Johnny Thomson 00:00
And so here we are, folks, it’s the one you’ve been waiting for! Who are this year’s winners of the Wonderful Villages Awards? Hello, everyone, I’m Johnny Thomson and welcome to The Village Halls Podcast sponsored by Allied Westminster, the UK’s largest specialist provider of village hall insurance and the home of VillageGuard. So after much deliberation and discussion our judges have now made their decisions, which means that today we can announce the five winners of the Wonderful Villages Awards. And to help me do this, I’ve been joined by two of our judges, Chairman of Rauceby Village Hall in Lincolnshire, Simon Bland, who wasn’t allowed to enter the Awards, and to Gavin Mitchell, MD of Allied Westminster, who not only sponsor our podcast, but organise the Awards and provide the all important prize money for the winning halls. Good day gentlemen, great to have you on the show once again.

Gavin Mitchell 00:58
Hi Johnny, it’s great to be here.

Simon Bland 01:00
Thanks Johnny. Fantastic to be back here, and to be back with such good news and so many inspirational stories.

Johnny Thomson 01:08
So here’s a quick recap. Before we begin, there were five categories to enter in this year’s Wonderful Villages Awards. We had the Unsung Hero or Heroes Award, the Young Person’s Award, Project of the Year, the Innovation Award and the Inspirational Story Award. And wow, what an incredible lot you all are out there, I think it’s fair to say we’ve been blown away by what people in their village communities across the entire country are capable of.

Gavin Mitchell 01:43
Indeed Johnny, in fact in all the years I’ve been working with village halls and village communities, we still get surprised, impressed and quite often moved. We hear amazing stories from villages and rural communities from all corners of the UK and in between.

Johnny Thomson 01:58
However, there can only be five winners.

Gavin Mitchell 02:02
Absolutely, indeed.

Johnny Thomson 02:04
So rather than keeping everyone waiting any longer, let’s now reveal who has been chosen in each category. And Simon, as you were the lead judge for the Unsung Heroes Award, can you begin by announcing our first winner please?

Simon Bland 02:20
Thanks, Johnny. Well, whilst the other judges will claim to have had a hard task, we on the Unsung Heroes panel really did have an insight into both people and communities going that extra mile and then running a marathon. We had so many entries, the village Father Christmas approaching four decades of service, the number of people who provide ground and hall maintenance quietly and with dedication, a whole host of extraordinary fundraisers. The list and the impact is impressive and really did underpin the belief that community is as alive as ever. So, I’m pleased to announce that Joan Maxfield, 40 years and counting her service to the community of the village of English Bicknor in Gloucestershire is our Unsung Hero. A village hall, trustee, a baker, an events organiser, really a village cheerleader who at 82 has just quietly and with great care, kept the community spirit of the village going. And I’m really delighted that Daphne Gwilliam nominated Joan, for us to hear her story, and I really look forward to the podcast episode with them.

Johnny Thomson 03:44
Brilliant. Thanks for that. And if you’re interested in finding out more about Joan and Daphne, well Simon and I are hoping to introduce you to them both in the New Year with a special episode of the podcast to celebrate their Award. Now Gavin, you kindly led the judging of our Young Person’s Award and we have a fantastic winner in this category, don’t we?

Gavin Mitchell 04:08
Don’t we just Johnny. In fact, the winning entry for this category was submitted by Susan Lees from Grindon Village Hall in Staffordshire, who told us about the incredible contribution made by 27 year old Hannah Blisset in their rural village in the Peak District.

Johnny Thomson 04:26
And yes again, we’re not going to give too much away about Grindon and all of the time and effort that Hannah has put in at the village hall there, as we’ll be inviting both Hannah and Susan onto the show in the New Year to mark this category to.

Gavin Mitchell 04:41
Yes, Johnny. Hannah, amazing she has done so much for the local community and been so involved with Village Hall in so many different ways. I mean, it’s not just one thing, right throughout the whole fabric of the local community and I think she’s very much appreciated in the local community. And yeah, it was an absolute pleasure to read all about here and I’m sure we’re going to learn more.

Johnny Thomson 05:03
Now there is one winner you’ve actually already heard from on our podcast back in October. The winner of this year’s Wonderful Villages Innovation Award is Shustoke Village Hall in the West Midlands, who thanks to Nick Cole came up with a great way of controlling the heating in the hall without anyone actually needing to be there. I’m delighted to say that Bernard Hammick from our podcast sponsors Hallmaster will be joining me soon to talk more about that system that Nick has set there in Shustoke and Nick will be coming back on the show again too. Now Simon, Janet Ridge MBE kindly helped us to judge a particularly challenging category, the Project of the Year. Now Janet too will be joining us for a future episode with the winners of this category, but perhaps you could do the honours for now and make this announcement?

