The results from the Buckinghamshire Best Kept Village competition 2026 have been announced.... and Astwood came within a bunch of nettles (literally!) of winning!

Aston Abbotts were the winners, scoring 198 / 200 marks. Astwood scored 196 / 200, which is an amazing result considering the standing start (the last time the village entered was 2022); for that, Astwood has been awarded the Dashwood trophy, which will be presented to the village at the September 17th Parish Council meeting (8pm onwards, in Astwood village hall).

Winning the Dashwood Trophy demonstrates that Astwood's approach to the competition was a genius decision! Considering the challenges that the weather is imposing on our lovely county, electing to pursue a Wilding theme for our entry demonstrated sustainability in our approach (albeit backed up by dedicated wheelbarrow watering when needed!).

This link will take you to the judging results, and the map & narrative produced by the Village Hall team which were judged to be highly informative and loaded with historical facts. The judges noted that these documents greatly simplified their judging activities.👏🏻👏🏻

You may be wondering how a bunch of nettles were so significant. Astwood could have been joint winnners of the competition... but we were marked down (2 points) for some nettles at the back of the seat in the village green, and for 2 (undefined) lost marks against community facilities and general environment.

Congratulations must go to the Village Hall team for their motivation, encouragement, commitment and ongoing support to ensuring that our competition entry was so successful And... an equal "thank you" to all of you Astwoodians who supported the challenge, and ensured Astwood Went Wild!!! 🙏🏻💜