Hastings is gaining an online reputation. The hastings.uk.net web site was set up two years ago as a family venture offering local history and visitor information.

Web site founder Victoria Seymour has seen her project grow into an online resource with more than 1,000 pages promoting the area to both visitors and the Hastings' community.

Mrs Seymour said: "We have been preparing the site for an influx of people keen to find out about events happening for Hastings week, which runs from Friday to October 21.

"There is a lot of attention focused on our town at this time of year and we are well placed to keep people informed about what's going on."

Hastings week coincides with the anniversary on October 14 of the famous 1066 Battle of Hastings.

Mrs Seymour said: "An annual re-enactment takes place at nearby Battle, which is not strictly on the Hastings patch but obviously many of our visitors associate the town of Hastings with all things 1066.

"One of the most popular areas of our site is the history of 1066 section. We also have an Ask Harold feature which introduces the Saxon king as an oracle who will try to answer any question people might have about our town.

"We provide a fast reply service to emails on a wide variety of subjects people put to Harold. It is a light-hearted tribute to this brave king, who was brought down by an eye wound from an arrow, and subsequently hacked to pieces by the Norman knights."

Maintaining the site has become a full-time activity.

Mrs Seymour said: "The task to keep everything up to date is never ending. We give it attention every day, particularly to send speedy responses to the emails.

"The local news is updated every Sunday night after a week of research, interviews and preparation. We never stop tweaking and tinkering.

"We have added all sorts of extras since the early days and provide a free internet resource to promote community, charities, the arts and other activities."

Mrs Seymour was inspired to start the site after she retired as a director of a language school in 1999 and took a course in internet skills.

She said: "My son, Steve, suggested I might find it interesting to help build a web site about the family's home town.

"His partner, Angel-ique, helped me to prepare all the original information about the town. It took us several months to write about Hastings' attractions, yearly events, facilities and history.

"At the same time, Steve was taking photographs of the town and working on the technology we needed with my son-in-law, Colin. The same team, with the addition last autumn of computer student Chris Law, has continued to work to bring the site to its present form.

"Chris was our model for the Harold pictures on the site and he gets quite a lot of fan mail."

The site has visitors from around the UK and more than other 100 countries, including Australia and the Phillipines.

www.hastings.uk.net