Audlem scoops Cheshire award

Audlem won the Community Spirit award for the whole of Cheshire last night at the 2011 Community Pride event in Ellesmere Port organised by Cheshire Community Action. Parish Council chair Kate Down accepted the coveted award on behalf of the village.

The annual awards see villages and towns across Cheshire East, Cheshire West & Chester, Halton and Warrington competing for a series of awards. Audlem has enjoyed significant success in recent years as the many plaques on the wall in The Square show clearly.

The village has not entered the Community Spirit award since 2005 when it won the Cheshire and North of England awards and also picked up the national award from Defra as the best village in all of England for its community spirit.

It was decided to enter again this year and, after completing a detailed entry form – you can read it by clicking on the link below the photo – which explained all that was going on in Audlem, judges came to the village on 20th July.

They heard a presentation by eight representatives of village organisations and saw the 'Audlem Lives' DVD produced by Alan Duncan and featuring Colin Cliffe's poem about the village that proved so popular at the Festival in May.

It seems to have done the trick and Audlem now has another Community Pride plaque that will appear in the Square shortly.

The village also picked up a Little Gem award for the Audlem signs that are located at Little Heath, Tollgate Drive and the junction of Woore Road and Paddock Lane.

Horror of horrors, after winning the Website of the Year award last year, Audlem Online was only judged runner up to Congleton's community website this year setting the webteam a 'Must do Better' target for the coming twelve months! We will recover....but it may take some time.

It was a good night for Congleton who also pipped Nantwich for the Best Kept Small Town award this year, an award Nantwich won last year and hoped to pick up again last night.

Audlem did attract many compliments from guest speaker John Hulme with the village described as one of the gems on the canal network with worthy mentions for the Shroppie Fly, the Mill Shop and The Old Priest House.

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