Established in 1998
Open Sandwich came into being through an idea by, plus the help and encouragement of, my husband Bob - we have both lived in Sandwich for many years and feel a great affinity with the town.
To start with in 1998, it was a small three page web site with half a dozen pictures and a little history about the town of Sandwich in Kent - it didn't even have it's own domain name at that time. With much hard work over the years, it grew as I added more and more pages, and is still growing, as I update it as often as I can.
It went through a complete redesign in Jan 2000, July 2003, Dec 2003 & received a general overhaul in Aug 2005 and a major upgrade in 2008 although we tried to keep a similar design. In 2011 the website was completely re designed and yet again in 2016 - previous designs can be seen on the website history page.
Various individuals and organisations have contributed information, particularly with the old photographs and history (see acknowledgements)
In 2005 the Town Clerk entered this website in the South East Tourism Excellence Competition. To my great surprise www.open-sandwich.co.uk won the South East Tourism Website of the Year award for 2005.
Yes, it was a while ago now, but I have never entered the website in a competition before or since that time so we're still quite proud of it!
This web site is entirely voluntary and independent, unsponsored by any external agencies, except my own Website Design business - See Below.
I also now have a separate Website Design Business - established in 2000 - called Open Sandwich Design - and named after this website.
This can cause some confusion! - there is a connection between this website (www.open-sandwich.co.uk) and my design business - they are connected by the name and the fact that my Open Sandwich Design business also helps me run the Open Sandwich website on a voluntary basis.
Although my degree is in the social sciences, I also went to art college years ago, so web design satisfies both my science and art interests. I am also rewarded by the interest shown in Sandwich by the thousands of visitors to the Open Sandwich web site and the many messages received.
The Open Sandwich web site is a lot of hard work but it is well worth the effort - please keep visiting.
Susan Fielder - Open Sandwich Website Designer, Developer, Researcher and Author
Photos on this page from Open Sandwich unless otherwise stated.
Open Sandwich: promoting Sandwich around the world since 1998 | Locally Designed & Hosted by Open Sandwich Design 2017