Business Directory

As promised I have now completed a local business directory - see links to the right - it is the top one.
At the moment it is populated by about 400 businesses based in Clevedon - so please do use it to find a local business and help boost the Clevedon economy.
If you are a business owner or manager in Clevedon, please have a look in the Directory. If I have got any of your details wrong or if you don't want to be listed (or you do want to be but are not!) then please let me know and I will change it.
In terms of being listed in the directory, just having your basic details there won't cost you anything.
If you want features that cost time to implement and webspace to host then there may be a charge - again please contact me to discuss this. Given the spirit of this website any charges will be biased against big national and multinational business and for local family run ones. Sorry - just the way it is!

Happening Clevedon

Theres lots going on in Clevedon at the moment, so whether you are a local or a visitor, why not check out the events calendar to see what you could be doing in Clevedon?
Recently added are details for:

• Clevedon Farmers Market
• Summer Family Fun Days
• Clevedon Art Club 50th open Art Exhibition
• Clevedon Flower Show & Festival
• Open Air Theatre ‘Hamlet’
• Clevedon Seafront Festival

As I say, I've added the details to the Calendar, but if you want any more information about any of the events then contact the Clevedon Visitor Information Centre on Tel 01275 873 498, or e-mail Clevedon.library@n-somerset.gov.uk.

And.. as ever if you have a comment on an event or one you want listed then just drop me a line

More photos for the gallery

Nathan e-mailed me to say

"Hi,

I was in Clevedon a few weeks ago visiting family and took a few snaps while I was there. Copies are attached to this email, and I'd be very grateful if you could put my name on there with any of the photos if they're used.

Thanks,
Nathan"

I've got to say thanks to Nathan - as you can see, he has a really good eye for a nice photo. In fact I'd recommend that you have a look in the gallery and see what you think. Very talented!

Good food in Clevedon

Mr Austin just dropped me a line to say:
"First time visit for us the other lunchtime to 'Mon Plaisir' restaurant in Hill road and it will not be our last ! friendly helpful staff and the food was excellent, ambiance very good."
Just having a quick search on Google brought up this link to their website. I've got to agree with Mr Austin - it certainly looks the biz (see the photo to the right)!
Be interested to hear if anyone else rates it - I might even have to go and, in the name of investigative journalism, try it myself...

A bit of live music!

Ok this site is not just all about Clevedon, but for people who live in Clevedon as well so heres info for when you fancy a night out in Bristol. Heres a real treat of a site. Follow this link to Podbop for listings of gigs coming up in Bristol, but... thats not all - as well as the gig info the site has MP3s for the bands, so you can check out whether they are your thing before you go. Very nice!

New Zealand

This site receives RSS feeds - and I was somewhat annoyed to see that our top story today is about Clevedon New Zealand (thought I had set it up to filter these out). However it got me thinking about whether there was a connection between the two and wikipedia confirmed it - see below.
Now I will have to research who named it and where they came from. Any leads, please let me know!

Clevedon is a town within a city - a semi-rural settlement that is officially part of the Manukau city, one of the four cities that make up the conurbation of Auckland, New Zealand.

Clevedon by Murray Helm
The town and surrounding rural area has a population of 3,294 (2001 census), and is the centre of an administrative ward of Manukau which takes in much of the largely rural area to the east of the urban heart of the city.
Clevedon is located on the Wairoa River five kilometres from its estuary and outflow into the Tamaki Strait, an arm of the Hauraki Gulf. It is 14 kilometres from the centre of the city of Manukau, which lies to the northwest. To the south of Clevedon rise the rugged hills of the Hunua Ranges. Several popular beaches are located on the coast close to Clevedon, including Duders Beach and Kawakawa Bay.
Clevedon was named for Clevedon, England, in 1866. It was previously known as Te Wairoa (Māori: 'the Long River').

One for the diary....

I'm sure you are all geared up for this, but if you haven't already seen the posters everywhere - a date for the diary is the 26th/27th August when the Clevedon Flower Show and Festival will be held at Salthouse Fields, Clevedon. As well as the flower show - the Mangled Wurzles will be playing - in fact theres going to be loads going on - I had a quick look at the Flowers Show Website (click here for the link) and the entertainment programme contains, amongst other things, puppets, face painting, a Beech Boys tribute band, an Abba one, Jazz, craft stalls, dog obediance training etc, etc!
Should be fun and hope the weather holds.
For further information tel. 01275 343132 and as ever if you have any photos / info etc, then feel free to e-mail it me to add to the site.

Site feedback and site developments

Well – sorry I haven’t posted for a while, but I am working on something quite big for the site – a local business directory. After all, Clevedon is a town full of local businesses and various professionals, so if I can drum up any business for them, then all to the good – the more trade local businesses get, the more jobs there are, more tax revenue etc. Anyway, reasons aside, setting up the directory has involved a fair amount of web programming, which leads neatly onto the topic of this post. This site has been setup with RSS feeds – these are the things pulling in the weather, news, ebay items etc and also a lot of free tools from Bravnet – the polls, gallery etc. I would be very, very, very grateful if you as a visitor to this site could give me some feedback on what you think of the site – particularly in terms of if the RSS feeds are useful and whether you think that the Bravenet stuff adds useful features or is just annoying.
Constructive criticism much appreciated.
PS one last word about the business directory. I’ve input a lot of data and will be contacting businesses in the database, but just to pre-empt that – if you are a business / tradesman / retailer in Clevedon and would like to be listed then please contact me as usual. Being listed in the directory won’t cost you anything and I’ve set up some nifty features – such as being contactable by e-mail, a Googlemap showing where you are – ability to have descriptions and photos – ability to have “ancillary documents” attached to your listing (imagine you are a restaurant in Clevedon – why just have your phone number and address? Why not your opening times? Why not your menu? Photos of great dishes etc??? When I said this service is free : if you are the owner of Il Giardino wanting to advertise here and want to express your gratitude by offering my wife and me a free meal at your excellent establishment then I suppose on that occasion I could except this as payment in kind – wishful thinking there!!). Anyway if you want to take part in this – then drop me a line.

Strange things afoot

Strange things have been afoot at the bowling green this weekend- thanks to Jessica for this and another nice photo - which are now in the gallery.

New to Clevedon

Mr & Mrs Austin have e-mailed in to say:
We have only lived in Clevedon one year, we came here to be near daughter and son in law and their girls and are so pleased we made the move. we find Clevedon a very friendly town and enjoy talking to the local people. we have not been able to get involved too much yet as we are still needing to visit Surrey on a regular basis, but the point of this email is to praise Goulding Builders. They have been working in our house since early April, and we have had workers arrive when they say they are coming, they have done an excellent job and this weekend even Bob Goulding himself came to clear around the house, hoping to arrive before we were home. We would definitely recommend the company to everyone.

Best butchers

Keith has e-mailed in to say:
How about a plug for high quality local butcher - Chris- in Station Rd. Some of the best meat around, excellent on the premises made sausages and burgers. My grand daughters favourite is the ham on the bone, and when my son visits he always comments how the eggs taste likes eggs!! But, my favourite is the bacon, you put it on the grill or frying pan and it comes out the same size! not full of water just flavour.