A best kept village is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

that has won one of the annual county

competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indiv ...

s in the United Kingdom for its tidiness, appropriateness, and typicality. The competitions have been nationally organized by the

Campaign to Protect Rural England CPRE, The Countryside Charity, formerly known by names such as the ''Council for the Preservation of Rural England'' and the ''Council for the Protection of Rural England'', is a charity in England with over 40,000 members and supporters. Forme ...

(CPRE) since the early 1970s.

Criteria

Competing villages fall into one of four groups: A panel of anonymous judges, touring between May and June and conducting final judging in July and August, evaluates each village on the following criteria: * Absence of

litter Litter consists of waste products that have been discarded incorrectly, without consent, at an unsuitable location. Litter can also be used as a verb; to litter means to drop and leave objects, often man-made, such as aluminum cans, paper cups ...

and unsightly refuse dumps on verges (10 points) * Condition of village greens, playing fields, school yards, public seats, and noticeboards (10 points) * Condition of public and private buildings, gardens, and allotments (10 points) * Condition of churchyards, cemeteries, and war memorials (10 points) * Condition of public halls, sports facilities, and car parks (10 points) * Cleanliness of public toilets, bus shelters, and telephone kiosks (10 points) * State of footpaths, stiles, field gates, signposting, ponds, and streams (10 points) * Condition of commercial and business premises, including advertisements and other signs (10 points) * Initiative in the care of the environment of the village (10 points) * Evidence of community spirit and usefulness of Village Map (10 points) The CPRE makes it clear that the competition is not about finding "the most beautiful village, nor the most ancient, nor the most picturesque, just the one that is best cared for" and "its aim is to involve everyone in the village, encouraging them to take greater pride in their surroundings." Villages are judged on how clean and well cared for they are, as well as their impact on the environment.

Awards and benefits

Winners of group A (those which have already won in the previous five years) receive the Pertwee Bowl for Past Winners, while winners in the other groups receive a CPRE shield. Group winners also receive a "Best Kept Village" road sign and certificates. Noted benefits include decreased littering, greater community communication, communal pride in homes and public spaces, a more attractive and welcoming appearance, name recognition for the village, and increased tourism and income for local businesses.

Criticism

Criticisms of the competition include "townies" moving into villages and changing the local culture and villagers who do not fit in with the

ethos Ethos ( or ) is a Greek word meaning "character" that is used to describe the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize a community, nation, or ideology; and the balance between caution, and passion. The Greeks also used this word to refer to ...

of a "best kept village" may be excluded.

In fiction

* Ambridge, Borsetshire has been a winner in the radio

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

The Archers ''The Archers'' is a BBC radio drama on BBC Radio 4, the corporation's main spoken-word channel. Broadcast since 1951, it was famously billed as "an everyday story of country folk" and is now promoted as "a contemporary drama in a rural sett ...

''. * At the start of the "Dibley Live" (1998) episode of the TV comedy ''

The Vicar of Dibley ''The Vicar of Dibley'' is a British sitcom which originally ran on BBC One from 10 November 1994 to 1 January 2007. It is set in a fictional small Oxfordshire village called Dibley, which is assigned a female vicar following the 1992 changes ...

'', the council members forgo entering the competition, having come in 54th out of 54 the previous year; Denfield, where a lorry-load of BSE-infected toxic waste had crashed into a nuclear fuel tanker causing a crater 200ft wide and the evacuation of the entire village, was 53rd. * Much of the plot to the 2007 British film ''

Hot Fuzz ''Hot Fuzz'' is a 2007 action comedy film directed by Edgar Wright and written by Wright and Simon Pegg. Starring Pegg, Nick Frost, Timothy Dalton, and Jim Broadbent, the film centres on two police officers investigating a series of mysteriou ...

'' revolves around the lengths the citizens of Sanford will go to in their attempt at keeping a best kept village award.

References

External links

*{{Official website, https://web.archive.org/web/20080303202759/http://www.cpre.org.uk:80/home, CPRE British awards Competitions in the United Kingdom Villages in the United Kingdom