As summer officially starts and as a new team takes over the running of the village website, this first Monday in June seems an appropriate time to introduce its new members.

They are:

Sophie Carruthers- Sophie is a keen gardener, is enjoying being a young mum and has lived in the village for four years.

Cerys Gill- Cerys can be regularly spotted out and about with her very bouncy and friendly dog, Daffodil, and is known for her flower arranging/wreath making skills.

Anne Higgins- Anne is the photographer, has already made several contributions to the site and can often be seen around the village, camera in hand. She has lived here for eight years.

Craig Wood- Craig has lived in the village for five years and is looking forward to learning more about Bishop Monkton as he gets involved in the website.

They join the three existing members of the team, Steve Oliver, technical support, Paul Wade, chief interviewer and Glenda Hunter, who will take over as editor. They have all been part of the website since it went live last Autumn.

Glenda says “I am delighted to welcome Anne, Cerys, Craig and Sophie to the team and look forward to working with them. I am sure that they, together with Paul and Steve, will make excellent and different contributions and I know they will all keep me on my toes. Thank you for volunteering”.

”Please bear with us”, asks Glenda, “Just while we sort ourselves out, perhaps change a few pages and find our feet. It may be that the site appears to “slow down” with perhaps not as much content as has been the case, which does takes a lot of work to sustain. But keep checking in and I hope, eventually, you won't be disappointed. We have a high standard to keep up, set by those whose shoes we are trying to fill”.

It is important to remember that the team are all volunteers and while doing their best to keep abreast of what is happening in the village, they do encourage (and to a certain extent rely on) people to get in touch to let them them know about their particular organisation or forthcoming event. It is a village website and is there to inform the community. “We can't do it on our own”, says Glenda.

The website team would welcome more Letters to the Editor, more photos of general views of the village, as well as pictures of events. Don't hesitate to send in your contributions. There is a gallery section on the website which has space for many photos. Villagers' contributions can only help make it a better website, a website in which the team take great pride.

The new team has decided to mark their 'takeover' (friendly of course) with a competition to find a new logo for the website, which will appear alongside 'Bishop Monkton Today' on the home page. Please do have a think and then send in your ideas. You have until the end of June to do this.

Click here to send contributions or logo ideas. Click for the contact email for all members of the team.

The team very much look forward to hearing from you, so that this much valued community asset, as many of you have kindly said, can truly reflect life in the wonderful place in which we all live.