A team of green-fingered villagers have scooped a gold award as the best large village category in the South West regional final of the RHS Britain in Bloom (BIB) competition.

Bere Alston In Bloom (BAIB) is celebrating the award which recognises the most beautiful, tidy, horticulturally impressive and environmentally friendly villages, towns and cities in the country with proven community input.

The village has an award-winning record in the competition and this year impressed the judges with its sense of humour by including light-hearted scarecrows throughout the village, including a ‘live’ version of the chairman of the village garden society Alan Reid sitting very still in a wheelbarrow.

Other impressive contributions included the primary school (with children’s sunflower garden and veg patch), the railway station (including a Scout group display) and the village war memorial (with ceramic poppies, soldier statues and benches). This was backed up by wildlife surveys of moths (published), hedgehogs, bats and slow worms and an allotment which provides bulbs, seeds, fruit and veg and bedding plants – with excess produce going to the village foodbank.

On the walk-around, a BIB judge asked that the Quarry Corner display (pictured) be included (exceeding the number of entries allowed in the It’s Your Neighbourhood section).

BAIB chair Jeanette Englefield said: “We are really pleased to get the gold award. It’s a tribute to the group and to all those groups, residents and the school and the station. It shows it’s a truly community project. We are very proud and delighted to qualify for the national competition next year.”