The keen-eyed among you will have noticed that we website has had a spruce up! There’s quite a lot that’s changed, so if you are a regular visitor to the site, this article will take you through the new design and tell you where you can find everything.
First of all, there is the new homepage. The designers, Feather & Scroll, took inspiration from the Guild Crest when choosing a colour palette. The bold header is elegant and clear, with an easy to find menu at the top and the Guild’s socials available just one click away. Scroll down, and you will find the most popular information visitors to the site are looking for. There are three sections just below the header that provide information on the history of the Guild as well as details on how to recruit a town crier, if you are a local council for example, or how to hire an existing crier if you are looking to add charm and colour to your event. Below that, all of this year’s competitions are listed, so you can pick one that works for you and come along to see our criers in action! There is a handy option to download this list in PDF format, and another button that takes you directly to the results page so you can see if your favourite crier prevailed!
Hover your mouse over the About menu option, and you will see two sub-menu items: Contact Us and Privacy Policy. You can use the former to quickly send us an email, and the latter to view how we handle your data, if appropriate. Clicking About itself brings up a page with some general articles such as the Town Criers Prayer. Scroll down, and you will find a comprehensive list of Guild criers in alphabetical order by the town, city, village, manor, court leet or unitary authority they represent.
You will already have clicked the News menu item, since this is where this article is posted! As more news articles are published, they will appear here, with the most recent at the top. There is a Help section to the right that provides information on how to use this page. Hovering your mouse over the News menu item reveals two more sub-menus: Competition Results, which has already been mentioned, and Archive, which provides access to old News articles.
Clicking the Gallery menu brings up a page of recent photographs submitted by our members, showing them out and about in their finery, doing what they do best. These may be pictures from competitions, or special events in their home town, or something else entirely. Older pictures are available in the Archive sub-menu under the Gallery menu.
Finally, there is a members-only section, available via the Members menu. If you are not logged in, you will be shown a log in form and an article on joining the Guild if you are not a member. If you are a member, log in here and you will get access to all the members-only material! If you do not have a login, email the Webmaster.
I hope you will agree that the new website is vibrant and exciting. Remember, however, it can only be as good as its content, so now it’s over to you! Please send any articles you would like to see in the News section, or any pictures for the Gallery, to us using this email. We review all submissions and, if for any reason we are unable to publish your content, we will get back to you to explain why.