Website

The Parish Church of St James St. James's Road, Hampton Hill, TW12 1DQ (Parish Office 020 8941 6003)

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Website

Home Page

St. James's Church Website exists to further the church's mission to 'Build the kingdom of God on earth, and particularly here in Hampton Hill' by providing information about our church and its activities and by stimulating reflection on our Christian values. The website is a most effective way of promoting or 'advertising' to let people know St. James’s exists, offering an insight into the life and work of the church, its location, activities, special events and regular services. Increasingly, people are finding this website using a search engine and so in this way the website has become an integral part of our church's outreach to the local community and beyond by being informative, instructive and educational, now averaging over 10,000 visits a month. We welcomed visitors from over 25 countries in March 2010 with 11,167 actual visits to the website.

There are different groups of people that the website tries to cater for:
The congregation: The website aims to serve the needs of our congregation by providing up-to-date details of services and other events. They can find information at any time of the day or night from any computer, enabling them to keep in touch throughout the week, wherever they are.
The community: The website might be the first point of contact for people in the local community that do not yet go to church. It provides an ideal way to find out about the church and the Christian faith, anonymously. The visitors page describes what goes on inside our church, what to expect when visiting and encourages people to feel secure enough to take the next step.
Newcomers: People new to the area can use the website to find out all about the church before even setting foot in it.

There are different reasons that people look at the website:
Rites of passage: More and more people are looking at the website to find out about using the church for baptism, confirmation, marriage and funerals/interment of ashes.
Booking the church/hall: Increasingly people are using the website’s online form for booking the church and hall for private functions or concerts, etc.
Checking the calendar: The dynamic calendar/diary records dates and times of services and other events so people can check for hall booking availability.
Online database of churchyard records: The online searchable database of the churchyard records is used by relatives and friends of the deceased buried in St. James's churchyard who wish to find details of the burial. They are also for those interested in the history of the churchyard and the Hampton Hill area, and possibly for other research.
Research: Many different people look through the website searching for information about a particular aspect of Christianity or the church. Sunday school teachers, school teachers, etc. use the site to help their lessons.

Using this Website
To find out how to get around the site read the page How to use this Site. This also includes information about accessibility, copyright and a disclaimer. There is also a section here about learning to use the internet, searching the internet ans internet safety for children.

Website Contents
• The home page is kept up-to-date with what is happening in and around the church. There is access to the current Spire magazine and pew sheet, the page for visitors to the church, the on-line calendar/diary, churchyard records, a form for booking the church and hall, forthcoming events, getting married, the M.A.P. 2010-2013, notices, and the page about our patron saint, Saint James. There is also a section to show new items added to the website and a suggested topical page to look at.
• There are ten informative, illustrated sections in the website - church & grounds, groups, music, running the church, history, St James's images, Spire magazine, witness/mission/outreach, worship and services and Young St. James’s.
• There is a whole section containing pages of helpful information – contacts, where we are with directions, glossary, site map (where you can see the whole of the site broken down into sections) and how to use this site and the web generally.

For the Young
There is a complete section called ‘Young St. James’s’ which almost mirrors the main site but designed with youngsters in mind. The aim of this section is to encourage the youngsters of our parish and community, this being an important part of our mission. There is also a part explaining the different parts of the Church Year and an increasing number of quizzes and other things to do, both on and off line. Our Jays Sunday School has several pages and our St. James’s Ark for carers and toddlers also has a presence.

A few of the many comments received from website vsitors

• "My great great grandfather James Singleton was a great patron of this church and another ancester William Singleton was the first organist. I have seen the window erected in his honour on the web for the first time today. I also read the tribute to James Singleton who was my great great grandfather, who founded the firm of Singleton builders. I was very touched to read the tribute to him. Some of it reminded me of things which were said about my own father when he died. I was also amazed to read a description of your visit to Auschwitz - as it happens through my research I am also in touch with the husband of a Holocaust survivor, who was on her way to Auschwitz on the train (having already survived two camps) when she was rescued by the Americans........."

• "I've just visited your website. I must say how helpful and informative I thought it was. I particularly liked the intercessions prepared by the members of the Jays Sunday School for Harvest."

• "As a Year 3 teaching assistant with responsibility for creating displays linking to the curriculum, I am creating a display on the Church's calendar and the colours associated with the main seasons and festivals. I 'googled' Church and colours and found your web site. I am very impressed with the clear, straightforward language and the photographs used. I am also very impressed with the section on symbols used in Church. I have spent quite some time viewing your site, and found myself intriged to find out about your Church, and concluded it must be a joyful, caring place of worship.
Keep up the good work!"

• "I rarely do this but I find myself compelled to let you know how useful and fascinating I have found the St James's website to be; informative, pertinently broad-reaching and up-to-date! I found it through a 'googled' link to your history page; my family lived in the area some years prior to the church being built when Hampton Hill was what appears to have been akin to a shanty town for workers in the nearby market gardens (as gleaned from the 1841 census when many inhabitants were "houseless" and apparently living in barns, sheds and tents!). I was searching for information about the address "American Buildings, Teddington" which I believe to have been just south of the Duke of Wellington pub in, the then known as, New Hampton and although I've yet to find anything online regarding that particular subject, I paused for some considerable time at your website and am mightily impressed!
I just thought I should let you know. Whoever is responsible sets a shining example of what a parish website can achieve."

