The last post

It has been:

• Five and a half years
• 229 posts
• Almost 600,000 views (ave c 2,500 views per article, with wide variations)
• In excess of 400,000 words
• Great fun!

But it is time to call it a day. This is the last post of the E7-NowAndThen blog.

The website will remain "live" for the next four years, while its license is active.  Nearing the end of this time, I will review its onward on-line presence, taking into account the inevitable technology changes to platforms, display, storage and hosting facilities.

Based on experience to date, I would expect the site to attract in excess of 300 visitors a day for the foreseeable future.

I will provide some maintenance during this period - deleting spam comments, updating and  improving the search facilities - via the "search" box on the left hand column and the "index" feature on the top bar of the drop down menu etc.

As far as the content is concerned, almost all of it is original and some of it of genuine ground-breaking historic research value and significance. I believe in the free access to knowledge and will not assert any copyright authority over any of it, although would continue to appreciate acknowledgements and source citations for any that is used elsewhere, be it on-line or in dead tree publications.

Any commercial organisations wishing to use the contents in any way are invited, as they have been since the site's inception, to make an appropriate donation to a small African educational charity my wife and I have run for the last decade: www.SohmSchoolsSupport.org.uk.

I will continue to make any necessary amendments to existing articles, and answer the many incoming emails this blog provokes, as swiftly and fully as possible.

As I mentioned in the last annual review, I have sought to extend the range of media and outlets through which the contents of the blog have been communicated over the last twelve months.  This has been successfully achieved via film, an exhibition, features in the specialist and local press, and local guided walks and talks. Subject to other commitments, I will be happy to continue in this direction, should there be a call for it. I can be contacted via the contact box at the top right hand side of this page.  I will respond to all requests.

As I indicated at the start of this article, I have enjoyed the last five and a half years enormously: I have made lots of new contacts, some of whom I now regard as good friends. I have been to many strange places and archives and dug around in odd bits of the web in pursuit of material.  All of which has been a delight.

It is now time for a change. To put it as succinctly as possible, outside of my family, on the checker board of life, my principal interest counter has moved from E7 to K9.

My wife and I will be spending much more of our time together, with the two lovelies, above, in the parks and open spaces of Forest Gate and area - and further afield. If you see us, say "hello", you will get a very friendly welcome and appreciative wag of the tail from at least two of us!