Deddington OnLine ("DOL") was the creation of Colin Robinson and Charles Newey. In 1997, fortified by a pint or two of 'Hookie' in the pub one night, they thought that this would be a good project with which to mark the Millennium in Deddington. With the assistance of a team of volunteers it has grown steadily to cover all aspects of the Parish of Deddington and is now one of the leading village websites in the country.

The aims of the website

  • To place Deddington firmly on the tourist map
  • To provide links with regional, commercial, educational and other community websites
  • To provide another form of communication in the village for discussing important issues - The Forum
  • To bring our local businesses to the attention of anyone seeking services in the area
  • To give clubs and societies space in which to publicise and report on their activities
  • To provide an archive for historical, geographical and environmental information about the parish

How the site is run

Although the site is run by a group of self appointed volunteers, we try and give as much public exposure as possible to what we do by taking a regular slot in the Deddington News and holding at least one annual 'open' meeting in the Crown & Tuns Pub.

Management of the site, review of material, checking compliance with our own code of conduct (see below), etc, is done by a Web Editorial Group (WEG) which meets the third Thursday of the month.

Present WEG members are: Don Anderson, Elizabeth Burak, Celia Clark, Colin Cohen, Paul Drawmer, Alison Day, Rob Forsyth, Pippa Kitchen, Martin Ince, Martin Reed and Colin Robinson.

There is also a group of interested people who do a lot of the leg work in finding and preparing new material for the site. They include: Jo Eames, Maureen Forsyth, Buffy Heywood, Mary Robinson and Sylvie Spenceley.

Additional volunteers are always welcome. Please email editor@deddington.org.uk for details.

What goes onto the site

Any social or business enterprise within the parish is entitled to an entry on DOL

  • Clubs, societies and group entries are limited to 250 words - excluding postal, email and URL addresses, telephone & fax numbers. Two illustrations are allowed of 50Kbytes maximum size total for both illustrations.
  • Businesses are limited to 25 words - excluding postal, email and URL addresses, telephone and fax numbers. Separate and expanded web page(s) can be linked to this entry provided the cost of generation of the page(s) is borne by the business. The WEG can provide a list of suitable compilers and advice for those who are unfamiliar with creating websites.
  • A wide variety of articles reflect the multi-facets of Deddington parish life: local history, parish council reports, church and chapel, village walks, natural history, diary of events, and our wide-ranging community services (Library, Fire Service, etc). Links provide immediate access to websites generated by other parish institutions such as the school, health centre, Parish church.

Code of Conduct

A public website such as ours clearly needs a code of conduct. The following are the key guidelines we observe:

  • Nothing of a personal nature is published without that persons consent unless they have already clearly placed it in the public domain. Even then we normally check with them.
  • All material is proof read to check that it is not scurrilous, libellous or otherwise unacceptable to the public at large. The WEG reserves the right to refuse any material on this basis.
  • We always seek copyright permission where appropriate.
  • DOL is registered under the Data Protection Act and conforms to the provisions of the Act. Every reasonable attempt is made by the WEG to ensure that material placed on the site is accurate and up to date - we undertake a massive annual review. Please see the Disclaimer which we are obliged to include for good legal reasons.

Financing DOL

The work carried out by members of the WEG is entirely voluntary. Web design, site maintenance, and web hosting costs are donated free by Granary Publications of Deddington. We are extremely grateful for this.

Some small costs are incurred from time to time for which the WEG occasionally seeks donations.

The other costs of running DOL are currently met by the group itself. An initial grant from Deddington Parish Council is gratefully acknowledged, although Deddington Parish Council is not responsible for any of the contents of this site beyond that which it may have directly provided.