• "I wanted to thank you for your wonderful website! My late Dad spoke very little about his family, even to my Mum, and we know so little about them. Earlier today, I remembered that he had once told me that we had family buried in a churchyard in Hampton and, with a little imagination with the question in my Search Engine, I found your wonderful site immediately. In a couple of mouse clicks, under the name of 'Groves', I discovered more than my father ever told anybody; five graves and, I suspect, all relations of mine. Not all Churches have such amazing websites as yours and I wanted to congratulate you and thank you so very much; I now have some names and ages that I can follow up. I thought that I was going to have to wait until the 1911 census was published and, even then, I would have been searching blindly because I only knew my Grandmother's name. Your excellent site has speeded up my research no end."

• "Once again the magic website comes up with the goods! Looks most attractive, a good advertisement for us."

• "I have been searching the web for information that might be useful for our soon to be elected new PCC members and I stumbled across the St James’s website. I am so impressed by it and just wanted to let you know that. I doubt that our parish has the time and talents needed to produce such a friendly, informative and professional website for the forseeable future but I will definitely draw inspiration from your hardwork."

• "Your church has a very good website, so neat and tidy and well laid out!!"

• ”Congratulations! I have been searching the web for information that might be useful for our soon to be elected new PCC members and I stumbled across the St. James's website. I am so impressed by it because it contains so much useful and helpful information.”

• ”I doubt that our parish has the time and talents needed to produce such a friendly, informative and professional website for the forseeable future but I will definitely draw inspiration from your hard work.”

• ”I came across your wonderful web site when looking for information on the Church Year for my Year 5 class at school. It is one of the most impressive sites I have ever seen and I would like to ask your permission to use the site with my class at school and use some of the pictures from your site on worksheets for the children so they can explore the site and answer guided questions. I came upon the site by when doing a search and was so impressed as it showed everything I am trying to teach the children so clearly. Please may I pass my congratulation on to everyone who was involved in putting together such a site. It is wonderful.”

• ”I came across your website (through Google) when seeking information about the duties of sidespeople (I am a very newly elected churchwarden). I am very impressed with your site. Having been involved in the design and delivery of my company’s website, from initial concepts to maintenance, I can see what a huge amount of planning and effort has been put into your site. My congratulations to everyone involved, it is a credit to you all and to St James’ Church.”

• ”I am a Researcher for Espresso Education, the U.K.'s leading broadband education company……. We feel that certain pages on your site provide ideal educational resources for children studying RE. At the moment we are building a module on Christianity, and we would like to include pages from your site within Espresso. In particular we would like to cache the 'Christianity' section of the St. James's Church Young Magazine.”

• ”Firstly, I think your website is great - very clear, easy to navigate and full of interesting information. Thank you! I found your site while I was preparing info for a new website some friends and I are putting together. We hope to provide resources for teachers teaching Sunday School children. One area we want to look at is the church building and the symbols, colours etc…..”

• ”Thank you, we have been using your website to find out more about churches. We found it most helpful, and have discovered new facts.”

• ”Well done on St James’ Church, Hampton Hill Website. It’s one of the best sites I’ve visited; it’s very informative and nicely laid out.”

• ”I am a teacher in Nottingham and I am writing an educational website for junior aged children about Christian festivals such as Easter. I am writing to ask permission to use some of your fantastic pictures from your Colourful Church Year page such as the altar frontal and clerical garments. Would this be possible please as I haven't seen any photographs anywhere nearly as good as these and I don't think any I take would be as good?”

• ”Thank you for the website, I came upon it by accident and found it very, very interesting. It is a great website and shares memories of Hampton Hill. Also, thank you very much indeed for keeping everything so up to date.”

• "Congratulations on the photos of the flowers for the filming on the website. They are really lovely and lots of people have been able to access them even though they weren't able to get to see them."

• "The website goes from strength to strength. It looks better and better. I have heard some (a lot of) very positive comments recently from parishioners and particularly from outsiders who are interested in either the incumbency or in using St. James's for some purpose."

• "You will be interested to hear that today the Rev Nick Todd, a forces Chaplain from Hounslow, who took the services, praised the quality of our website and said how interesting and useful it had been to him as a visitor to the church. Well done!"

• "I wanted to contact the minister at the Chapel Royal, Hampton Court. As to the contact details - I can thank Google. While tying to find the details for Denis, I stumbled over Ann's on the Churches Together Around Hampton page on your website and simply tried my luck - and turned out to be lucky, so thank you so much!"

The cartoon illustrations are by the late Gordon Stowell, the watercolour paintings and drawings by Prill Hinckley and the photographs by Prill and Martin Hinckley.

The webmaster, Prill Hinckley, is responsible for setting up and maintaining this website. Please contact herif you have:
• Dates of events
• Articles
• Information of interest to church members
• Comments about the website itself
• Information about any broken links

Historical Background to the Website
After the St. James's Day Parish Communion on 25th July 2000 Bishop Michael of Kensington officially launched St. James's Church website. Before he pressed the button, he and members of the congregation were given a brief tour of the new website, watching on a large screen. The site was made by a member of the congregation with a big imput from Hampton-on-Line. Later the website was given its own domain and gradually, during the following few years, many changes and improvements were made which turned the website into its current form.

Further Information
	Contact Prill Hinckley
	Latest Website APCM Report
	Associated pages on this website: Through the Years: St. James's Day/ Launch of Our Website (2000 July) \| 10th Anniversary of the Website (2010 July)

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