Best Kept Village in Essex
The following article has been extracted from the Village Bulletin, edition 115, issued September 2008.
West Bergholt can be truly proud of achieving this award from the Rural Community Council of Essex (RCCE) for villages with a population between 2500 and 5000. In 2007 we received a commendation with Theydon Bois winning the class and Coggeshall taking second place. Clearly in a year our village has moved forward as this time we beat Theydon Bois into second place. The judges recognised this, as in announcing the award, they cited our work on The Parish Plan, the efforts being made to engage with young people and the caring nature of the village. This being exemplified by the First Responder Group, the Care Network and the importance placed on looking after our environment.
Winning this award means we will have a sign to erect beside our own village sign. After some considerable effort the new sign was dug up by two members of The Parish Council and removed from Theydon Bois village green.
Also by winning this award it meant that we were automatically entered into the National Village of the Year competition. Here we were third with Langham being chosen to represent Essex in further competitions.. The criteria for this competition was slightly different and resulted in a group of residents representing the village being interviewed by a panel of judges. I am grateful to those who gave their time to this but in particular Amber Harlow whose efforts on behalf of the young people may well have won us the award.
Now the challenge is to win this competition next year and hopefully the ideas in The Parish Plan will help to achieve this.
Harry Stone