OysterTown.net is a non-commercial site administered by Brian Baker. The .net suffix was deliberately chosen to show that the intention of this site was to put Whitstable on the web as an information service, a portal for those with any interest in the town, be they residents, potential visitors or researchers. The site is intended to be factual, serious when it is important, but also having the ability to view the lighter side of things.

Many people in the town have a wealth of information, anecdotes and personal experiences about the town's history. Some of this is documented and for those diligent enough to wade through old books, microfilm records and family history records such information can be unearthed, but generally only for themselves or a small circle of interested parties. Inevitably, as time goes on, these word of mouth stories weaken. Young people move away from the town and new outsiders move in. Gradually the town becomes just that, somewhere for pepole to live, an annexe of Canterbury, whilst the soul of the community fades away.

OysterTown is dedicated to reversing that trend. It's desire is to collect that information with the help of local people who love the town, and flesh it out to paint the story of the town and it's people through the ages. This historical biography can then be accessed by anyone from around the world and particularly by the youngsters of the town as part of their education. To paraphase a quote, 'To know who you are and where you are going you first have to know where you came from'.

The story of Whitstable is one of ordinary honest folk, struggling to bring up their children through floods, wars and epidemics, working with and against nature, whilst helping others within their close-knit community. If this ethos is in the heart of every young person who leaves the town to go out into the wide world they will not only carry with them a sense of pride in where they come from but know that when they are drawn back, as inevitably they will be, then they will be amongst friends that share a common history and outlook on life.

Historically Whitstable grew in three areas that gradually merged. These are the town itself, Seasalter and Swalecliffe. Perhaps due to this the town does not have one single telephone exchange that serves the whole area and as a result broadband connectivity is not available throughout. With this in mind this site has been designed with speed of loading very much in mind. Heavy overload techniques such as flash have been avoided and extra coding has only been used when it is of advantage to the user.

Images, of course, bring any site to life, so for normal use these have been compressed as much as possible whilst still maintaining sufficient visual quality. Some higher resolution versions are made available for anyone wishing to view them. In consequence the images used are the one's we hope you want to see, not just a repetitive collection of fancy buttons and logos.

The pages are written for best at 1024 resolution, but for users of smaller monitors at 800 resolution consideration has been made to minimise sideways scrolling.

OysterTown.net owns the intellectual copyright of all text and images on this site. Where such material is included by a contributor their personal copyright is acknowledged. Nevertheless this is a community site and so we are applying the following rule:

Material from this site can be used freely for educational purposes and in other ways that promote Whitstable and it's residents favourably providing that credit is given to OysterTown.net and in the case of web sites a link is assigned to this site.

Failing to comply with this simple request will result in a flock of scavenging Whitstable seagulls descending on you, your house and car, and depositing the contents of their bowels accordingly. The results of this will be plain for all to see and as you are oystracised by your neighbours your humiliation will be complete.

OysterTown.net will actively harvest email addresses for marketing purposes to promote this site and the town of Whitstable.

This is to enable us to keep you informed of updates, additions, news and coming events. We will not pass these on to any third party without your permission. If at any time you receive a newsletter from us it will include a method of removing your email address from our current list.

OysterTown.net publishes this site without warranties of factual content although that is the intention. OysterTown.net and its contributors shall not be liable for any actual or consequential damages or loss arising from the use of this site or information presented on it.

In simple terms this means, for instance, we might promote the consumption of oysters but we are not liable for any effects they may have on you. It is up to you to carry out the neccessary safeguards yourself.

If you visit Whitstable remember that 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder', or more particularly that we are not likely to publish pictures of the mud at the bottom of the harbour when the tide is out. There are a number of other things we may not have mentioned on this site that could also cause you some distress, but again we disclaim any credit for. These could be:

It rains. It gets dark at night. The tide has a habit of going out. (Something to do with the moon). There may not be enough sand to share around on a busy day on the beach. The groynes and breakwaters along the front that stop 'longshore drift' cause Granny embarassment as she      is hoisted over them during your seaside jaunt. You fail to realise before you walk out to meet the ebbed tide that mud is soft and you are heavy. A surfing whale mistimes a wave and lands in your beer. You buy the most important tile in the Tile Warehouse, the one that holds the place up. A seagull uses your new cabriolet for target practice. Someone grumbles 'DFL' after you ask if there's any good shops in the Street. You think about moving here then see the house prices in the estate agents window. You get up at dawn to see the sunrise over the sea but it sneaks up beside you.

It is the minutist conceivability that you could possibly find an error on this site. We are, after all, inhuman. On the other hand it could be a deliberate ploy by ourselves to get you to tell us the actual true facts as you know them so that we can publish the true story. In either case we would really appreciate you using the email link on the menu to tell us. If you really know your stuff we may even conscript you as a contributor!

If you've got this far by reading every word and are not a lawyer then well done. Now just enjoy Whitstable in both virtuality and reality. See you on the beach!