Simon Bland 05:56
Okay, Johnny, I’m really pleased to announce that Jane Haslam nominated the Centre of Pendeen. They’ve been running an environmental project for a number of years. And I have to say, I’m particularly interested to hear more about this one, when they undertake the podcast with Janet. It looks a fantastic sustainable activity, and really underpins some of the work that I know village halls across the country have been doing on sustainability.

Johnny Thomson 06:26
Yeah, thanks, Simon. I’m really looking forward to Jane coming on the show soon as well. Yeah, there’s so many things that are part of the Sustainable Pendeen project that I think a lot of our listeners will find really interesting. And finally, over to Gavin again to introduce the winner of our Inspirational Story Award, which this year goes to?

Gavin Mitchell 06:48
Thank you Johnny, the answer, and we can wait we can wait, the pause, the great pause. It’s Tarbock Jubilee Village Hall. They’re the winners, with their entry submitted by Vicky Corcoran. Now I hope I’m pronouncing that correctly. Corcoran, who along with many local volunteers have brought their village home back to life, which is absolutely buzzing with activity. And again, I think we’re gonna hear more about this, Johnny?

Johnny Thomson 07:15
Yeah, yeah, definitely. We’ll ask, we’ll ask Vicky how to say it. Because I would say Corcoran. You see a Corcoran. I see potato, you say potaato!

Gavin Mitchell 07:30
You know when you’re up in the north west of Scotland, Mallaig, Mallaig, oh dear, So yeah, apologies. I’m very bad at that sort of thing Johnny. I’m sure you’re correct.

Johnny Thomson 07:37
No hey, listen you could be right. Thanks, Gavin. Anyway, many thanks also to Nick Cairns who led the judging for this category and who you will hear more from, along with Vicky when she tells us how to pronounce her name correctly, in another special episode in the New Year and really look forward to that one.

Gavin Mitchell 07:57
Great, good.

Johnny Thomson 07:58
Congratulations to all. And of course, Gavin, £1,000 courtesy of Allied Westminster will be on its way to the winning hall soon.

Gavin Mitchell 08:08
Thank you Johnny, it’s been an absolute pleasure to be back on the show. And I’m very proud that Allied Westminster has underpinned yet another Wonderful Villages Aawards. And this time, of course, it’s not the photo competition as in previous years, and I think this is a great format. So a huge thanks to all of those who have entered the competition. It’s been amazing. But again, Johnny, if we’re going to hear more, won’t we?

Johnny Thomson 08:33
Yeah, yeah, we’ll certainly be hearing more in due course. So that’s our five winners folks. If you entered and you didn’t win an Award this time, don’t worry, we will almost certainly be running the Awards again next year, as it has been incredible for all of us to hear about so many projects, local heroes, and terrific ideas. And you never know. I may also be in touch with some of you next year to invite you on to the podcast to talk about your village hall and everything that goes on there. It’s been incredibly hard judging these awards this year, hasn’t it guys?

Simon Bland 09:08
It really has. And as I say, I can’t think of it as purely just winners, because every entry had so much merit, so much support and demonstrated such a love of community life that they really are things for us to, to really hear about in podcasts if possible.

Gavin Mitchell 09:34
It’s been hard, but it’s been a privilege. And as I said earlier, it’s been moving as well. It’s been great, fantastic.

Johnny Thomson 09:42
And there you have it. Thanks again to Simon and Gavin for helping with the judging of the awards and to Janet, Bernard and Mick, of course. And thanks for helping me today with the announcement guys. I’m sure we’ll be chatting again soon.

Gavin Mitchell 09:55
Absolutely, Johnny. We will indeed. I’m looking forward to it. Thank you.

Simon Bland 09:58
Thanks, Johnny. Yeah, I hope so.

Johnny Thomson 10:01
And so that’s all for now folks. In the run up to Christmas, I’ll be back with a quick roundup of Season Two, looking back at some of the podcast highlights from this year, so watch out for that one. As always, many, many thanks to our headline sponsor and specialist insurance provider Allied Westminster for making our podcast possible, and whose services you can discover more about the villageguard.com. And to online booking system provider Hallmaster, who also sponsor our podcast and can be found at hallmaster.co.uk. You’ve been listening to The Village Halls Podcast, a unique listening community for Britain’s village church and community halls, and anyone interested in the vital community services they provide. We’ll be back again soon with another episode. Please visit thevillagehallspodcast.com to subscribe, sign up for updates, link through to our social media pages and to find out more. But until the next time, goodbye for now.