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Choosing a winner from 42 excellent entries was no easy task for
the judges of The Daily Telegraph/Calor Gas Village of the Year
Awards 2000, says Christopher Middleton, but good neighbours
clinched it.
The winner WHEN Ann Harrison stands in her shop window, you can't
actually see her face. Happy resident: Ann Harrison by her
notice-filled shop window
 That's
not because the postmistress of Great Bentley is particularly small,
but because the wall of posters in her window is so extraordinarily
high.
This little North Essex village may be home to only 2,177 souls,
but the sheer volume of A4 sheets announcing forthcoming activities
blots out the daylight from Mrs Harrison's premises. On any one day,
there'll be every kind of event - from a Scout-and-Guide disco to a
throw-out-your-rubbish day.
"It's a real problem finding space," says Mrs Harrison, who makes
no charge for the service. "The minute one event has taken place, we
tear the poster down and replace it with another."
As well as being blessed with a full-to-bursting social calendar,
Great Bentley is also the proud possessor of what is said to be
Britain's biggest (43 acres) village green, on which cricket has
been played for the past 220 years. So vast is this expanse of
green, that it takes a full five minutes to walk from one side to
the other.
Great Bentley: the village pond What secured this year's Village
of the Year Award and a cheque for £3,000 to be spent on community
projects was not Great Bentley's looks but its personality; in the
words of the judges, this is "a community fully at ease with
itself", as demonstrated by a Good Neighbours scheme that leaves no
resident unprotected.
At the heart of this initiative are 62 voluntary "road stewards",
who act as central contacts in every street. If you want a lift to
the hospital, if you need help installing a smoke alarm, just look
up your nearest warden in the bright orange Good Neighbours booklet
distributed to all 920 households in the village.
Alternatively, you can flick through the monthly parish magazine
(£3 a year delivered to your door). This 62-page publication carries
no fewer than 107 advertisements for Great Bentley businesses; these
range from a company that designs lighting for cruise ships to a
firm that makes computer mouse-mats.
It doesn't stop there, either. Other important stitches in the
social fabric are a 104-year-old primary school (175 pupils), a
fully functioning railway station, a six-doctor medical practice,
two shops with automatic cash tills, a post office that acts as a
bank (for Barclays, Lloyds and Co-Op customers), a part-time village
caretaker and a full-time village policeman, PC David Stevens, whose
mobile phone is paid for by the parish council.
"When parish property was vandalised recently, it was David who
found out which five youngsters had done it," says the parish
council chairman, Lynda McWilliams, herself the daughter of a
previous chairman.
"The way we handled it was to approach these teenagers' parents
and ask them to pay the excess on the insurance claim." What is
more, those parents actually paid up. "Oh yes, there was no fuss,"
smiles Mrs McWilliams. "I think that, on the whole, people realise
how lucky they are to live here. No one wants to see things spoilt."
Judges bowled over by idyllic Essex Village
By David Brown, Agriculture Editor, The Daily Telegraph
A VILLAGE which claims to have the largest green in England was
named Great Britain Village of the Year yesterday in a competition
sponsored by The Daily Telegraph and Calor Gas.
Great Bentley, near Colchester, Essex, was described at an awards
ceremony in London as "a community fully at ease with itself".
It was not always thus. A memorial near the cricket pavilion
names four local Protestant martyrs who were carted off to
Colchester Castle in 1557, to be burned at the stake for refusing to
renounce their faith during the reign of Queen Mary.
The chairman of Great Bentley parish council, Lynda McWilliams,
said after receiving the award: "We always knew that our village is
a wonderful place to live. Now the world will know it."
The competition judges were impressed because the village, which
has a population of 2,177, had moved with the times as well as
cherishing its heritage. Old and new buildings mingle harmoniously
within strolling distance of the village pond and small businesses
have been encouraged into the area.
The judges said: "It impressed as an idyllic place to live. All
in all, Great Bentley seems to have almost everything that a
community could hope for and, with enviable rail and road links,
perhaps the only surprise is that there are not more people
clamouring to move in."
Unlike many villages, Great Bentley has managed to retain its
pub, shops, health centre and several doctors. The village also
boasts a thriving primary school with 170 pupils. The judges thought
the barn-style community centre "splendid", and praised the village
green, all 43 acres of it, where cricket has been played for 220
years.
The village was awarded £3,000 to be spent on a community
project. As the winner for Eastern England and Home Counties, it
beat six other regional winners - Langholm, Dumfriesshire; Silkstone,
South Yorks; Brewood, Staffs; Mere, Wilts; St Tudy, Cornwall; and
Cwmaman, Wales. There were 42 entrants.
Charles Moore, editor of The Daily Telegraph, welcomed the
increasing popularity of the competition and said: "The village is
something not of the past but of the future. It is a way of life
people understand and appreciate. It is about community."
The Daily Telegraph and Calor Gas have launched a web site ahead
of next year's competition:
www.villageoftheyear.org
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