Page updated: March 24, 2010

Our beginnings and objectives

This web site was started by Neil Price and Geoff Hodgkinson for the benefit of the town and its surrounding areas. It was established in September 2005 using software developed by Geoff's company and the content and resources of Neil's earlier Town web site.

By combining forces, Geoff and Neil aim to create a vibrant electronic community based on the Town. We will continuously upload lots of great material to build, over time, a fascinating and hopefully valuable archive of Hatherleigh. This will include publications such as the The Parish Pump and picture reports of important events such as the unique Tar Barrel pulls on Carnival Day. Day to day news will be continuously added to our front page and there's plenty of opportunity for anyone to contribute. You can even upload stories yourself if you wish!

We encourage contributions from residents about any topic relevant to the Town and we guarantee freedom of expression - so long as it's legal, decent, honest and truthful!. So if you have a point to make or a comment to pass on, either send it to us here, or use the Forum pages. A Hather_blog will be started shortly if there's enough interest.

We welcome support from organisations who would like to have their own section of this site. These pages are known as Community Pages and they can have a distinctive image and style to suit the organisation concerned. Only a web browser is needed and all the work can be done from a PC located anywhere. This may be a better option than starting a separate web site because it will easier to manage. It will also show the community working together. Community Pages can also benefit from the high visitor rates we anticipate getting. However, we will act as a portal to other web sites on request as well.

We welcome contributions from any one around the globe having an interest in the Town. Perhaps you moved abroad some years ago? Did you come to Carnival and want to know more about the Barrels? Was Hatherleigh your B&B base during last year's holiday and you'd like to tell the world about it?

Our overriding aim is to stimulate interest in the town and encourage people to visit. We particularly want to support the various businesses who make such an important contribution towards the economic viability of the community - the shops particularly, but also the pubs, the Pottery, the Market, the Auction and the many others who make Hatherleigh a unique community in the heart of Devon. People don't automatically think of Hatherleigh as a place to visit - but the strange thing is that once they do visit they want to come again. Many buy houses and stay! If this web site can bottle some of that magic and pass it on then we will have been successful.

We won't be able to do it all at once. But by working steadily forwards, by adding new material often, and by telling the world about the site, we will build a resource that will attract world interest and stimulate traffic, both electronically and on the streets. We even hope that this site may eventually be seen as another one of those important turning points in the history of a fascinating, 1000 year old, community.

Interested in the software?
Please read this page

Sponsorships and Advertising

Who should advertise?

From past experience, we are expecting up to 50% of visitors to this site to be 'local' i.e. to come from Hatherleigh and its surroundings. The remainder will be from Devon, the rest of UK, North America, Australia and the rest of the world. Therefore, the site will be a good advertising medium for:

• Local businesses seeking local customers
• Retail businesses seeking customers from the rest of Devon
• Tourist-based businesses wanting to attract national and international customers

There are several levels of advertising possible. Please contact us if you need advice or guidance. The content of your advertisement may need to be carefully targetted if you want to reach a special audience. We will be pleased to help design and prepare your advertisement, including photography.

NB1: We will continuously review the above, so buying now might be a good idea since when we get going properly these prices may have to rise!

NB2: Existing advertisiers on www.hatherleigh.org.uk are being transferred free of charge to the new site. You will be invoiced for the new site only when your existing subscription has expired.

Visitor Rates: To find out what our current visitor rates are please look at the top right hand corner of the home page. This will give you an idea about the number of people seeing our Primary Sponsors logos at the moment. It is an annualised figure, which means it is the number of visitors expected over the coming 12 months based on current trends. We expect the trend to rise dramatically as we are undertaking Search Engine Optimization programs now and expect to become a top Devon site quite quickly.

Contact Neil or Geoff to discuss your needs

Other sites by Geoff include Crown Cottage in Hatherleigh, a unique weekend holiday break venue right in the centre of town

By working together we can benefit all