The winners of the 2009 Best Kept Churchyard competition were announced at the RCCE AGM last Thursday.
It was good to see that almost half the entries for this year's Best Kept Churchyard were new to the competition. And, after two rounds of judging and visits the winners were announced at the RCCE AGM on Thursday 9th July at Channels Golf Club.
RCCE is grateful to Lodge & Sons (Builders) Ltd for their continued sponsorship of the competition and to all the judges who give their time voluntarily to visit each churchyard. The importance of having a Management Plan in place was apparent from the judges comments and entrants to the competition who didn't have a Management Plan will receive a copy of an information leaflet helping them put together a plan.
The winners this year were:
Winner of the £150 prize: St Mary & St Christopher, Panfield
2nd prize £100: St Peter ad Vincula, Coggeshall
3rd prize £50: Little Baddow URC Chapel
Highly Commended:
St Margarets, Downham
St Mary the Virgin, Ingatestone & Fryerning
St Mary the Virgin, Theydon Bois
Thank you to all the churches that entered and please look out for details of next year's competition early in 2010!
Keith Sutton, MBE and John Moorey from Panfield receive their first prize from RCCE President, David Boyle