ABOUT WREA GREEN: LANCASHIRE LIFE ARTICLE
October 2001
In the October edition of Lancashire Life the Editor, Anthony
Skinner, describes how he went about judging the Lancashire
Best Kept village competition together with a profile of Wrea
Green. Both articles are reproduced below with Anthony Skinner's
permission for which we are most grateful.
We have also obtained permission from the artist Gordon Wilkinson
to include copies of his excellent water colours that accompanied
the article. To see the larger sized images, visit the Paintings
section within Local Pictures.
SIMPLY THE BEST
The Editor of Lancashire Life Anthony Skinner explains why
he chose Wrea Green as this year's champion Lancashire village
THIS summer I followed in some illustrious footsteps. Several
of the 'great and the good' of Lancashire have judged the final
stage of the prestigious Lancashire Best Kept Village Competition
over the years. Last year the Bishop of Blackburn did the honours.
This year it was my turn. Believe me, it was not an easy assignment.
Mind you, most of the hard work had been carried out before
I set foot in any of the villages under scrutiny. A small army
of experienced judges had already cast their expert eyes over
the 123 villages who entered. Normally, two teams of judges
visit each village at different times. They work and mark independently,
noting the overall tidiness, absence of litter and the general
appearance and condition of the properties and amenities. The
villages with the highest marks go forward to the finals.
There's a lot of work involved because not only are the villages
themselves being judged but there are also prizes for a whole
range of community facilities such as best kept shop, school,
church, war memorial etc.
Anyway, by the time I became involved as 'Finals Judge' the
original 123 strong entry had been whittled down to just eight
finalists - two each from the champion class, large village,
small village and hamlet.
This gave me the opportunity to see a good deal of this great
county of ours as I travelled to judge the remaining contenders.
There was Arkholme in the gorgeous Lune Valley; Wrea Green
on the Fylde; Newburgh, near Parbold; the hamlets of Knowle
Green and Walker Fold in the Ribble Valley; Mawdesley, between
Chorley and Ormskirk; and Lathom and Shirdley Hill in West Lancashire
(I hadn't even heard of Shirdley Hill, never mind visited it
before. Oh dear, what a confession for an Editor of Lancashire
Life to make).
I found the whole exercise a very pleasant if rather daunting
task, although it was made far more manageable by the presence
of the inestimable Bill Watkinson, the competition organiser,
who acted as my guide and mentor.
But how do you judge one village against another, especially
when they look and feel so different? The short answer is: with
difficulty.
Take the two champion class contenders, Wrea Green and Newburgh,
for example. Both are very pretty, well kept, thriving communities
of style and substance with village greens and most of the other
traditional features one expects of picturesque places of this
nature.
Wrea Green may have a more immediate 'Wow' factor because of
the sheer scale and drama of its village green, but Newburgh
is equally impressive in its own way once you take the trouble
to walk round it and sample its ambience. Some of the cottages
in Newburgh are among the finest I have seen in Lancashire.
And this is a village that deserves to do well. Newburgh has
made great strides over the last few years, culminating in it
winning the large village section of the competition in 2000,
a victory which propelled it into the 'big league' of the champion
class.
I'll tell you how hard I found this judging business. I went
back three times to view each champion contender at different
times of the day and still found making a decision desperately
difficult. The Lancashire Best Kept Village Competition is exactly
as its name suggests. It is not a beauty contest. I was not
looking for the prettiest villages in the county but the ones
which had made the best of themselves. In the end it came down
to individual choice - a gut feeling, if you like. The residents
of Wrea Green seemed to me to have tried just that little bit
harder. The village was clean, tidy, well kept and in a well
ordered state. Its natural beauty had been enhanced because
people cared enough to look after it properly. I can hardly
remember seeing any litter at all.
Much of the same applies to Newburgh but in the end I had to
make a decision and there could be only one outright winner.
I'm not saying mine was a very scientific approach but I did
my best and spent a good few pleasurable hours doing so.
