
Why would anyone make a website about King Alfred's Tower?
The tower is arguably the finest folly in the UK. No
visitor to the top of Kingsettle Hill can fail to be impressed by this wonderful
structure. Those who are fortunate enough to be able to climb to the top
on a clear day will enjoy a view to remember. This site has been created
by a nearby resident who can (just) see the tower from his house, and who wishes
Alfred's Tower to be recognised as more than just a curiosity on the fringe of
the Stourhead Estate.
At the time of writing (March 2003), the National Trust shop at Stourhead sells
no pictures, books or souvenirs about the tower, other than a
single picture postcard that shows an aerial photograph of the tower (N.B. on
24th April 2004 no postcards were available from the shop).
However a brief information leaflet is available free upon request from the
curator at the tower. In the experience of the author, the National Trust
custodians at the tower tend to be keen to help with questions from visitors,
and when pressed have a file of articles, photocopies, and extra information that does
not appear on the public display boards.
Please note that this web site is privately published and
funded as a non-profit public service. The advertising messages that
appear on this site make a small contribution towards its running costs, but it
still runs at a loss.
By clicking on the adverts you will help to maintain this site (but we value
your opinions: accepting advertising is an experiment; let us know if you think
these adverts detract from your enjoyment of the web site).
National Mistrust?
I support the work of the National Trust, and until recently
was a member of several years standing. Since it was first published in 2002,
this website has received several
complaints from members of the public regarding the attitude of National Trust staff at the Stourhead
estate office when responding to telephone queries about King Alfred's Tower.
This website has no connection with the National Trust and cannot comment upon
or answer
complaints about National Trust staff or the Stourhead estate office, although I
always endeavour to reply promptly to all queries and comments about Alfred's
Tower itself. When the idea for this website was conceived I arranged a meeting
with the National Trust property manager at Stourhead, explained the purpose of
this project, and requested any information or access to knowledgeable staff. Regrettably no help was
forthcoming, and I was subsequently disappointed to learn that the property manager
even acted to prevent me obtaining information from a particularly knowledgeable
employee. The
reasons for this are baffling. This attitude is such a contrast to all
other individuals and organisations who have been most helpful and encouraging
about this project. The purpose of this website is purely to entertain and
inform, and it does not seek to undermine or interfere with the work of the
National Trust.
Following the receipt of the complaints described above, in early 2003 I
organised a small, unscientific, 'mystery shopper' campaign in which six callers
telephoned the Stourhead estate office with various queries about Alfred's
Tower. On one occasion the caller was given the correct information (relating
to opening times at the tower), on three occasions the caller was given
incorrect information or told to visit her local library or (bizarrely) the
local authority planning department (in response to questions about the history
of the tower, and the 1944 plane crash), and on two occasions the caller was
told that the estate office cannot provide information by telephone.
The author of this site even telephoned the estate office,
introduced himself, and offered to point out a minor error in the free
information leaflet that was introduced in 2003 and is available to visitors at
the tower. I was informed that nobody knows who wrote the information
leaflet, so they weren't interested in my correction. At least I tried.
The legal bit
The
information on this website is provided in good faith and care has been taken to
ensure its accuracy. However no responsibility can be taken for losses
arising from errors
or omissions in the information provided here. Before travelling to Alfred's Tower you are advised to confirm the opening times, admission fees and
other details by consulting the National Trust Handbook or website.
Please be aware that several of the photographs on this
website are reproduced under licence, and most are protected by copyright.
Whilst I generally welcome links and references to this site from other
websites, please do not use the text or pictures that appear here without asking
for permission first. Permission will usually be granted for non-profit
use, and where appropriate I will contact the copyright owner to seek consent
for the use of a specific image.
Technical Information
This site was originally created using Microsoft FrontPage 2000, which is a website
creation tool that makes it easy to create a website without understanding HTML
or client-side scripting. However the resulting site was littered with hundreds
of files and deploying it on the web server was a nightmare. Subsequently
I migrated the site to a newer version of the same tool, FrontPage 2003. This
had some slight benefits, but for some unknown reason the resulting web pages were
no longer indexed by Google, so the site disappeared from Google searches even
though other search tools still found it.
In early 2006 the site was completely redeveloped using Microsoft Visual Studio
2005, and upgraded to Visual Studio 2008 during 2008. It uses the ASP.NET 2.0 menu server control and is built around a single
Master page. Visual Studio is a delightful tool to use, although it is intended primarily for server-side software development rather than purely website creation. The good news is that Google now includes this site in its index.
At the moment this site is hosted on a Windows 2003 server in the USA. I presently
use an economy hosting package where numerous different sites are run from the same
server. This explains why performance is not particularly fast. I am
experimenting with hosting the site from my home in Stourton over a slow ADSL
connection. This would not give a faster response to visitors to the site
but it would be cheaper for me! Of course the site would then be at risk from
power or telephone outages.
It is my intention that all the pages on this site conform to the W3C standards
for XHTML 1.0 Transitional. Every page is tested against the W3C's validation
tool when it is published. If you notice any errors or areas for improvement
in the coding of this site then please tell me.
This website is published by Chris Nelms. It was first
published on 7th October 2002, and last updated on 7th May 2012.
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