It's Judging Time Again!

Accommodation at the Bell Inn.

Visit of the Village of the Year judges – 7th May 2008

We were favoured by a pleasant warm morning for the visit which initially was held on the patio of the Bell Inn where Richard and Sally Phillips kindly supplied everyone with refreshments.

Approximately 25 people attended and the judges were pleased to see such support for the competition. Following the adverse marking in the two previous years regarding the involvement of the older people in the village we were supported by some of our “mature” parishioners, a point not lost on the judges.

There was a lively discussion and question and answer session with most of the parishioners present making a contribution including Joan who is visiting from Australia and is staying at The Bell in their new letting rooms. She praised the web site and was able to find out about people and the village. She is originally from Helmdon and her father was the incumbent at the Church.

The judges had a look into the rooms, and were very impressed with the high standard, before setting off with myself and Liz Hart to explore the village.

First stop was the Reading Room where the Acorns were meeting. They were pleased to see the children enjoying themselves and were impressed with the kitchen area and were quite interested in the “revelation” of the roof area.

Onwards to the school where they were able to see the new play area before going into the school where we were met by Sue Blackburn who showed the various aspects of the school including the new area which was having the finishing touches added.

There was a specific interest in visiting the allotments and the area by the stream which was being cleared to enable the school to have their own area there.

From there we moved on to the Sports Field were they asked about its uses and thought that the playing area and the views were outstanding.

Finally we visited the Church where we were met by Ann Smith who gave us a conducted tour and explained the many facets of the Church and its various organisations that used it.

Finally back to collect their car and to ask that everyone who took the time to be part of the morning should be thanked and that they had enjoyed their brief visit.

Helmdon Wins Again At Village of the Year Awards - 24th July 2007

Helmdon has been voted the best medium sized village in Northamptonshire for the second year running in the 2007 Calor Village of the Year for Northamptonshire contest.

The award ceremony at the Hunsbury Hill Centre in Northampton saw Helmdon collect the winner's trophy for medium villages as well as the runners-up trophy for the overall competition, with top spot going to Kings Sutton who were new entrants to the competition this year.

The award is another accolade for the village and all its residents and is recognition of all the effort that everyone puts in to making Helmdon the great place it is.

The full results, along with the judge's marks and comments will appear on the web site as soon as they are available. If anyone is interested in Helmdon's participation in the Calor Village of the Year competition please contact any member of the Parish Council.

Village of the Year 2007 - The Judges' Visit! - 24th May 2007

The judge's visit started and finished at the village pub.

The judges visited Helmdon on Thursday 24th May 2007 to judge the village for the 2007 competition. Chair of the Parish Council, Peter Burns, hosted the judges and writes the following report...

"Approximately 30 people attended the Bell Inn at 10 o'clock on Thursday morning. This was yet again wonderful support by organisations and individuals who came along and this was commented on by the judges as being the best attended that they had seen.

After introducing themselves they went to the Reading Room to see the children who were there for the morning session. Caroline King explained the many functions of the Reading Room and along with Judy Butler answered the questions that the judges had regarding the groups involved.

On returning to the Bell there was a lively discussion and laughter with contributions by many of the attendees and a number of questions on various subjects which were explained to them by a variety of speakers. The judges commented on how so many people wanted to speak on the subjects.

As time had now moved past 11 o'clock and the judges had expressed a wish to see around the village the meeting was brought to a close.

The first port of call was at the church where Ann Smith had kindly agreed to show the visitors around the church and churchyard, where again they were very impressed not only by the state of the church and its history but by its use as a centre for the community.

Via Welsh Lane we entered the village pointing out the village shop before arriving at the school where we were met by Julie Crouch and Niki Phillips who gave us a conducted tour enabling us to meet many of the children. The judges took great interest in the things that the children were doing and in the highly varied range of subjects in which they were involved.

We then went to our final venue to visit, the Sports Club, where Michael Ayres, the club chairman, was mowing in readiness for the weekend cricket match. They were very impressed with the setting and wanted to know more of the proposal to replace the existing pavilion.

