Staffordshire's best kept villages are named in annual contest
Gnosall and Acton Trussell were the big winners as this year's instalment of the annual Staffordshire Best Kept Village drew to a close.
Gnosall in Stafford won best kept large village for the whole of the county while Acton Trussell, in between Stafford and Penkridge, won best kept small village.
The two also topped their respective areas, with Gnosall winning Stafford large village and Acton Trussell claiming the South Staffordshire small village crown.
For winning the county awards, the pair were given a shield donated by the Community Council of Staffordshire and a tree donated by Mr Amyas Stafford-Northcote.
Coordinator of the BKV for Gnosall, Dave Clarke, was delighted with the result.
The 69-year-old, who worked as a teacher for 40 years, said: "The BKV has been running in Staffordshire for 40 odd years and I had nothing to do with it during my working life.
"In that earlier period we had won it once or twice. We started entering again in 2006 and won in 2010 bit that's the last success in terms of winning that we've had.
"It's all about community, its not about which village is the prettiest but it's to see which supplies real evidence of a community working together.
"Everyone in the village is chuffed with the result. Loads of people have got involved and done their bit from the pubs and business and shops.
"When we put the signs up saying Best Kept Village hopefully it will make people passing by like cyclists come in and visit Gnosall."
Other winners in the competition include Hopton for Stafford small village, Kinver for South Staffordshire large village, Fradley for Cannock Chase/Lichfield large village and Kings Bromley for Cannock Chase/Lichfield small village.
They were chosen after a panel of anonymous judges visited the areas and rated them out of 10 for a number of issues, including the condition of village greens, playing fields, school yards, public seats, and noticeboards and the state of footpaths, stiles, field gates, signposting, ponds, and streams
The results were announced by John Perry MBE, the chairman of the BKV working group which organises the competition on behalf of the Community Council of Staffordshire.
Mr Perry said: "This is my ninth year as Chairman of the BKV Working Group and I continue to be impressed by the efforts put into BKV by villages throughout Staffordshire. 54 villages entered this year, which is slightly fewer than last year, but overall the standards achieved were, if anything, even better."
