Best Kept Village Competition

The Best Kept Village competition has been running in Northern Lincolnshire since 1976.

It is organised and run by CPRE Northern Lincolnshire and is open to all small towns and villages within that area. To mark the local 50th anniversary and the national centenary of CPRE in 2026, the prize money is being doubled for the main groups, in this year’s competition. This is thanks to the generous sponsorship by InternetTY and Quickline, the assistance of which continues to be very much appreciated.

This year’s competition had a special feature. With CPRE celebrating its 100^th anniversary this year we are marking this special event by offering a prize of £250 to the best representation of the centenary. It could be in the form of a display, an imaginative planting scheme or something that illustrates one or more aspects of CPRE’s activities.

Any village wishing to enter next year’s competition should contact the organiser Jenny Haynes.  Her email address is jenny.haynes@btinternet.com.  To encourage more villages and towns to join this popular competition, there is a new entrant category, with free entry for the first year.

Thank you also to all those villages who participated in the 2026 competition. As usual, judging took into consideration a number of criteria with the emphasis on community involvement. Entrants were placed in groups according to their population size and those placed first, second and third in each group received an award.

In addition, our community volunteers also competed in a number of individual categories:

• Best Community Planting
• Best kept Playground,
• Best kept Churchyard,
• Best kept Cemetery,
• Best kept War Memorial,
• Best kept Public House.

For full details please refer to our score sheet here.

To see some wonderful pictures of some of the best floral creations on display, download our Best Kept Village 2026 Newsletter.

We are pleased to make the following announcement of all 2026 winners.

Small Village

1st: Low Burnham.
2nd:East Lound.
3rd: Elsham
Highly Commended: Appleby, Redbourne.

Medium Village

1st: Ulceby
2nd: Owston Ferry
3rd: Barnetby-le-Wold

Highly Commended: South Ferriby, West Butterwick

Large Village

1st: Belton
2nd Westwoodside,
3rd Haxey.

Highly Commended: Goxhill,Scawby

Small Town 

1st: Waltham
2nd: Barton-Upon-Humber
3rd: Epworth

Highly Commended: Broughton, Crowle and Ealand

Other Category Awards

Best Community Planting:

• Small Village: Low Burnham
• Medium Village: Ulceby
• Large Village: Haxey
• Small Town: Barton-upon-Humber

Best Kept Churchyard: West Butterwick

Runner up: North Killingholme

Best Kept War Memorial: Haxey

Runner up: Waltham

Best Kept Cemetery: Goxhill

Runner up: Waltham

Best Kept Playground: Scawby

Runner up: Barton-Upon-Humber

Best Kept Public House: The Crown, Belton

Runner up: White Hart Owston Ferry,

Special Centenary Award
Barnetby-le-Wold
Runner up
East Lound

Most Improved Worlaby

Thanks to everyone who participated. We look forward to running the competition again in 2027.