Ewelme.info

Welcome

This website has been set up to provide useful information for Ewelme residents and visitors alike. We hope that it will be of interest to anyone wanting to know more about our beautiful, historic village.

The site is very much a work in progress - it clearly takes quite some time to get all the information from many different sources together - over time more and more information will be presented.

On the left hand side there are many links to various areas and organisations in the village - some do not have content associated with them yet, but show areas where we plan to develop in time.

If you think that there is something missing or an section that you can add to, then please feel free to contact us - we will provide links to other sites, if appropriate.

Ewelme Village Shop

The shop is now open!

Details can be found at their website: http://ewelmevillagestore.co.uk.

Ewelme News is available on-line!

At last, the latest Ewelme News is available on-line - the latest issue is available here:

ADSL Broadband Update!

As most of you know, I have been working with BT Openreach to bring broadband service to deprived Ewelme residents.

The original problem was that at least 60 village and RAF properties were known to be deprived of broadband, because few of the existing circuits into the village from Wallingford were of adequate quality to support it at such a distance from the exchange.

The only solution was to install new lines. BT Openreach has just commissioned 50 new circuits for us ready for use, and some have already been allocated successfully. A further 50 are awaiting new conduit space to be put through Wallingford bridge.

BT Openreach is the enterprise which provides the circuits to any independent service provider (ISP) which wants them. There are some 250 of these, all of which must be treated as arms-length reseller customers by BT Openreach. No one gets preferential treatment.

You choose your favourite ISP and apply for broadband service. The ISP will determine whether your line will support broadband. Because you are almost certainly connected to the exchange by an old line, you will be told that your line is not able to carry broadband. Do not give up there. Of course your present line can’t carry broadband!

You must insist that the current line is known to be “fault status” and you have been waiting patiently for it to be changed over to a good one (which were all used up) or one of the new lines now available.

Some ISPs suddenly appear to want to charge you for a new line (£129.99) but others do not. Whether this is right or wrong is too complicated to debate here. I would not entertain paying anything because it is a regulatory market anomaly for OfCom to sort out. Just ask for your supplier’s personal details to log a formal complaint to OfCom, before switching to another ISP.

Do not assume that, because you have applied before, you will be automatically recognised as in any queue. You will not be on anyone’s radar. Start again from first principles now.

Just make sure someone actually sends an engineer (BT Openreach) to your house to change your old line over to a new one, and test it.

Now, if that fails, it really does mean you are too far away from Wallingford exchange for even the new circuits to help you. The next step is to wait for Phase 2 of our work with BT Openreach which is probably 12 months away, assuming it can be proved to work in the present field trials. It is not guaranteed to be an option but we are hopeful.

However, there is a wireless network solution working now in the village which has helped people to enjoy broadband for the last few years. You can explore how to join in even as an interim measure. It may be that it has to become a long-term solution for those genuinely at the end of the technological universe.

You may have had a frustrating time with BT’s retail ISP arm vainly trying to sell you broadband via call centres in other parts of the world. Their performance has been lamentable.

But BT Openreach itself has done a first-class job for us so far.

I want to end by sincerely thanking BT Openreach’s senior management for taking our plight seriously, appointing a very competent person to produce a solution and doing it within 6 months of taking ownership of the task. No mean feat. Thank you again, Peter Higgs.

Neil Blake, Ewelme - 31st January 2007

The Ewelme Watercress Beds Local Nature Reserve

'A study to investigate local awareness, by community stakeholders, of the conservation work at the Watercress Beds LNR at Ewelme, Oxfordshire (OS Grid Ref. SU636920).'

David Langston, a resident of Ewelme, has written this independent academic research report as part of a Diploma in Environmental Conservation he is studying at the University of Oxford.

The report reflects the views from a sample of 98 Ewelme residents and includes contributions from elected district councillors, as well as details of the Watercress Beds’ importance as a County Wildlife Site and its status as a designated Local Nature Reserve. Many villagers have strong opinions on the way in which the site is managed; not all are supportive of the work (both planned and already completed) at the site.

It considers questions such as…