NORDELPH COMMUNITY WEBSITE: May 2007
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QUICK TOUR The Incredible Shrinking Fens
Nordelph featured in the Eastern Daily Press's regular 'Down Memory Lane' feature on Wednesday 9th May. In this slot, an old photograph is displayed and reminiscences invited. To see the photo above in rather better quality, to read what was said about it, and to understand just why we've given our report the title that we have, go to our item in Photos of Old Nordelph ( in the Nordelph Past section).
We are not alone in cyberspace
In fact, we never were. Two of our nearer neighbours already have lively and active websites that pre-date this Nordelph one: Welney (www.welney.org.uk) and Upwell (www.upwellvillage.co.uk). But now we welcome on the scene a new website for Barroway Drove (www.barrowaydrove.org).
This is an up-to-date and very active website: as well as a (growing) gallery of images representing Barroway Drove, it hosts a discussion forum, a live weather forecast feed, calendar of events and more. As such, and certainly in its more technically accomplished features, it's a more 'contemporary' website than our own. In particular, it allows users to create and upload their own content.
These are features that we cannot easily provide from the Nordelph site. The main reason is that Barroway Drove are making use of a sophisticated hosting service. This Nordelph site is 'hand crafted' as it were, and the biggest barrier to such enviable interactivity is that we don't have sufficiently advanced skills to be able to do it!
But many such features are available as add-on packages, either free or at modest cost (our own visitor counter, for example). Take a look at the Barroway Drove site, and if there's anything there you feel would enhance the Nordelph site, let us know on info@nordelph.org. Note that you'll need to explicitly access their site (click on the picture or on the link in the text) because our 'new items' button doesn't take you to pages off our own site.
Football in the Fens
We already have a history of football in the Fens in our Nordelph Past section. This was prepared for us by Gordon Smith, historian of Wisbech Town FC. This month, Gordon has focused on Nordelph's own football team. You don't know about it? That could be because it folded around 1955! But it had its successes -- in 1948, it won the cup and you can read the contemporary match report from the Wisbech Standard. Not only that, but you can download the league tables from the time (in spreadsheet format).
Planning decisions
A little while ago, the villagers in the High Street became rather exercised by a proposed development close to the junction with Silt Road; you may recall that it prompted an early Parish Council meeting, which recommended rejection of the application, a decision that was supported by the Borough Council. You may not be aware that the deliberations of that Council and its committees are usually available via the Internet, and you can read the minutes of the meeting that discussed this at:
www.west-norfolk.gov.uk/pdf/dcbreconmins090207.pdf
Nordelph traders
We've been remiss in not pressing local businesses to advertise in our 'Trade Directory' feature. This offers a free listing to any business that operates from, or provides services to Nordelph. There's just under a dozen entries so far, ranging from Carpenters to Chimney Sweeps. This month, we've added our local taxi and private hire service, Bishops Travel. Meanwhile, if you are a trader, or want to recommend one that's done you good service, just let us know on info@nordelph.org.
Thank you ...
... to the visitors who reported parts of the website not working after last month's tweaks. Most (in)visible was the disappearance of the Back Numbers feature
which allows you to retrieve the 'home page' of the site for any month of the last two years. It's back and working again -- but remember that all we've done is to archive the page: the links therein generally work, but there's no guarantee that the pages they link to are still there, or that the pages are unchanged. Following a link to the 'Church Services', for example, will call up the June 2007 listing, whatever the age of the page! For anyone with an interest in the state of the website in the past, you should know that at the time of each update, we save a complete image of the site as a backup. You can't access this over the Internet, but anyone with a need (or just an interest) is welcome to request a copy via info@nordelph.org
And while we're on about changes to the site, the observant among you may notice that we've reclaimed a bit of space by removing the rather redundant heading from the Index frame. The site always looks best if there aren't any ugly scroll bars to spoil the 'seamless' effect. This latest tweak helps just a bit!
Elsewhere in this update
As well as the items mentioned above, there's plenty of other new content this month. Ranting, introduced a couple of months back when a correspondent sounded off about the NHS Choose & Book system, seems to have caught on. This month's 'grumpy old resident' has something to say about Going Green.
And there's a new digital photography tutorial in our Nordelph Future section: this month you can learn about the problems and the solutions when taking photos from screens.
We've discovered a down side to seasonal food: if radishes, our 'vegetable of the month', weren't seasonal,we'd be able to enjoy December 23rd as the (unbelievable) 'Night of the Giant Radishes'. By the way, our Seasonal Food Master Page has enjoyed a bit of a makeover, to make it more user-friendly. Our chain of 'new pages' will take you here for a look, before moving on to the radishes themselves!
Norfolk Rural Community Council
This is a leading charity dedicated to improving the quality of life for the people of
On Friday 1st June, they will be holding a 'Roadshow' in Downham Market marketplace. On Tuesday 5th June there will be an evening event in the Howdale Community Centre, subject: Developing a Community Hub/Providing Local Services.
Waterworks
From Tuesday 29th May, Anglian Water will be replacing unlined metal water mains in Silt Road and Coronation Avenue. This will involve disconnection of the water supply to many properties, including some in High Street. An engineer will be on-site if you need advice or assistance, but if there is any reason (such as a medical one) why you have special requirements, you should contact their 24-hour Contact Centre on 08457 145145. They promise 48 hours' warning of any disruptions!