THE Aldbourne village website, which helped inspire a storyline in the world's long-running radio soap The Archers, has won a top regional award in the Village of the Year contest.

Parish councillors Jane Palmer and Annette Jerram received the award from gardening broadcaster Alan Titchmarsh at a ceremony in London on Tuesday.

The pair had travelled to London knowing that the website www.aldbourne.org.uk was a finalist in the Village of the Year regional information technology section but not dreaming that it would be named as the winner.

It is a huge accolade for the village that was one of the first in the country to set up a website three years ago. Last year, producers of The Archers contacted the Aldbourne website committee for information that has been used in the creation of the website for the fictional village of Ambridge.

Aldbourne website chairman Jez Dolman was not aware of the award until contacted by the Gazette yesterday and his reaction was: "That's great."

Mr Dolman, who runs the village Post Office Stores, said it was a well deserved award for all those who had started the Aldbourne website and ensured its continuing success.

Coun Palmer said: "We knew when we were invited to the lunch at the Millennium Mayfair Hotel that we had got through to the regional finals of the information technology section of the Village of Year awards.

"We did not have a clue until we got there that we were winners. We were amazed when we were told that Aldbourne was the regional winner for the South and South East."

One of the first things Coun Palmer did on returning to Aldbourne was to e-mail the news to the village website so that its users were among the first to know of its success.

Coun Palmer and Coun Jerram were presented with a framed certificate that will eventually be displayed in the village's Memorial Hall.