Since this site was launched, eighteen months ago, it has proved unexpectedly popular, receiving over 28 million 'visits' during 2001.

On Wednesday, 28th February, 2001, shortly after the start of the foot-and-mouth epidemic, Esh Winning 2000 was approached by several local farmers and asked if the web site could serve as a daily source of updated information as to the current state of the outbreak of this disease, of the latest government recommendations and information releases, of legal updates, and so on and so forth. (This was some time before the Government set up its own MAFF foot-and-mouth information pages.)

We were please to take on this rôle, little realising how big this responsibility would become, and by the evening of the following day Esh Winning 2000 was publishing information bulletins, updated twice daily, and more frequently when circumstances dictated.

Esh Winning 2000 subsequently found itself serving as an impartial source of information and as a result has gained curious popularity with people from such diverse places as Tahiti, Terre del Fuego, Todmorden and Tow Law.

In September, 2001, our Foot-and-Mouth coverage led us to be nominated for, and subsequently awarded the Internet Information 2001 award, cited for our clarity and simplicity, our comprehensive coverage and our ease of use. Credit for this goes to those who contributed to our pages; not only from the North-East and Cumbria, but from daily contributers in Dumfries, Cheshire, Wales, Essex and Devon, as well as irregular contributions from within the Government and government agencies, the National Farmers' Union, and other sources too numerous to mention individually.

As editors of the site we attempted to be at once judicious in not letting the Esh Winning 2000's Web site become a political battle ground, yet at the same time not exercise censorship over anything of relevance which was legally publishable.

For those involved, the foot-and-mouth outbreak progressed from bad to dismal and we found that we were receiving conflicting updates several times daily not only from MAFF (later DEFRA) but from the various interested factions in what will be remembered by those affected as one of the bleakest years of the last half century.

We juggled and amalgamated submissions to the web site, aspiring to both passion and sympathy while at the same time being tempered by realism, pragmatism and, we hope, disinterested professionalism.

In an unrelated and unexpected rôle, the web site has found itself playing that of a contact-agency/go-between, putting people in touch with friends they had lost contact with many years ago. Without a single failure (to date) we have managed to trace friends and relatives of people who had moved to Canada, the Netherlands, Australia, and various parts of the UK. Occasionally the person approached did not wish to be reunited, and we respected their wishes. Mostly, they were delighted to have re-found long lost friends (and, in at least one case, more than a close freind...)

Specialist interest aspects of the site, such as the pages on Valley Writers, and Page-to-Stage are contributed both by those at the many foci of each of the diverse facets of the life of the Deerness valley.

In addition, the wild-life pages receive continuous updates from many with specialist local knowledge, as well as from botanists, zoologist, entomologist, and ecologists at Universities, museums, national organisations and from persons with particular general and particular expertise. We hope to maintain the lists of species of the flora and fauna of the Deerness valley, and perhaps expand this aspect of the site into a more usable source of information for anyone interested in the wildlife of the valley and of County Durham in general.

We are now looking for a person to take over the editing of the Esh Winning Web Site.

No knowledge of computers, the Internet or the World Wide Web is necessary. Indeed, no knowledge of computers might be a positive asset for editor of the Esh Winning 2000 web site.

Nor does one require any special knowledge of any particular subject.

The job is not particularly demanding of one's time. Perhaps the one skill required is an ability to be sympathetic to people who submit material which is not really suitable for the Esh Winning 2000 web pages.

Particularly lacking from these pages is input and contributions from the younger adults in Esh Winning - those of you in your early teens. This is now your world and it is up to you to run it as you would like it to be. Establish an Esh Winning 'Chat Room' on our server. This is your opening - strike the space and go for it…

If you think you might be interested in becoming part of the running of the Esh Winning 2000 web site, and the window by which the outside world views us, either ring me on 0191 373 3378, or e-mail me at  rkbooth@hotmail.com

Kim Booth