A RECORD number of villages took part in this year's Lancashire's Best Kept Village Competition -- with Chorley entrants scooping a number of awards

The competition, sponsored by the Chorley and District Building Society, saw 128 villages taking part -- many for the first time.

This year's finals judge, the Bishop of Blackburn, the right reverend Alan Chesters, had the unenviable task of selecting the winning villages from a total of nine finalists -- many from the Chorley and surrounding district.

Rev Chesters said: "I was most impressed by the standard reached in the villages selected as finalists, but also in the high standards of many of the other communities involved in the competition which I passed through when visiting the finalists.

"At this level the decisions as to who is first and second are far from easy."

The bishop will present the trophies to the winning villages in Staining Village on Saturday, October 21, at 2.30pm.

Mawdesley and Charnock Richard were voted runners-up in the Large Village Class, with Heskin highly commended in the Small Village Class.

Heskin's Methodist Chapel was highly commended in the Certificate of Merit for Places of Worship and Grounds, while St John's CE School, Whittle-le-Woods, was highly commended in the School and Grounds entry.

Barrons Great Outdoors in Coppull was highly commended in the Industrial and Commercial section, together with Goodyears at Mawdesley.

The winner of the Public House section was Mawdesley's Black Bull, with Heskin's Farmers Arms and the Red Lion at Mawdesley highly commended.

The winner of the Best War Memorial was Wheelton, with Eccleston scooping the best kept Cricket Field.