About DOL

Deddington OnLine (DOL) was the creation of Colin Robinson and Charles Newey. In 1997, fortified by a pint or two of Hook Norton Best Bitter in the pub one night, they thought that it would be a good project to mark the Millennium in Deddington. Sadly, both Colin and Charles have since died and this website is their lasting legacy.

With the assistance of a team of volunteers, it has grown steadily to cover all aspects of the Parish of Deddington and for many years has been one of the leading village websites in the country. From May 2015 the Deddington News (DN) has been a linked 'sister' site. Deddington History (DH) is also a linked 'sister' site where a large amount of parish history is recorded.

DN is an operating division of Deddington Media Community Interest Company (DMCIC), a company limited by guarantee with profits dedicated to community projects (Company no. 8141239, registered office the Windmill Community Centre). DMCIC's annual report and accounts are prepared by an independent firm of accountants licensed as member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (and are available for review from Companies House and upon request to the Company or Editors of DN).

The directors are Chair Colin Lambert (338094), Secretary & DN magazine joint editor Jill Cheeseman (338609), DN magazine joint editor Catherine Desmond (336211), Rob Forsyth, Chair of DOL (338384), and DN on DOL editor Mary Robinson (338272). Jane Wilson is the Treasurer.

The aims of the website

•    To publicise the many community services the parish has to offer
•    To give clubs and societies space 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

The site is run by a group of volunteers, and we try to give as much public exposure as possible to what we do in the Deddington News, on the DOL home page and at occasional public meetings.

Overall management of the site, review of material, checking compliance with our own code of conduct (see below) etc. is done by the Web Editorial Group (WEG). Members in 2018 are: Rob Forsyth (Chair), Martin Reed, Elizabeth Burak, Mary Robinson and David Rogers.

Using a Content Management System (CMS), sub-editors keep an eye on sections of DOL, as well as finding and preparing new material for the site. They are:
•    Rob Forsyth – History, Clubs & Societies and Directory
•    Mary Robinson – Deddington News, Community Services and Gallery

Additional volunteers are always welcome. Please email the editor if you would like to be involved in some way.

Contents

Deddington News
The latest issue is posted every month, along with a constantly updated list of local events in ‘What’s On’, and highlights from our Facebook page, Deddington Info. You’ll also find back numbers from over 40 years of publication.

Directory

  • Any Club, Society or Community organisation and a limited number of Businesses (Accommodation and Places to Eat) within the parish may have one entry in the Directory
  • Entries may include the name and position of the main contact, postal address, current email and web addresses, telephone & fax numbers and up to 50 words of text
  • Instructions on updating or changing an entry are on the Directory home page
  • The Directory is checked and updated annually and is the only place where contact details are stored on DOL
Club, society and community organisations

We recognise that many clubs and societies now have their own websites, so we can link directly to that website from the Clubs & Societies or Community pages. Alternatively, if you have no website of your own, you may have page(s) on DOL. These may contain as much text and as many illustrations as you wish and contain link(s) to other external website(s).

No Directory-type information may be placed on these pages; instead the words ‘For contact information please refer to DIRECTORY’ will link to the relevant entry in the Directory database

Each set of page(s) should have a representative who is responsible for site maintenance. If no one is nominated then DOL retains the right to edit or remove the website

Gallery

The Gallery holds over 2000 pictures of the parish of Deddington from the mid-19th century to the present day. We are happy to provide electronic files for reproduction of any that are not under copyright. Additions to the Gallery are always welcome - contact the Gallery editor, Mary Robinson.

Code of Conduct

A public website needs a code of conduct. The following are our key guidelines:
  • Nothing of a personal nature is published without consent unless it is already in the public domain. Even then we normally check.
  • All material is proof read to check that it is not scurrilous or otherwise unacceptable to the public. WEG reserves the right to refuse any material on this basis.
  • We always seek copyright permission where appropriate and possible.
  • DOL conforms to the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2018.  Every reasonable attempt is made by WEG to ensure that material placed on the site is accurate and up-to-date (material is reviewed annually). Please see the Disclaimer which we are obliged to include for good legal reasons. You may wish to read our Privacy Policy.

Financing DOL

The website was initially set up with a grant from Deddington Parish Council which is gratefully acknowledged. Work carried out by members of WEG is entirely voluntary. Some small costs are incurred from time to time such as webhosting. Such funds as DOL gathers are now wound into Deddington Media CIC.

In 2008 the site software was upgraded to a Content Management System (CMS) which broadened the scope for additional sub-editors to become responsible for their own areas of interest. The system chosen for this was Squiz, paid for by public subscription, and we acknowledge the generosity of the webhost, Granary Publications, and individual donors.

In 2018 we are changing the way DOL is put together and hosted, with the aim of securing its survival into the future. DOL Community is now secure thanks to a Parish Council grant enabling us to migrate it to WordPress, which is more modern (and hence more easily editable) software. We are grateful to Simon van Zwanenberg of ComputerPro, Kidlington for the migration, and Deddington PC for funding it.

DOL History, a huge body of knowledge that is accessed regularly from all over the world and brings in many interesting enquiries, has a different future: it will be read-only (with the facility to tweak files rather than make additions). But it will still be accessible online.

We anticipate a changeover to the new platform in July 2019.