RAGLAN has won two village awards in the Chepstow Garden Centre sponsored GAVO awards for the county and picked up two Wales in Bloom awards for the village and the chairman of the committee.

They won Best Kept Village and the Best War Memorial in the county awards.

On top of the Silver Gilt in Wales in Bloom for runner-up in Best Village, chairman of the Raglan in Bloom committee, Trevor Philips, was presented with the Norman Stewart Memorial Prize in recognition of his “countless amount of time and effort to improving his village”.

The citation from Wales in Bloom continued:?“For many years, the winner and his wife have been actively involved in both co-ordinating the village entry, whilst encouraging all residents and local businesses to get involved. On the village High Street, the ongoing annual support from the local businesses is indeed testament no doubt to his powers of persuasion.”

“With a brand new eco-friendly junior school having just opened in the village, we are sure that he and his new team of active volunteers will have ambitious plans to help the children develop the school garden in 2016 and beyond.”

Bouncing back from a low a few years ago, when the committee disbanded due to lack of interest, the success heaped on them for the 2015 awards is a testimony to the hard work and dedication of the current band of volunteers, that included two 11 year olds, - Reuben and Alexander Bradley - that helped to put Raglan in the spotlight yet again.

Trevor Phillips said that the committee will be working even harder next year. One of the judges has offered to come in and give them some advice on incorporating the castle, allotments and the new school within the 2016 portfolio bid: “He can see a way forward for us, we ran out of time this year with all the different parts of our presentation. The new school will be up and running next year, we took him down there this year and he was very impressed.”

Usk meanwhile won Gold standards in the categories of Large Village, Best Front Garden and Best School.