As we were now approaching twelve o'clock we returned to the Bell explaining the existence of the ceramic group and a more recently formed arts group. They were also interested to hear of the business of fruit and vegetable supply run by Paul Duncombe and by his father for many years before him.

Arriving back at the Bell they were very fulsome in their praise for the village and its residents remarking that there were very few houses for sale in the village but this was understandable.

I would like to thank Richard and Sally Phillips for their kind hospitality, the people who attended on the day and everyone who makes Helmdon the wonderful community village that it is".

Peter Burns
Chairman, Helmdon Parish Council

Helmdon Judged Best In Class - 26th July 2006

Helmdon has won the medium sized village class in the 2006 Calor Village of the Year for Northamptonshire.

The award ceremony in Northampton saw Helmdon carry off four certificates and one cup - the other successes being: runner up in the ICT category, runner up in the overall competition, and highly commended in the "Building Community Life" category.

More information >>>

Helmdon Is Best In Central England For ICT - 6th December 2005

Helmdon has won the Information Communication Technology (ICT) category in the Calor Village of the Year for Central England 2005.

Special guest and TV personality Alan Titchmarsh presented the award, which carries prize money of £500, to Helmdon's Webmaster, Danny Moody, and Web Editor, Audrey Forgham, at a ceremony in London on 6th December.

More information >>>

Judges' Comments - 14th September 2005

The judges' comments and marks awarded for each section of the 2005 competition have been posted here.

More Success For Helmdon - 28th July 2005

The Canon Dunn Memorial Bowl for ICT.

The Calor Northamptonshire Village of the Year judges have made their decisions and the winner is.... Brigstock, in East Northants. However, coming a very close second was Helmdon, so a very creditable performance despite not getting top spot.

Better news came in the ICT (Information Communication Technology) section of the competition where Helmdon won First Place! This part is judged separately because not all villages are able to enter as you must have a web site, but there is still a lot of competition and Helmdon has done brilliantly to beat off all the other contestants.

Helmdon will now represent Northamptonshire in the regional competition and 2 tickets have been reserved for the village for the awards dinner in London in December.

In due course we will receive the actual marks obtained for each section and the judges' comments and they will be posted here on the web site. In the mean time, congratulations to everyone who helped make Helmdon's entry in to the 2005 competition a very successful one.

They Came, They Saw... - 6th June 2005

The Bell made a splendid starting point.

Following our entry to the above competition we were visited by two lady judges. Coffee and biscuits were supplied by Richard and Sally Phillips of the Bell Inn which also provided us with a meeting place. The judges read our comments on the entry form and further information was provided by approximately 20 members of organisations who were present. A friendly atmosphere was enjoyed by all.

The visitors then went to the Reading Room where the Acorns were 'in session' where they spoke to the children and took the opportunity of looking around the building.

Moving on to the Sports Ground we were met by Geoff Gulliver who briefly described the activities past and present. The ladies were impressed by the ground and the views from it.

A visit to Paul Duncombe's business was next on our list where he showed us his cool areas for his fruit and vegetables. It transpired that Paul buys some of his produce from places known to the judges.

Our next calling place was at Bungalow Stores which the judges thought provided an excellent range of products and were introduced to Harold Seckington. Apart from running the local shop for many years Harold is now the oldest male resident in the village.

The school was next on our journey and so we took short walk from Bungalow Stores along the path to the school. The judges commented on the lack of litter and tidiness of the village.

The visit to the school highlighted the growth of the school buildings and the excellent work that is being achieved there. The judges were particularly impressed by the standard of artwork and in glazed panels that the children had made.

We then visited the ceramics class in which the judges showed keen interest having taken part in something similar themselves.

Our last place to visit was the church where we were met by the new Rector Will Adams, Jean Spendlove and Danny Moody. Will and Jean were able to provide a wealth of knowledge about the church and the churchyard.

Danny had set up his website for the visitors which they had briefly seen before their visit. Danny showed them many of the areas available. They were very impressed by the content and the high standard. There is a separate competition covering this particular aspect in which we hope that we can be successful.