Better luck next year Newburgh and also the other three finalists
- Lathom, Shirdley Hill and Walker Fold - who didn't get my
final vote. Believe me, it's nothing personal. All of you deserve
to win accolades for what you have done. And there is one consolation.
I won't be doing the judging next year.
Winning villages receive a trophy, wayside seat and a commemorative
plaque. The champion village will also receive a framed painting
by Lancashire Life artist Gordon Wilkinson. The competition
is organised by the Community Council of Lancashire to help
promote rural life.
ANTHONY SKINNER PROFILES A CHAMPION COMMUNITY
WREA GREEN is an ancient settlement. People have lived here
since the 12th century and there has been a school since the
late 17th century. Until the 1860s the village was called Wray,
from the Danish word Vra meaning a secluded corner or nook.
However, a vicar in Victorian times became fed up of his
mail ending up in the village of Wray, near Lancaster. He successfully
petitioned the General Post Office in London for a change of
name and amazingly officials agreed to his request. Wrea Green
was born.
In Victorian times the green was even larger than it is today
and the farms and cottages
surrounding it opened straight on to the area. This practice
changed when residents began to create front gardens for themselves
by fencing off their land. Many of these gardens are now delightful
and have been lovingly landscaped and cultivated.
Wrea Green is a place which embodies some of the best qualities
of English village life. There is the historic country pub,
The Grapes,  which
sits alongside the equally splendid Victorian church with its
imposing lych gate. The thriving village school is nearby. Pub,
church and school - how many villages can still boast all three?
The famous green after which the village is named is reputedly
the biggest in Lancashire. It dominates the heart of the village
which has effectively grown up around it. It is not just a pretty
face. Football and cricket matches are played there and it is
the setting for other community activities.
The famous duck pond, or 'The Dub', as it is known locally,
lies at one end of the green. This was formed when medieval
residents built their wattle and daub cottages by digging the
clay beneath. Later more of the clay was extracted to fashion
hand made bricks. There were once three ponds but two have been
filled in and the remaining one has benefited from improvements
to the drainage system.
I love Wrea Green's architecture, its eclectic mix of styles
and sizes down the ages. A glorious higgledy-piggledy assortment
of homes are clustered round the green, from grand villas to
bijou cottages and thatched houses to modern-looking semis and
town houses. Red brick and white walled properties peacefully
co-exist and there are black and white mock Tudor properties,
Georgian houses of distinction and Victorian and Edwardian architecture,
ranging from the imposing to the idiosyncratic.
 One
property called the White Lodge has a date stamp of 1675. Other
homes can't be much more than 30 years old. This architectural
mish mash is the result of generations of residents 'doing their
own thing' in house building. It is a testimony to individual
taste and style.
 Wrea
Green's population has increased from about 700 in the early
1950s to around 2,000 now and most of that rise came in the
1960s and 70s. Housing development has been restricted since
then and a public inquiry in 1992 ruled that developers could
only build in three areas of the village.
Wrea Green became a fashionable place to live after the war
and its attractiveness to commuters has brought an inevitable
increase in traffic with cars and lorries using the main road
through the village as a short cut to other places on the Fylde
and of course many residents have two or more cars.
Traffic worries led the parish
council to agitate successfully for a mini roundabout which has now been
created at the village crossroads and this has regulated traffic
flow somewhat better and made the area safer for pupils from the primary
school. A recent addition to the landscape is a rather striking Millennium
Clock in the centre of the village although Wrea Green does not have a
village hall. Nevertheless, there seems to be a lot of community activity
with the women's institute and the church at the forefront.
As one might expect,
Wrea Green has done rather well over the years in the Lancashire
Best Kept Village Competition, winning the premier award -
the Champion class - on nine occasions beginning in 1959,
and being runner-up a good few times too. The last win recorded
on the large wooden notice board on the green is 1996. Now
they can add 2001 to the honours list. Congratulations Wrea
Green.
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