2004 March 15

The Original Webmaster’s Page

As has been said in the intoduction page of the site, the idea for the original website came on the nostalgic but sad occasion of the final closure of the school on Wednesday 24th July 2002.

I used the occasion to photograph what remained of the old school for those of my former friends who were unable to visit Swansea on that day. I had in mind John L. Davies, known to everyone during the seven years of our residency at Dynevor as ‘Dai’. John had asked me to look out for some souvenirs of our past, suggesting that perhaps I might come across the former art teacher “Sandy” Morgans’ piece of lead piping!! Needless to say I did not succeed.

That day I acquired 56 digital photographs and, whilst doing so, I had the inspiration that a website would be the ideal method of displaying these photographs to John and our previous friends in the ‘Class of 52’. The only problem was that I did not have a clue of website design. A visit to W. H. Smiths that day soon corrected the problem when I bought ‘Create a WebSite for Beginners’.

While that book got me started, I will be forever grateful for the advice and assistance I received from Jason Williams of ‘Careers Wales – West’. Jason had previously offered to construct a website for the Swansea Astronomical Society and, while it had not been necessary for me to take up his offer then, it occurred to me that he would be the ideal ‘consultant’ for my latest project. Using his advice to get me started, the website was completed some two months later, and launched on the World Wide Web.

There was some initial success, but, due to some erroneous reporting of its address in the initial publicity, the original site did not really ‘take off’. The site had contained a page for the Old Dy’vorian Association and, realising its potential, Stuart Winks asked me to join the Committee. It was during one of the Committee meetings that the decision was made to launch an official site with a more ‘straightforward’ address. This site was finally launched on 15th March 2004, and we hope that it will reach out to a broader cross section of former pupils and in particular to a younger population of both genders.

It is my intention to keep it an active site with regular updates of the information and archive material. So make the site one of your ‘Favourites’ and regularly visit it. Check ‘The Class of..’ entries, check the latest News Items, and of course check for details of the annual events. Make all your Old Dy’vorian friends aware of it and use it for your reunions. This way we hope to maintain the Association for many years into the Twenty-first Century.

“Its future is in your hands”

Dy'vorians Association Website launch on March 15th, 2004
Evening Post photograph taken to launch the Old Dy’vorians Association Website launch on March 15th, 2004

Note the lack of the Dynevor colours of red, yellow and black on the home page.
These were added after a suggestion from Geoff Kimmings (Class of ’53).