THREE Wiltshire villages were handed their awards for the Best Kept Village of the Year award over the weekend, as well as having a presentation for the residents.

Aldbourne, All Cannings and Rushall were amongst the list of names to pick up a prize in the annual competition and were handed plaques on Sunday (September 26) as well as being paid a visit by Wiltshire Lord Lieutenant Sarah Troughton.

All Cannings, which was given the Best Kept Medium Village award, was presented with an eight-foot standard with mounted shield for the year to recognise the hard work by the community.

Kate Asbury, parish clerk for All Cannings, said: “The day went very well, luckily the weather was good for it. We walked down from the village hall to the pond where the Lord Lieutenant met us and gave a speech about the community support in the village. There were between 20 and 30 people who turned up for the presentation, we have won the award four times, the last time was in 2013 so this was the first year we were allowed to be in the running. We have a great variety of volunteers, we have older people take part in litter picks and also younger volunteers helping in the community.”

After All Cannings, Rushall was the next stop for the unveiling of the award, with the village snapping up Best Kept Small Village of the year. The plaque, which will be in the village for the next year, was placed at the village stocks on the main Devizes/Pewsey crossroads.

Richard Tilbury, chairman of the Rushall parish council, said: “I think it went very well and very smoothly. It was a very nice atmosphere, we had a good selection of villagers turn up for the presentation, about 40 people were there to watch. We won the award in 2010 and then the Lawrence Kitchener award which is given to winners of previous years. It is great that people in the village work so hard to keep everything looking nice.”

Aldbourne also got a look in this year after receiving the Laurence Kitching Award, which is given to villages who have been placed in the past two years.

Alison Edmonds, vice chairman of the Aldbourne parish council, said: "We were visited by John Kirkman, chairman of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, and Linda Sankey from NFU Mutual, who said a couple of words and presented the plaque to Peter Lawler, the chairman of the parish council.

"It went very well, to receive the Laurence Kitching award is a very high honour as it is an award for the best of the best. To win it isn't just from the work of the parish council but of the whole community."