East Hagbourne won record marks in the regional Britain in Bloom competition — and will represent the Thames and Chilterns region in the national finals next year.

A bumper series of awards for Oxfordshire also included a silver award to Abingdon in the large towns category, with top billing for the town's Albert Park.

East Hagbourne, as the top large village for the second year running, chalked up record marks for any category when the regional awards were announced at Milton Keynes on Wednesday last week.

And the town's primary school took the Mark Mattocks Challenge Cup for its gardens.

The judges said they fell in love with the community feel of the village.

Monica Lawson, chairman of East Hagbourne Parish Council, said: "This brilliant achievement was possible only because so many people take pride in their village and pulled together to put on a tremendous show.

"The icing on the cake is that Thames and Chilterns in Bloom is allowed only one entry to go forward to the national finals next year in 2009, and the judges have selected East Hagbourne to take that place."

Abingdon's spectacular floral displays won the town its silver accolade in the large towns section.

Judges were particularly impressed with the gardens and hanging basket displays in the town and Abingdon Business Park.

They said the town had done well in recovering from the storms that forced it to withdraw last year.

Albert Park also won the accolade for the best private park, with judges impressed that the area is just one of two parks in the country to be run by a charity.

Lesley Legge, the leader of Abingdon Town Council, said: "We are really delighted. Having had to drop out of last year's competition, we were sort of starting again.

"We did better than expected and we're really glad."

Henley, which won silver for its formal gardens and floral displays, was jointly awarded, with Olney, the trophy for Best Community Involvement.

Banbury received silver for its Banbury Cross and people's park. The cross was also awarded in the category for the best floral input.

Witney won a bronze award for its schools challenge and the River Windrush project, together with the title of best conservation and environment project for the 75 acres of lake and meadows.

Wood Green School, Witney, was also awarded a highly commended certificate for its contribution to the competition.

For the second year running, Woodstock won the gold medal for small towns, and pipped Banbury for the best commercial involvement.

Bicester took a gold award for the town's focus on recycling and environmental projects, with judges particularly impressed with the involvement of the Green Gym and the 76 trees newly planted in the town, together with the field of hope roundabout, sponsored by Marie Curie. Garth Park, in the town, won the best local authority park award.

Kidlington's gardening group's floral displays earned the village a silver award.