We had now come to the end of the visit which the ladies said that they had thoroughly enjoyed. They had been impressed by the standards of the village and the 'Spirit of the Community' in all of the people that they had met.

The results for the competition are known in the Autumn and will appear here on the website.

Finally may I say a big thank you to all of the people who gave their time and their contributions to the morning with particular thanks to Richard Bearman for driving us and to David Brookhouse and Sarah Smith for helping in the organisation.

Peter Burns.

30th May 2005

This year's Village of the Year competition is slightly different in format to previous years.

In previous years the judges have gone round the village on their own and unannounced but this year they have let each village know when they will be visiting and have allowed 2 hours for each village to put on a presentation.

The judges will visit Helmdon on Monday 6th June between 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m.

Helmdon last won the Lady O'Dowd Cup in 2002.

Helmdon has been a recent winner of the Northamptonshire Village of the Year trophy on no less than 3 occasions in 1996, 1999 and 2002. The only win previous to that was in 1969. Following the pattern of recent success it is Helmdon's "turn" to win it this year! But there is much work to do.

The judges don't look just for pretty villages, the competition is more about facilities and community spirit. That said, there are marks for cleanliness and so everyone is urged to pick up any litter in the next 10 days. Last year the village was marked down because of litter and broken glass left behind on the school playing field. When competition is tight between villages one or two marks here and there can make all the difference.

The judge's visit this year is being co-ordinated by Peter Burns, chair of the parish council. He intends to meet them in the pub for a coffee on arrival and then escort them to meet some of the people who make Helmdon tick. All of the village groups, organisations and businesses have been written to asking them if they would like to take part and meet the judges. It is hoped that the judges will be left with the impression that Helmdon is a warm, friendly and welcoming place and that the people living here have good community spirit and enjoy living where they live.

Please do your bit to make sure that Helmdon receives the highest possible marks... remember, judging is on Monday 6th June.

For further information please contact Peter Burns.

25th November 2004

Litter on the school field was a real let down.

The results are in for the 2004 competition and Helmdon faired well, without being placed. The overall competition was won by Bugbrooke, with Culworth winning the churchyard of the year, Stoke Doyle winning the best conservation churchyard and Bugbrooke also took the award for 'Most Active Community Village'.

Helmdon's scores were quite good overall but a couple of areas let us down. In the "best kept village" section the village scored 21/25, losing points because of litter. The judges said "Mostly good but quite a lot of litter on the school playing field and car park and in Station Road". The total score in this category was 92/100 so the litter problem was enough to prevent us being near perfect otherwise.

In the 'Most Active Community' competition we scored less well - a total of
63/100. Here the judges commented that they were "surprised there was so little environmental activity in this most active village". Little did they know when judging took place in June that only five months later a new wildlife and conservation group would be formed as a result of the recent parish plan. This means the village should certainly score highly on this next time.

The entry forms for the 2005 competition have been received by the parish council and with all the new initiatives going on in the village we should be in with a good chance!

13th July 2004

The village has once again entered this competition. Judging took place in June and we await the results. Helmdon has traditionally done well because of the strong community spirit and the amount of activities going on. Watch this space for further news!

17th September 2003

At a meeting held on 15th July it was decided that because of all the commitments to the Parish Plan, it would be impossible to service our application advantageously, and in the event we declined to enter. However, permission was obtained for us to apply for entry into the national IT web competition, and this is proceeding.

24th February 2003

Because Helmdon won the Northamptonshire Village of the Year for 2002 we have the opportunity to progress to the regional competition, and then the national finals in October 2003.

In order to decide whether Helmdon would submit an entry for the regionals the Parish Council organised a meeting of the village groups on Friday 21st February in the Reading Room.

The overwhelming YES! vote means that, Helmdon will indeed represent Northamptonshire at regional level. A number of names were collected to form a steering committee and they will meet in the coming weeks and months to decide how to progress. We will follow the news and views of the steering committee on this page, so check back often to find out what's going on.