Hi there
My name is Tony Edwards. I’m a Software Developer from Penzance who created the website Purely Penzance over 8 years ago. Its an online portal that provides independent information about the town to both tourists and locals.
Since building the website, it has grown to serve almost 1.5 million visits and has provided information for companies such as the BBC, Great Western Railway and AQA A-Level textbooks, which I’m naturally very proud of.
At the moment, I’m collaborating with an amazing group of up-and-coming local young professionals to rebuild, rebrand and rejig the website to serve the next 1.5 million visitors and beyond.
Introducing the team
Top left to bottom right
Tony (top left) is a Software Developer, student at Plymouth University and owner of the Purely Penzance website.
Giz (top right) is a Penzance based YouTuber with a global audience. He focuses on creating free-to-watch educational videos on the subject of Lucid Dreaming. For project he is helping with filming, video and photo editing as well as producing some of the rewards.
Alice (bottom left) is a Masters student who not only works for local businesses in Penzance, but is a Media Assistant at myCornwall magazine and a prolific blogger in her own right.
Daniel (bottom right) is a South West photographer who specialises in moorland, mountain and coastal photography.
Why we need your help?
The content on Purely Penzance is out of date, and currently unmanageable. As part of my final year project at Plymouth University I'm rebuilding the site. I'll be using modern web development technologies and techniques to make the site better accessible to the modern web consumer. In the longer term, I'd like to fund it without need for lots of intrusive advertising whilst keeping the site independent, with best interests of the community at heart.
This is a huge project, and probably bigger than it seems. Working by the Agile methodolody, I’m breaking this down into smaller more managable chunks. I’m very comfortable with the software development portion of this project, but need help with other elements.
Modern websites rely heavily on images to capture the readers imagination. Purely Penzance will be no different. We want to highlight the best of Penzance and the surrounding area. Getting West Cornwall professionally photographed for our use will give us the striking imagary that we need.
What the money will pay for?
The site is set to launch in time for the 2017 tourist season, this project needs to start now!
With the uniqueness, and sometimes frustrating changeability of the British weather, we need to get photographs of the area now. To do so we're commissioning a South West photographer to tour the area and get us the best images to use and we need a little help with the funding.
Introducing the photographer!
Daniel Groves is a Plymouth University Alumni who travels around The UK and Europe taking amazing photographs and raising money for charity. As a finalist in Trial Magazine’s ‘UK Mountain Photo of the Year’ Competition, he is naturally in high demand and we want his fantastic skills put to good use in our corner of the world.
We want to bring him to West Cornwall for a three day expedition. However, this requires help and funds. Dan has very kindly agreed to provide some of his time in exchange for accommodation and travel costs of getting his equipment around. Given that we plan to do this during the height of tourist season, accommodation is not at it's cheapest.
How much?
We need to raise £250 to cover accommodation and travel expenses for Daniel in height of the season. Raising £600 would allow us to pay for some of Daniels time editing the images and compensate Alice for her help getting this Crowdfund together.
The Purely Penzance Story
Created in the summer of 2008 after completing my A-Levels at Penwith College, Purely Penzance was created as an unbiased and representative portal for the town. It was built for the communities benefit using the recently acquired tools of my computing course.
I scoured the internet, walked around the town and surrounding area to familiarise and hone my local knowledge. For the imagary, my girlfriend and I travelled around West Cornwall taking photographs of local landmarks.
In the 8 years since:
- Purely Penzance has helped nearly 1.5 million visitors find information about the town
- Answered nearly 800 enquiries about the area.
- Promoted the area on multiple social media platforms.
- Worked with the BBC and Great Western Railway amongst others, providing information and photographs.
We love our area, and we want other people to appreciate it, travel to it, and enjoy the rich and interesting history that makes up the town and the people that reside within it.
Thank you for taking your time to look at this crowdfund. Myself and the team really appreciate it.
Tony, Giz, Dan and Alice.
Photos available for prints
Image 1 - Fur Tor Sunset
Image 2 - Venford Falls
Image 3 - Broad Falls
Image 4 - East Dart Waterfall Sunset
Image 5 - Tents under Great Mis Tor
Plymouth JS T-Shirt
Pasty a Day tee
Community stickers example