A members area and public site for 1,671 hectares of Dartmoor

What the site is

HUG Commons is the website for the Harford and Ugborough Commoners’ Association, which manages 1,671 hectares of unfenced moorland on Dartmoor’s southern edge. The site serves as a public-facing resource about the commons — covering conservation, heritage, commoning practices and ongoing land management projects — and as a secure members area for the association’s commoners to access documents, newsletters and resources.

The challenge

The association needed a website that could serve two distinct audiences: the general public (with information about the commons, its ecology, heritage sites and conservation projects) and the association’s members (with a private, secure area for sharing documents, meeting minutes and resources). The system had to be easy for non-technical administrators to manage, with automatic notifications when new documents were added. They also needed full copywriting support — content written from scratch.

What I built

Custom members area. A bespoke members-only section with document management, whitelisted user access control, and automatic email notifications whenever new documents are uploaded. Non-technical administrators can easily add members, upload documents and manage access.

Public-facing site. Full design and build covering the commons’ conservation work, heritage (74 scheduled monuments, 344 recorded historic sites), commoning practices and project pages. The homepage features key statistics and a clear visual hierarchy.

Copywriting. All website content and news articles written from scratch, working closely with the association to accurately represent their work and the landscape.

SEO and analytics. Google Analytics, Yoast SEO and Google Search Console configured for tracking and discoverability.

Infrastructure. DNS, SSL and email configuration.

This project is a template for other commoners’ associations and similar community organisations — the custom membership and document system could be deployed for other commons using the same framework.