Residents in Lowdham are celebrating after it was named one of Nottingham’s best kept villages by judges of a county competition.
Lowdham, were named as best kept village in the population of 2,000-10,000 category, beating Southwell into second place.
Radcliffe, last year’s winner, and Tuxford were the other finalists in this category.
Coddington was the winner of the category for the village with a population of between 700 and 2,000, beating last year’s winner Beckingham into second place. East Markham and Cropwell Bishop were the other finalists.
Everton was the winner in the population 300 to 700 category with Oxton as the runner up Oxton. The other finalists were Normanton-on-Soar and Thurgarton.
The winner of the smallest village category, population under 300, was won by East Drayton with Linby and Normanton-on-the-Wolds tied in second. The other finalist was Barnby-in-the-Willows.
The best new entrant went to Balderton.
The champion villages in each of the four categories receive a cheque for £125, an oak and wrought iron plaque to keep for a year and certificate from competition organisers the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England and its sponsors, Wilkinson’s.
The four champions will now be judged for the title of Best of Notts and the award of £1,000.
The competition is run by the Nottinghamshire Campaign to Protect Rural England and is being kindly sponsored for the twenty-third year by the Wilkinson group of companies.
A spokesman for CPRE said: “Entering the competition has the benefit of creating pride within each village and making Nottinghamshire a more desirable location to live.
“CPRE are grateful to all the judges, village entrants and Wilkinson for their support in continuing to make this a vibrant and hard fought competition.”