I was born and grew up in Thornbury, and although leaving the area for study and work, I returned to my home town over a decade later.

Being in the IT industry and seeing what opportunities the Internet could provide, back in the ‘90s I had the idea of creating a website for Thornbury - long before local community websites were commonplace. A website dedicated to everything Thornbury - a central repository of information about the town. In 2000, I finally got around to building it.

Originally, the Thornbury website was a "portal" - a window to other websites related to Thornbury. From the site, you can link to the websites of local schools, churches, businesses, interest groups, publications and many other sites.

More recently, I've wanted to include more content about Thornbury. Now, you can view pictures of Thornbury, or find out more about the town including its history. There are even discussion forums where you can publish your thoughts and opinions - there are forums for local issues, announcements, family history, environmental discussions, and much more.

Many of the visitors to the site are from Thornbury and the surrounding area, though there have been quite a few visitors from other parts of the world including the US, Canada, Australasia and all over Europe. These visitors from afar have all sorts of interests in Thornbury - some are looking into their family history, others are ex-pats, and some are thinking of visiting or moving to the area.

I am really enthusiastic about the Thornbury website, and I am more than happy to continue to build the site and carry out the technical work required to keep it going. I've had a lot of help and support with site - many local groups have provided me with links to their sites, people have sent me pictures of Thornbury, and increasingly people are using the discussion forums. However, I can only continue to build on the site with more content - and that is where everyone in Thornbury can help. I am not a historian, writer or artist, neither am I an expert in Thornbury, but I am sure that many of you out there are, and I'm sure that most of you have memories thoughts and opinions about the town. So please, if you have any content to contribute, let me know and I can include it on the site.

For example, if you have thoughts on local issues, or are involved in a local group that has an event coming up, try out the Discussion Forums and let the rest of the world know. If you are a local group and have a website or email address, let me know and I'll include a link on the site - even if you don't have a website, if you send me a few paragraphs about your group I'll create a page on the site for your group. If you have photos of the town (old or modern), or are an artist and have drawings of the area, I'd be happy to include them on the site. If you have knowledge about the town (such as its history), so long as you can put it into words I'd be happy to publish it on the site. And if you are a local business, send me a name, description and contact details and I'll add the details to the business database.

I can't promise to publish everything that I am sent, but if it is clean and I can find a relevant place for it on the site, I will do my best to include it.

If you would like us to include a link to your site from the Thornbury site, or would like to contribute content to the site, please contact us.

I really hope you enjoy using the site.

In addition to the Thornbury Community Website, I run a business, eVallis Ltd, helping companies in the area to make the most of their websites, especially with interactive features (the forums, feedback forms and news feeds on this site are a good example) - to see example of our work, visit the website. I am also involved in Thornbury FM, a community radio station for Thornbury and the surrounding area.