by John Gilmore of Radio Lancashire. Full details.

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Our thanks to all those who enter and participate in our 'Best Kept Village Competition'. Big thanks too to our Judges, the LBKVC team and committee and our sponsors.