One shared WordPress platform powering five independent community websites
A shared digital platform for Pudsey’s community groups
The idea grew out of MyPudsey.co.uk, a local community website that brought together events, businesses and information from across Pudsey.
Creating dedicated websites for local groups felt like a natural next step.
Many community organisations rely heavily on Facebook to share events and updates. That works for part of their audience, but not everyone uses social media, and useful information can quickly disappear down a feed.
I built a shared WordPress Multisite platform that gives each organisation its own independent website, its own domain and full control over its content, while allowing the underlying technology to be maintained centrally.
The design, development, hosting, backups and ongoing support are all provided voluntarily. The groups only need to cover the cost of their own domain name.
The
challenge
Giving community groups a proper digital home without the usual cost.
Small community organisations often have plenty to say but very little budget to spend saying it.
Social media is useful, but relying on it entirely creates obvious limitations. Events disappear down timelines, older information becomes difficult to find and part of the community simply does not use platforms such as Facebook.
A dedicated website solves that problem, but building, hosting and maintaining several completely separate WordPress installations would create unnecessary cost and administration.
The challenge was to give each group a website that felt genuinely theirs, while keeping the technical setup manageable enough for me to continue providing the service voluntarily.
Sharing the foundations without making every website look the same
All of the websites run from one WordPress Multisite network and share the same core theme.
That gives me one central codebase to maintain, but it does not lock the individual organisations into one visual identity.
Each group can customise its own colours, typography, logos, imagery and page layouts from within its own administration area. Reusable ACF blocks provide consistent building blocks while still allowing each site to be arranged differently.
The result is a collection of websites that share the same technical foundations without looking like somebody changed the logo five times and called it a day.
Each committee only has access to its own website, while network-level administration remains centralised.
Built for volunteers to manage themselves
The websites were designed around the reality that the people maintaining them are volunteers, not full-time web teams.
Each organisation can log in independently and manage its own pages, events, news and forms without having access to any other site on the network.
Reusable content components keep updates straightforward, while dedicated post types give recurring content such as events and news a consistent structure.
This means committees can keep their own website current without needing me every time they want to announce an event or publish an update.
The platform provides the structure. The groups remain in control of what they say.
Helping local information reach beyond social media
The objective was never to give community groups enormous, complicated websites.
They need somewhere dependable to explain who they are, promote events, publish updates and give people a clear way to get involved.
For residents who use Facebook, the websites complement what the groups are already doing. For those who do not, they provide an alternative route to the same local information.
Each group gets a proper web presence under its own domain, without losing the independence and personality that makes the organisation recognisable locally.
And because the platform can support additional subsites, there is room for it to grow if another Pudsey group needs the same kind of support in future.
The
outcome
Five independent websites without five separate technical headaches.
The platform currently supports Friends of Pudsey Cemetery & Chapels, Pudsey Lottery, Pudsey Toy Swap, Pudsey Scarecrow Festival and Pudsey Paths Partnership.
Each organisation has its own domain, identity, content and administration access, while the underlying WordPress installation, theme and shared functionality are managed centrally.
That approach makes it practical to provide professional websites, hosting, maintenance and ongoing technical support to local community groups without charging them for the work.
More importantly, it gives those organisations somewhere permanent to tell their story, promote what they are doing and reach people beyond social media.
The technology is shared.
The websites are theirs.
We would like to say a huge thank you to Glenn Taylor for his continued support of Friends of Pudsey Cemetery.
Glenn originally developed our website and has continued to add new content, photographs and video, most recently carrying out an excellent complete revamp. The result is a professional, informative and easy-to-use platform which gives our group and the heritage of Pudsey Cemetery the quality online presence it deserves.
Most remarkably, Glenn has provided all of his time, expertise and ongoing support completely free of charge to the Friends group.
For a voluntary organisation like ours, that contribution is enormously valuable and very much appreciated. Thank you, Glenn.
I would personally like to say a huge thank you to Glenn Taylor for the incredible amount of time and expertise he has given freely to Pudsey over the years.
Glenn has built, developed and supported websites for Pudsey Lottery, Pudsey Scarecrow Festival, Pudsey Town Hall, Pudsey Paths Partnership, MyPudsey, Pudsey Shop Local, amongst others – providing his professional skills completely free of charge.
It is very easy to underestimate just how much work goes into creating these websites, keeping them running and continually updating and improving them. For small community groups, the cost of obtaining this level of professional support commercially could be considerable.
Instead, Glenn has quietly used his skills to give numerous Pudsey organisations a professional online presence, helping them promote events, reach residents, recruit volunteers and support our community.
There are lots of people working behind the scenes who don't always get the recognition they deserve, and Glenn is certainly one of them.
Thank you Glenn – Pudsey has benefited enormously from your generosity. ❤️
More case studies
Case study
Case study
Case study
Building a calm, personal website around care, trust and community
Crabtree Family Funeral Services
Helping Number 7 Guesthouse sell the Whitby experience before guests have even packed their bags
Number 7 Guesthouse