About Nunnington.net

Nunnington.net has its origins in the Nunnington News. This was a monthly newsletter published by the late Margaret Timbrell, the village’s lay preacher, on two sides of A4, typed out on an old-fashioned typewriter and roneod by the staff at Nunnington Hall.

However, as Margaret aged, she felt she couldn’t continue with the newsletter and asked for volunteers. Three from the parish duly answered the call and formed the News Team.

By good fortune, the team took over in February 2020, just before Covid, giving them time to upgrade the Nunnington News to entertain and inform the village about the virus and the measures taken to control it. Quickly, the new News developed many more topics and became a much admired part of village life.

All editions of the new Nunnington News can be found at https://wordsnotdeeds.co.uk/nunnington-news/.

However, by February 2024, as life returned to normal, time for members of the team became scarce and the village embraced to online world, the news team decided to turn the Nunnington News into a website, and this is the result.

A deeper look at nunnington.net

There are a number of reasons why we have decided on this new approach:

  • Making a PDF/paper newsletter takes a considerable amount of time in editing, setting and publishing, whereas a website is less restrictive, and the use of templates makes it easier to publish articles
  • A website is more immediate, and by subscribing to the site, you can receive instant notification of new posts or daily or weekly summaries.
  • We will have more room. We are conscious that we have had to shorten or drop many articles over the last few years. In particular, we have a number of outstanding Historic Nunnington articles and images that we have been unable to publish due to space restrictions.
  • Unlike a newsletter, a website is “always on” and it will be easier to find articles and information from the archives.
  • It will be possible for others (especially regular contributors) to be given contributor status and submit their own articles without having to go through the News Team. We hope this will lead to greater engagement in the parish.
  • We can restrict some articles, if necessary, to confirmed residents of the parish
  • Articles can easily be shared across other social media platforms

There is some concern that the move to a website will leave those without internet access in the dark. However, producing printed copies is expensive (the News Team has substantially borne the cost in the past). In addition, it seems that printed copies are more of a luxury than a necessity. In 2023, over half the newsletters were distributed over the net without recourse to hard copies – and without comment.

We envisage publishing printed copies of the news from time to time, for instance at the end of the year as a look back on events in the village, or if there is a lot to report in a particular month. In the meantime, we will do what we can to serve those without internet access by:

  • Publishing and distributing the Diary page each month
  • Leaving paper copies of the Diary page on the Cabbage Patch and in the Old Yard Coffee Shop
  • Providing a facility to print articles as PDF or paper copies so that they can be shared around the parish.

The new site

There is still work to be done, but here are some of the features we have or intend to include:

  • Sections reflecting the familiar sections in the newsletter, including people, events, countryside, pastoral, historic and more
  • A calendar with a facility for organisers to include much more detail about their events; in time we will include a facility to buy tickets for an event directly from the site
  • Sections for residents and visitors, the latter to include details of local walks and places to stay
  • A marketplace where items can be bought and sold, and a separate section for businesses (a paid-for feature with proceeds going towards the cost of the site and to the Village Hall).
  • Sections for the parish “institutions” where, for instance, the Parish Council can post meeting minutes.
  • A Village Hall online booking and payment facility
  • A comment section at the end of each post
  • A facility to subscribe to the site and to receive notifications of new posts as they are published or daily or weekly summaries
  • Two-way links to the parish Facebook group

For the technically minded, the site is hosted on a Siteground server. The nunnington.net URL is registered with Heart Internet. The site is built on WordPress using the Elegant Themes Extra theme. The site is linked to WordPress.com, which provides access to a number of useful JetPack facilities.

Site structure

The site is divided into seven sections, Found in the main menu and on the front page:

  1. About Nunnington
  2. Residents, including posts about people, news, the countryside and reports on events
  3. Visitors, including posts on local places to visit, things to do, walks and Nunnington hall
  4. Leadership, including details and posts about the Parish Council and the Church (Village Hall Committee and the Nunnington Estate to come)
  5. Marketplace, including items for sale or wanted, businesses and accommodation
  6. Calendar, including details of forthcoming events

Keep in touch

Please subscribe to the site if you wish to be kept informed of new content on the site. You can subscribe using the form on the home page or at any point when you comment on one of the posts.