Site now maintained at Google Sites.
www.cradleydiary.com introduced by Ken Nason and included on several web sites. This replaces the events service originally on this site that was very laborious to obtain the data for, very time consuming to maintain, and very frustrating trying to get changes to dates and times from everyone else. Anybody can now do it for themselves! Thanks, Ken!
The village now has several web sites for various organisations and businesses and this site has now developed into a portal site to support those forward looking activities. This site remains, as always, as a service to those who are happy with a web page as their web presence, notably the Cradley Mathon and Storridge Art Group (CMSAG) who have an unbroken record here of their annual exhibitions. The other web sites are supported through portal facilities - the aim is to support all village web presence from this site, but not to duplicate effort!
Management has been led by the Parish Plan action group, led by Peter Diamond. The communications group is currently chaired by Ken Nason, the webmaster for many web sites servicing the needs of individual organisations.
Following the encouragement of winning the Calor Gas Village of the Year IT award for Herefordshire I purchased Front Page 2002 to tidy the site and present the navigation in a better form. However, conversion of the existing bulk was quite a daunting task, and the missing facility was just 'search this site', now provided by GOOGLE. I was looking for a short cut as I did not have much time available! Google search is still available (2016) but Microsoft FrontPage went obsolete very quickly.
The personalities involved with the web site included...
John Edgar,
Chairman
Jerry
Thomas
Tony Copp,
Webmaster
David Creed-Newton
John Drummond, photographer
Here follows the original application for Herefordshire 2002 - SECTION C, CATEGORY 6
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Cradley Web Site: www.cradley.org.uk
Strategy: Originally sponsored by the parish council the web site has now passed to the Village and encompasses the whole parish and its settlements. The web site is the basis of our information technology strategy which will encompass computer training and learning. The objectives of the strategy are to inform, influence and educate. The strategy is being developed within the Parish Plan which takes the views of the parish and gives ownership to the community. The development of the village hall includes the provision of a meeting /conference room which will be made available to the parish as an information technology centre.
Web Site design: The site has been running for twelve months and has so far performed an information function as ideas gather momentum- The concentration has been on building interest rather than presentation. The site is run by a web master with the support of members of the Parish Plan working groups.
We now have over 100 hits per week which is encouraging, and leads us to the next stage where resource has been made available to improve the site presentation and ease of navigation. Through the Parish Plan working groups the village and the settlements within the parish will be able to influence the development of the site. Sources of information are therefore being expanded. We are careful to expand the site in keeping with the time available from all the volunteers.
Communication: Communication with the web master is by e-mail, or for those without a facility, through certain members of the parish council. Information that may be contentious, or information for new projects is vetted by members of the Parish Plan working group, members of which will eventually become dedicated solely to the information technology strategy.
Information for the site is gathered on a monthly basis. At present facilities for fax, scanning, photography and photocopying are generously offered by people from the village. This is short term as we are aiming to provide these facilities from a community centre.
Content: At present the web site has the following information:
| IT Tips | Village Hall | Millennium Book |
| Newsletter | History | Transport |
| Village Diary | Environment | Clubs |
| Business | Parish Boundary | Parish Plan |
| Village design statement | Organisations | Neighbourhood watch |
About the site: The Cradley Village Design Statement and Parish Plan publishes its progress, and will also call for information using the Web site. We will shortly be publishing information on the extensive Cradley archive, from which a book has recently been published.
Training: Two years ago the village started computer training through Herefordshire Lifelong Learning Partnership. This was well attended and the follow up, at the request of villagers, was through Hereford College. The popularity for this type of training is growing especially among retired people, who are now requesting more advanced courses.
Training courses are advertised on the web site, the Cradley. Mathon and Storridge Newsletter, notice boards and at the Post Office.
As a follow on and incentive to the computer training courses, it is our objective to apply to become a Community Resource Centre. The centre would be equipped with a computer and modem, printer/copier and scanner. This would give more access to web sites and the internet and could provide a wide access to information, i.e. for job hunting. Our strategy is also to combine this with a Learning Direct Centre.
General: The village hall project, at present underway, is for the refurbishment of the hall with the addition of a meeting/conference room, where the centre would be housed. Volunteers have been established to give time to the centre and we are fortunate that there is a growing enthusiasm in the parish for a suitable resource.
The parish which has a population of approximately 1500 people would be well serviced by such a facility. Information on local history, footpaths, social events and essential information with regard to transport, surgery hours and resources, is already appreciated and growing. We hope the ability to take part in the Village Design Statement and Parish Plan will be taken advantage of by those who find it difficult to attend functions.
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Similar web sites and associated village initiatives
My thanks to Dave of South Cerney, who introduced me to the idea of a village web site, the virtual walking tour and CD of 1999. This was several years ago, before the turn of the millenium, and now there are many other villages with web sites of one sort or another. Let me know of any other links to local villages.
The objects of the Cradley and Storridge group are to further the image of the parish for the benefit of residents, past, present and future, providing historical and current information to support all interests in the parish. This to be done initially by collecting information to go on the internet, later possibly by publishing on CD-ROM etc. The primary driver behind all this activity is to produce the Village Design Statement and Parish Plan
The group will initially be formed under the support of the Village Design Statement / Parish Plan steering group, who will provide funding and the initial chairman. Representatives will be found from the various organisations in the parish (Cradley and Storridge) to include Church, Chapel, School, Village-Hall, MU, WI, historians, ramblers, British Legion, Village Diary, Neighbourhood Watch, Cats protection league....
The group, when formed, will become independent, electing its own chairman and officers, each organisation supplying its own resources. Financial support may come from outside the group. The group will appoint a webmaster. The webmaster will process information collected, converting it to HTML, code, etc, where possible, and put it on the internet.
The group will elect a working party to specify the overall design of the web site, as advised by the web master. The web master will advise the group on the costs of the proposed site. The working party will present the proposed design, with costs, to the group for approval.
Each organisation will nominate their web editor. The editors will be responsible for supplying information content to the webmaster, in whatever format is agreed between webmaster and web editor. When the webmaster has done a change he will eMail the location of changed pages to affected editors.
Initial web site development
19 May 2001, decided not to use frames as for previous site for Glan Gwna Holiday Homes Association but to use the whole screen width with navigation aids at the top and bottom of the page. I hope to use Microsoft FrontPage 2000 to include the same navigation to every page and an automation 'page last updated'. Trouble is, the 'back' and 'forward' buttons behave differently with different versions of different browsers. The little buttons at the top and bottom of each page go back, forward, top-of-page, bottom-of-page. Back and Forward do not work with netscape 4.75, neither do these JavaScript versions:
I am not the webmaster for the Mathon site. This site subscribes to PlusNet for web space and Fastnet for the domain names (URLs)
