Porlock was named Somerset's Best Large Village of 2003. A trophy presentation was made to community leaders at a special ceremony on Tuesday 16th September. The annual contest, run by Somerset Community Council and sponsored by Calor Gas, is open to more than 300 villages around the county.

All entrants receive a visit by a panel of judges and make a presentation to the organisers. Villages are judged on health, hospital transport, education and other community facilities. The winners received a cash prize of £100, a framed certificate and a trophy.

The judges praised Porlock for the balance it achieved between the needs of visitors and local people.

"The first impression one gets of Porlock is that it is just a tourist village"
said Barry Leatherwood and Jonathan Layzell. "It is certainly much more." They said the range of facilities for
young and old would be impressive in a settlement many times bigger - but in a village with 1,188 people on the electoral role it was "remarkable".

The village has a host of thriving organisations and it won national media attention when it led a high profile campaign to attract visitors during the foot-and-mouth crisis that devastated rural economies across the country.

Somerset County Gazette comment, September 19th 2003 Porlock's latest success in clinching the title of the Best Large Village in Somerset is a well-deserved accolade.

Community leaders have continued to tread a determined and positive path since the dark days of the foot-and-mouth crisis which left much of West Somerset a no-go area.

If only Porlock's spirit, energy and sheer appetite for staging events, keeping services going and ensuring its many and varied organisations thrive, could be bottled, it could become the regeneration elixir for all West Somerset communities.