On a PC, the menu down the side – or top right on a phone or tablet – is probably self-explanatory; but you can also further refine your search by clicking on items in the tag cloud below that. For example, if you are looking for information on a particular property, click on the downward arrow in the ยจProperties menu to find the Dwellings item. (Buildings will take you to the non-residential items on the street.)
More interested in the people? Most of the Dwellings entries contain an additional section within them entitled Residents, which contains information about the people who lived there (living residents are generally not catalogued). If you want to find out more about who has lived on the street, then click on People in the tag cloud. (The bigger the font in the tag cloud, the more data there is under that rubrick.)
The site is packed with information which can stay hidden. However, you will find the Search box – available on every page or in every menu – is pretty competent at finding more. If you know what you’re looking for, just type in the detail you’re interested in and something relevant should pop up. This also allows you to look for a more “wild” example, like “Portsmouth” say. Type that in, and you’ll get some 27 items, even though this is not actually a site about Portsmouth!
For those who are just browsing and don’t mind losing their way, at the bottom of each post you will find the words previous and next. This can be exciting. Clicking on one of these will take you back or forwards to the next post in date order, which may be about a completely different item – still about the Westgate neighbourhood of course!
When you’ve had enough of all this random surfing, just click on the website name at the top of the page to get back to the home page.
Finally, each post also has a comment box, where you are welcome to interact and add any information you think is relevant to that post. This action will pick up your email address, but we won’t do anything with it. You’re very welcome to contact us humans in this way – or via the contact page – but we will never do the opposite uninvited: that is, contact you unasked.
Enjoy! – and do give us feedback if you wish.
Colin Hicks & Richard Brownfield 2025